In a big victory for free trade, the US has approved the sale of Canadian oil exploration giant Nexen (Toronto: NXY) to China’s CNOOC (HKEx: 883; NYSE: CEO), removing the last major obstacle that could have stopped the landmark deal. The US approval was decidedly low-key, with Nexen formally announcing it had received the final major green light it needed to close the sale. (English article) The development marks the second major approval of a potentially sensitive deal by the US in the last month, and is the latest indicator that such deals that pose no real risk to national security and are likely to move forward for now without political resistance.
Tag Archives: China company stock news
Real Estate Services: Time to Buy? 房地产服务：买入时机？
After showing early signs of a pickup last fall, online real estate services firm Soufun (NYSE: SFUN) is sending even stronger signals that springtime may indeed be coming for companies that make their money from buying and selling activity in the property market. Here it’s important to point out that this coming spring for market leaders Soufun and E-House doesn’t mean that China’s real estate prices are going to start rising sharply again anytime soon. Instead, what it means is that real estate buyers and sellers are starting to feel confident that the market has stabilized after more than a year of uncertainty due to government cooling policies.
US Sanctions Spotlight China Expansion Risk 美国制裁突显中国扩张风险
New US sanctions against a handful of Chinese companies accused of illegally selling goods to Iran, North Korea or Syria are once again casting a spotlight on the risk investors and businesses face when dealing with Chinese companies, especially sellers of high-tech equipment and services. In this particular case most of the sanctioned companies appear to have ties to China’s military and are all privately held. But other high-profile cases in the past year have pointed to similar potentially illegal behavior by telecoms equipment giants Huawei and ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), which are suspected of selling or trying to sell goods to Iran, possibly in violation of US or UN sanctions.
Baidu Tries E-Commerce Search 百度购物上线 再入电商门槛
After several misguided e-commerce initiatives that ended in failure, Internet giant Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is finally making what looks like a smart move in the highly competitive space by focusing on what it does best: providing search services. In this case, media are reporting that China’s dominant provider online search company has quietly launched an e-commerce search engine, in what looks like a direct challenge to e-commerce leader Alibaba’s own eTao e-commerce search site.
Shanghai Street View: Packaging Crackdown 沪经动向：包装瘦身
I’ve lived in a number of Asian cities before taking up my current residence in Shanghai, including 3 years in Taiwan from 2006 to 2009. While I enjoyed may things about Taipei, one of the things that I found less appealing was the tendency for shops and companies there to overpackage many products, especially items intended as gifts. The phenomenon would often cause objects such as bottles of perfume or liquor to suddenly morph into packages that were 3 or 4 times the size of the actual product. I’ll discuss shortly my theories on where this phenomenon came from and the psychology behind it, but first I want to congratulate Shanghai for taking the lead in trying to curb this extremely wasteful practice that has spread from Taiwan to China in the last decade.
Sougou + So.com: Don’t Bet On It 搜狗和360搜索联合：不要指望
Interesting new rumors are appearing in the media about a possible alliance between 2 of China’s most up-and-coming search engines, Sohu’s (Nasdaq: SOHU) Sogou and Qihoo 360′s (NYSE: QIHU) So.com. While such an alliance looks very smart and could mount a serious challenge to longtime industry leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), I would be seriously skeptical that anything will ever happen. The main obstacle is simple, and is the same obstacle that prevents mergers and other strategic tie-ups from happening more broadly in China’s Internet world: big egos. In this case, we’re talking about 2 of the Chinese Internet world’s biggest egos who are notoriously difficult collaborators, namely Sohu’s chairman chief executive Charles Zhang and Qihoo’s founder and chief executive Zhou Hongyi.
2013: Year Of The Car? 2013：汽车之年？
The auto industry is humming over new data that show China car sales soared 45 percent in January, marking their strongest growth since April 2010 when government incentives during the global economic crisis helped to turbocharge the sector. Industry watchers are acknowledging that seasonal factors played a major role in this latest jump, but point out that they still expect to see a return to strong growth in the upcoming Year of the Snake as China’s economy improves and consumers rediscover their love affair with cars.
News Digest: February 8 报摘：2013年2月8日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 8. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS) Stock Jumps 22 Pct, Worth 4 Dangdangs (NYSE: DANG) (Chinese article)
- Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Microblog Android Version Supports WeChat Sharing (English article)
- Minsheng (HKEx: 1988) Approved Offer 20 Bln Yuan in Convertible Bonds (HKEx announcement)
- Xunlei Sues Youku (NYSE: YOKU), Douban for IPR Infringement (English article)
- Alcatel Lucent (Paris: ALUA) China Workers To Take Unpaid Leave -Source (Chinese article)
Dynasty Warning: Wine Bubble Bursting 王朝酒业发布盈利预警 葡萄酒行业泡沫破裂
There must be something festive in the air as Chinese New Year approaches, since I’m writing about the alcoholic beverages industry for the second time this week with word that leading domestic wine maker Dynasty Fine Wines Group (HKEx: 828) has issued a profit warning. But whereas my previous post talked about the big potential in the baijiu industry for high-alcohol spirits (previous post), my latest post is decidedly more downbeat and points to a big bubble starting to burst in the fast growing but increasingly crowded market for western-style grape-based wines.
SMIC, NetEase Look Sharp in Q4 中芯国际和网易业绩是个好兆头
Following earnings reports earlier this week that showed advertising business stabilizing at Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU), we’re getting even more upbeat results from online game operator NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) and leading Chinese chip maker SMIC (HKEx: 981; NYSE: SMI), which points to a broader Chinese economic recovery. I’ll be honest and say I’m most encouraged by the news from SMIC, which for years has had huge potential but always failed to realize that potential due to management and other internal issues. The year 2011 saw the company suffer through a bruising power struggle, after which the 2 men at the center of the struggle were both thrown out of the company and a new experienced CEO was brought in to try and finally put the company on more solid footing.
News Digest: February 7 报摘：2013年2月7日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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- Monster (NYSE: MWW) Sells ChinaHR to Irish Online Recruiter Saongroup (English article)
- Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Launches Shopping Search (English article)
- NetEase Reports Q4 and Fiscal Year 2012 Unaudited Financial Results (PRNewswire)
- SMIC (HKEx: 981) Reports Q4 Results (HKEx announcement)
- Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 128 GB iPad 4 Goes On Sale in China, Retails For 6,088 Yuan (Chinese article)
