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Just a year after re-entering China’s cellphone market, faded Japanese electronics giant NEC (Tokyo: 6701) is in rumored talks to sell its cellphone business to Chinese computing giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992). I previously predicted that such a tie-up could come after NEC’s original announcement last March that it would return to China, and this latest move could auger an eventual takeover of NEC’s entire struggling consumer electronics business by Lenovo. Read Full Post…
In the space of just a half year, Internet giant Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) popular mobile messaging WeChat app has gone from obscurity, to red-hot rising star, to its latest position as a target of attack from just about everyone. The popular app has come under assault in the last 3 months from the nation’s 3 telcos, which complain that WeChat users are taking up a growing share of their network capacity. The trio have found a potent ally in the nation’s telecoms regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which has stepped in to help “mediate” the dispute. On top of all that, a wave of envious rivals with copycat products is quickly appearing on the scene. Read Full Post…
The ongoing tiff between the US and China over the security of Chinese telecoms equipment took a new twist last week when Washington largely forbid several government agencies from buying products from industry giants Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063). While Washington’s previous moves in the dispute have been controversial and often contrary to fair trade principles, this latest act looks more reasonable because it is limited to purchasing by a small number of government agencies. Read Full Post…
As we cruise into the final day of a hectic earnings season, let’s take a quick look at results from leading car makers SAIC (Shanghai: 600104) and Dongfeng Motor (HKEx: 489) that provide the latest evidence that China’s car market is rapidly overheating. I’ve described this looming problem before, most recently by looking at the ongoing rapid build-up of new capacity that is likely to exacerbate the current overheating. (previous post) Read Full Post…
Finally there are some interesting news bits on e-commerce leader Alibaba that don’t involve its highly anticipated IPO, including a push into developing markets and a new tie-up with global electronics giant MasterCard (NYSE MA). Of the 2 bits, the former is a bit more intriguing because it represents a major move for the company outside the Chinese-speaking world for its highly successful consumer-oriented e-commerce services. The latter tie-up is interesting because it involves a big name like MasterCard, even though actual details are scarce and probably won’t get worked out until some point in the future. Read Full Post…
Beijing’s recent campaign to bash iPhone maker Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) is starting to border on the bizarre, with the official Communist Party newspaper the People’s Daily launching the latest assault on the world’s biggest tech company. I’ve lived in China for quite a while now, and have seen occasional attacks on major foreign names in the official Chinese media, including my own former employer Reuters. But most of those attacks are related to specific incidents, and usually lasted a week or 2 at the most before the issue was quietly retired. Read Full Post…
We’re seeing some interesting moves today on the dynamic e-commerce front, with new signals that Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) intends to make a serious play into the space using its popular Weibo microblogging service as its primary platform. At the same time, the industry’s second largest player Jingdong Mall is throwing out a new challenge by preparing to enter the B2B space now dominated by industry leader Alibaba. Read Full Post…
Most of the attention in the solar sector these last few weeks has been focused on Suntech (NYSE: STP), the former high-flyer that was forced into bankruptcy earlier this month after it defaulted on more than $500 million worth of bonds. But now the similarly struggling LDK (NYSE: LDK) has made it back into the headlines as well, with word that the company has issued more new shares to an outside investor that could potentially take over the company. Read Full Post…
Former gymnastics star Li Ning (HKEx: 2331) may have won Olympic gold, but he’s quickly finding a formidable rival in China’s e-commerce revolution that is rapidly stealing business from his sportswear empire. That’s my major takeaway from Li Ning’s latest abysmal results, which include a massive 1.98 billion yuan ($318 million) loss for 2012, the company’s first annual loss since going public in 2004. (English article) Read Full Post…
A new major deal involving oil refining giant Sinopec (HKEx: 386; Shanghai: 600028; NYSE: SNP) is highlighting China’s unusual system of advantageous family relationships between its major publicly-listed firms and their untraded state-owned parents. In many ways these ties are similar to real family relationships that, for example, might see a parent lend money to a child interest-free and with no repayment schedule. China’s big publicly-listed companies like Sinopec often use these relationships to get assets or other benefits from their parents on terms they would never be able to find in the open market. Read Full Post…
Today’s headlines include a couple of new developments in the recent privatization wave for US-listed China firms, underscoring the difficulty of doing such deals that often require big fund raising. The most interesting of the 2 latest news bits has online real estate services firm E-House (NYSE: EJ) making a new management-led move that looks like a potential prelude to a buyout offer. Meantime, a much smaller education services firm called Ambow (NYSE: AMBO) has seen its own privatization plan implode amid a sudden series of high-level resignations that cast doubts on the company’s credibility. Read Full Post…
