For the latest news on U.S.- and Hong Kong-traded Chinese stocks, visit our new Bamboo Works site.
I’m a big fan of Disney (NYSE: DIS), not because I worship Mickey Mouse but rather because I think they do a really good job at their core business of providing world-class family entertainment. So I was quite excited when the company announced nearly four years ago that it would build its first mainland Disneyland in Shanghai, and have watched closely for updates ever since. Read Full Post…
I previously welcomed the installment of a new generation of leaders at China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) about a year ago, but a steady series of mixed signals since then have me wondering if these new executives may be just as confused as their predecessor, former Chairman Wang Jianzhou. Since taking the helm of the world’s biggest telco, the new executives, led by new Chairman Xi Guohua, have made a number of moves that seem to reflect a company whose head remains in a haze. The latest of those has seen China Mobile just announce that it’s suspending its Skype-like Jego mobile messaging service just weeks after its launch. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…
I avoided writing about Alibaba’s controversial new Yu E Bao financial product last week, not so much because it wasn’t newsworthy but because I was personally tired of writing about China’s leading e-commerce company that has been in the headlines nonstop for much of the last month. But after all the hype has settled, I want to weigh in with my view on this new product because I think most writers have missed the main point about Yu E Bao and why it’s likely to run into big problems. Read Full Post…
Smartphone chip maker Spreadtrum (Nasdaq: SPRD) has become the latest US-listed Chinese firm to receive a buyout offer, continuing a trend that is making such names an endangered species on New York’s 2 stock exchanges. The process is the result of natural market forces and thus should be allowed to continue without interference, even though it could also cut off an important funding source for some of China’s most dynamic companies. Read Full Post…
After writing earlier this week that reports of a new TV product from homegrown smartphone maker Xiaomi appeared to be a genuine news leak, I may have to revise my opinion following yet another leak saying the company is preparing to launch a tablet PC. Before I go any further with my discussion on this latest news leak, I should say that the marketing savvy Xiaomi is becoming increasingly boring and predictable in my view, as it appears to simply be copying the entire product line of its role model, US tech giant Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). Read Full Post…
A series of accounting scandals that began more than 2 years ago has taken a toll on US-listed Chinese stocks ever since then, causing many smaller, unknown firms to de-list and even close. The biggest name to fail was financial services firm Longtop Financial, which once had a market cap in the billions of dollars but now no longer exists. But most of the victims so far have been smaller, obscure firms that no one had ever heard of before. But that could soon change. Read Full Post…
China’s luxury car and online search markets are both well established and quite competitive, which makes it difficult for new entrants to gain traction, even when they’re global giants like GM (NYSE: GM) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). In this case GM wants to challenge established giants like Audi (Frankfurt: VOWG) and BMW (Frankfurt: BMWG) with a major new push into the China luxury car market with its Cadillac brand. Similarly, Microsoft is launching its own new campaign for its Bing search engine that has yet to find much of a following despite several years in the market. Read Full Post…
Commercial real estate giant Wanda Group is continuing its recent global push, with announcements of a new major purchase of a British yacht maker and plans to build new high-end hotels in New York and London. While some of the plans look interesting, I do think that perhaps this company has just a bit too much money and even more ambition, and that it may be moving too quickly into unfamiliar areas both in terms of products and geography. It’s obviously way too early to predict success or failure for any of these new ventures, but I would caution the company to perhaps slow its rapid overseas expansion or risk running into some major problems in the future. Read Full Post…
Mengniu’s (HKEx: 2319) new announcement of its third major tie-up in the last month marks the latest step in an important and necessary consolidation for a battered Chinese dairy sector that has been in turmoil for the last 5 years. This kind of retrenchment, which includes a healthy dose of participation by foreign firms, is exactly the kind of medicine that China needs to restore consumer confidence to its fragmented and often unruly food sectors. Read Full Post…
Hong Kong’s stock exchange looks set to snare another Chinese high-tech IPO, with media reports that a unit of Sinosoft Technology is planning a relatively large offering in the market. The reports, if true, would mark yet the latest sign of a shifting tide that could see more Chinese high-tech starts-ups list in Hong Kong as they eschew their previous favorite destinations on stock exchanges in New York. Read Full Post…
China’s regulators have never been known for moving fast on anything, and that case seems to apply even more when it comes to allowing foreign players into emerging markets like third-party payment services. More than 2 years after China began awarding licenses for its domestic companies to offer such, foreign companies are still waiting for equal rights in the lucrative domestic market. But now US e-commerce giant eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) is saying it could soon become the first foreign licensee to enter the market, providing both a big opportunity but also a major challenge as it seeks to catch up to Chinese rivals with more than a 2-year head-start. Read Full Post…
