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Shanghai residents who like to show their visiting friends some of the city’s better preserved traditional neighborhoods, known locally as shikumen, will be disappointed to hear that one of the best ones is now off the market. I’m referring to a recent clean-up of the shikumen neighborhood on West Nanjing Road near Shaanxi Lu, where a new gate has been installed to keep out everyone except local residents. Read Full Post…
A trio of Chinese tech firms with global dreams is taking a page from the western marketing playbook, signing a recent series of celebrity and sports team endorsements aimed at winning over US and European consumers. Such a strategy looks smart, and could help ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), Lenovo (HKEx: 992) and Huawei shed their image as Chinese firms and look more international as they try to sell their smartphones to the west. Read Full Post…
Two highly successful IPOs late last week by Chinese tech firms may officially mark the arrival of spring for such offerings after a long winter. But now that spring has finally come on so strong, the new question becomes: Is an overheated summer on the way? My answer to that question is “quite possibly”, following the very strong debut last Friday for Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) the fast-rising online travel site that hopes to someday take on industry leader Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP). Qunar’s meteoric debut follows the strong opening a day earlier for online classified advertising site 58.com (NYSE: WUBA), which rose 41 percent on its first trading day. Read Full Post…
Note: After first publishing this post, CCB formally announced it will purchase 76 percent of BicBanco for 13.6 billion Brazilian reais ($720 million). To view the announcement, click here.
After living in China for a while, one comes to realize that new trends among big state-owned enterprises often happen quickly and in waves in response to directives from Beijing. That looks like the case among the nation’s big 4 lenders, with word that China Construction Bank (CCB) (HKEx: 939; Shanghai: 601939) is in late stage talks for its first major global acquisition of a bank in Brazil. CCB’s sudden interest in global acquisitions comes just weeks after another domestically-focused big 4 lender, Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank) (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288) was also reportedly in talks to buy Hong Kong’s Wing Hang Bank (HKEx: 302) Read Full Post…
After a year of relative calm in which its shares have surged, electric vehicle (EV) aspirant BYD (HKEx: 1211; Shenzhen: 002594) is once embroiled in a couple of mini-scandals involving its labor practices and technology in California. While I doubt that either of these problems will have a long-term impact on the company, they do highlight the many speed bumps that BYD and other Chinese automakers will face as they move into the global marketplace. The risks are particularly high for BYD, which is 10 percent owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, since the company is relying heavily on global markets to fuel its EV business. Read Full Post…
Former solar energy pioneer Suntech (NYSE: STP) is getting caught in an increasingly complex web of global forces as it tries to emerge from bankruptcy, with the latest coming from its hometown of Wuxi and from a bankruptcy court in New York. While such tugs-of-war probably aren’t uncommon in such a complex case, Suntech’s strong international connections mean its reorganization could take longer than many previously expected. The case also highlights the unusual risks associated with companies that do so much trans-border business. The latest developments have seen Suntech’s hometown of Wuxi emerge as a major new investor in the company, and a group of debtors force it into a US bankruptcy court. Read Full Post…
Anyone who was worried that the recent short-seller attack on security software provider NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ) might hurt broader sentiment towards Chinese firms on Wall Street can relax, following word that 1 of 2 upcoming IPOs is drawing strong investor interest. That’s my quick assessment, based on a report that online travel agent Qunar has sharply boosted the price range for its upcoming IPO that will probably launch in the next few days. That could mean another IPO from online classified jobs site 58.com should also price well later on Thursday before its New York trading debut. Meantime, NQ continues to struggle as it comes under yet another attack and a string of rumors about clients who are cutting business ties with the company. Read Full Post…
I usually have more criticism than praise for China’s bureaucratic telecoms regulator, but today I have to commend the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) for a ground-breaking move that other countries would be wise to follow in the fast-moving smartphone space. That move will require smartphone makers to list all the apps that come pre-installed on their models, much the way that food makers list the ingredients that their products contain. While the move looks good for consumers and the industry’s overall development, smartphone makers are unlikely to embrace this measure that will tell consumers about all the unwanted and often invasive apps that come included on their new smartphones. Read Full Post…
China’s microblogging sphere is buzzing with a series of new posts that hint at a couple of budding friendships in the nation’s tech realm, one between smartphone aspirants Huawei and Lenovo (HKEx: 992) and the other between e-commerce titan Alibaba and online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Of course it’s quite possible that the tweeting is just casual conversation by company executives on their Weibo accounts. But both instances also hint at the potential for future tie-ups that could help these all 4 of these companies attain their different strategic aims. Read Full Post…
Leading e-commerce firm Alibaba may be heading for a compromise that would allow it to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange, in a deal that would come as a victory for minority shareholders of publicly listed firms. Hong Kong securities officials should be praised for sticking to their principles of protecting minority shareholder rights in this case rather than agreeing to Alibaba’s requests to win this mega-IPO likely to raise billions of dollars. Read Full Post…
Whoever is following online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) these days certainly doesn’t seem to care much about profits, at least based on the company’s latest results. That’s my conclusion after looking at Baidu’s just-released quarterly report, which showed that Baidu’s profit grew at an anemic 1.3 percent in the third quarter. Perhaps investors were just happy that Baidu posted any growth at all, since global tech giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has just posted its third consecutive profit decline in its latest quarterly report. Read Full Post…
