The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on October 30. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone Sales Face Test in China In Quarterly Results (English article)
Snapchat Could Get Funding From Tencent (HKEx: 700) This Week (English article)
After shopping around for an investor for much of this year, money-losing video sharing site PPTV has finally found a new patron in retailing giant Suning (Shenzhen: 002024). I’m quite happy to see this latest development in China’s rapidly consolidating online video space, as it means I can finally stop writing about all the latest rumors that have popped up for the last 6 months surrounding PPTV. Rumors of this particular tie-up first emerged about a month ago (previous post), and I’ll admit that this deal doesn’t look particularly attractive to me. Read Full Post…
This week’s Street View zeroes in on Shanghai’s growing love for plastic, which has fueled an explosion of membership, gift, credit and debit cards issued by just about anyone in the retail sector. This strange love of plastic has led government officials in Pudong to take the much-needed step of trying to regulate an unruly group of merchants, some of whom sell cards worth thousands of yuan to consumers and then suddenly close up shop and disappear with the money. Read Full Post…
As the current earnings season gets into full swing, let’s turn our attention to the latest results that show encouraging signals from both wireless carrier China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) and Internet company Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU). Yet despite the upbeat reports, shareholders have reacted quite negatively to the Sohu results by dumping its stock. That sell-off is probably mostly technical, for reasons I’ll explain soon. Meantime, China Telecom’s shares have languished over the last year, even though in my view it’s rapidly emerging as the shrewdest of China’s 3 major state-run telcos. Read Full Post…
A new deal that has seen a mid-sized Hong Kong bank purchased by a government entity of the southern city of Guangzhou is raising the interesting prospect that we could soon see a grab for similar banks by Chinese lenders looking to go global. As a financial center with strong cultural and geographic ties to the mainland, Hong Kong is a natural stepping stone for any Chinese bank that might want to move beyond its home turf, where politics dominate many decisions, into Asian markets where profits are the driving factor. That urgency to move abroad could become stronger in the next few years, as China signals it will soon open up the state-dominated banking sector to private investors. Read Full Post…
This year’s shake-up of the online video space is taking yet another turn, with word that Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), one of China’s top 3 services, has agreed to buy rival Xunlei’s service called Kankan. If true, this development would be quite exciting, as it would mark the rise of a third major player in the space that is undergoing a major consolidation. Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) remains the industry leader after its formation last year with the merger of China’s 2 largest video sites. Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) iQiyi is emerging as a strong number 2 after its acquisition of PPS in May for $370 million. Sohu previously operated China’s second largest video sharing service, and a purchase of Xunlei Kankan would comfortably bolster its place as one of China’s top 3 sites. Read Full Post…
A new flurry of e-commerce news bits shows that competition in the sector continues unabated, with no signs of easing anytime soon. Sector leader Alibaba tops the headlines with word that it’s rolling out same-day delivery service for customers of its industry-leading TMall B2C site. Meantime, Yihaodian is drawing on its connections with global retailing giant Walmart (NYSE: WMT) to boost its imported food business amid China’s nonstop series of food-safety scandals. These and similarly aggressive moves are also leading to signs of growing stress, with Jingdong, the second largest operator, making a strange anti-competitive complaint about rival Suning’s (Shenzhen: 002024) recent unified pricing policy. Read Full Post…
China smartphone market quickly becoming saturated
Let’s end the week with a look at some new data on China’s cellphone market, which is quickly becoming saturated with cheap smartphones cranked out by a crowded field of domestic companies. The rush by Chinese firms into the smartphone market over the last 2 years is typical of the herd mentality one often sees in China, almost always leading to classic boom-bust cycles. The smartphone sector was already showing signs of overheating when media reported during the summer that inventory was building up at many smartphone makers. Now the latest figures are showing that sales are slowing sharply for many of those firms, hinting a bust could come soon for players that rely heavily on the domestic market. Read Full Post…
Just days after I said that NQ Mobile (NYSE: NQ) looked like a company to watch after its issue of $172.5 million worth of bonds, infamous short seller Muddy Waters has launched an assault on the software security maker, sparking a sell-off that has wiped out half of its market value. Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is also coming under assault from different quarters, in this case taking heat from company watchers and regulators after promising returns that many believe are unrealistic on its newly launched investment product. Read Full Post…
Leading Chinese chip maker SMIC (HKEx: 981; NYSE: SMI) has just announced a relatively modest $200 million bond offer, hinting that investor interest may finally be returning to this perennial underperformer after years of disappointment. Not very many people even follow SMIC these days, and I’ll admit that I personally still watch the company because I hope that someday it can realize some of the potential that many once held for it. This latest bond offer looks positive because it’s being underwritten by 2 big foreign investment banks, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, meaning demand for the notes is coming from market-driven international investors rather than state-run Chinese buyers. Read Full Post…
The long-awaited spring for New York IPOs by Chinese tech firms is quickly gaining momentum, with online lottery site 500.com and app developer Sungy Mobile making their first public filings for new listings. At the same time, online classified advertising site 58.com has provided new data on its first-ever profits as it prepares to list next week. While this sudden flood of offerings looks good for Chinese tech firms that have been waiting up to 2 years to list, the mini-rush also carries the risk of diluting investor attention and dampening demand for some of the smaller players. Read Full Post…
