The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- Alibaba Group Q2 Profit Doubles to $270 Mln (Chinese article)
- Jingdong Mall Raises $400 Mln in New Fund Raising Round – Source (Chinese article)
- eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) Joins with Xiu.com to Bring Global Style to China (Businesswire)
- SouFun (NYSE: SFUN) Announces Q3 2012 Results (PRNewswire)
- Gaopeng to Achieve Profitability in 2013 (English article)
- Latest calendar for Q3 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)
With signs growing by the day that China will issue 4G licenses quite soon, perhaps by March next year, the nation’s second and third largest carriers are sensing a sudden urgency to get ready for the roll-out and avoid a possible booby prize that either could easily receive. The 2 telcos I’m talking about of course are China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA) and China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), both of which have suddenly begun trialing 4G technology in anticipation of the imminent issue of 4G licenses.
Struggling electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD (HKEx: 1211; Shenzhen: 002594) got a major boost last week when Beijing announced an innovative new plan to stimulate an anemic industry whose sales have failed to take off despite generous government support. The plan this time around looks much smarter than previous ones by focusing on big customers.
I’ve always wondered whatever happened to online job site ChinaHR since its purchase in 2008 by US industry leader Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW); now I have my answer with new reports that the tie-up has been more or less a failure and that Monster plans to sell its main China asset. This latest disaster shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone, since Monster follows a long list of much better known US web giants that have also tried and failed in China, including Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY).
The latest signs of a thaw in overseas sentiment toward Chinese stocks is coming today with news that online networking site YY has set a price range for its New York IPO, in what would become only the second major US offering by a Chinese firm this year. At the same time, media are reporting that the US securities regulator is moving closer to a deal with its Chinese peers that will give it better access to the auditing records of US-listed Chinese firms, another major development that should further boost investor confidence.
I had to smile this morning when I read the latest reports on Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), one of China’s oldest web firms, which I’m officially christening as “China’s biggest little Internet company” following word that it plans to make an IPO for its Sogou search engine. If readers note some sarcasm in my tone, it’s certainly there. But at the same time, I do have a certain level of fascination with this company, which seems determined to spin off as many of its units as possible into separate publicly listed companies.
President Obama’s election victory has dominated US headlines over the last 2 days, but Washington showed it was still hard at work with news that the US trade watchdog has finalized punitive anti-dumping tariffs against Chinese solar panel makers. In a way, this kind of quiet ending seems appropriate for a drawn-out process that began more than a year ago with a Congressional probe into a bankrupt US solar firm. With this trade issue now resolved, China, which produces more than half of the world’s solar panels, can now focus on simply saving an industry that is bleeding cash due to a huge oversupply glut.
Hotel operators must surely remember 2010 with fondness, as the year that saw Shanghai host the World Expo also saw their business boom with room prices rising by 20 percent or more and occupancy rates near 100 percent. But much has changed over the last 2 years, as reflected by the latest uninspired results from 7 Days Group (NYSE: SVN) and China Lodging Group (Nasdaq: HTHT), 2 of the nation’s biggest budget hotel chain operators.
