I read with amusement this morning a report stating that Baihe, one of China’s smaller social networking sites, is still letting people register under any name they choose, even though Beijing rolled out a controversial “real name registration” system months ago designed to curtail rumor mongering. The report, which looks credible, reflects the very real fact that such real name registration has been difficult if not impossible for not only Baihe but also much bigger names like Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700) posing a very real risk for these Internet titans if and when Beijing decides to enforce the real name rule, or even worse, to punish companies that have failed to comply.
Tag Archives: China company stock news
News Digest: July 24, 2012 报摘： 2012年7月24日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 24. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
- Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Announces Q2 Results (PRNewswire)
- CNOOC (HKEx: 883) to buy Nexen for $15.1 billion in China’s largest foreign deal (English article)
- Huawei Releases 2012 H1 Results; Sales Revenue of 102.7 Billion Yuan (company announcement)
- Nearly 10,000 Taobao Merchants Closing Each Day: Report (Chinese article)
- New Oriental Education (NYSE: EDU) Sued by Investors Over SEC Investigation (English article)
- Latest calendar for Q2 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)
Telcos: China Mobile Slips, Unicom Rises 电信业半年回顾：中国移动滑落 联通顺势崛起
As we reach this year’s halfway point and companies start reporting their mid-year results, I wanted to take a quick look at China’s telecoms landscape and some of the major highlights over the first half of the year, including a recent surge by China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), the country’s second largest mobile carrier. China’s 3 telcos, Unicom, China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) and China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA), all released their June subscriber totals late last week, revealing some subtle but interesting changes from the beginning of the year as the trio look to develop third-generation (3G) mobile services that are the wave of the future.
Doubts Linger on New Oriental, Citic Securities 新东方和中信证券料将面临更多动荡
I’d like to start off this Monday with a brief apology for my own erratic writing these last few days, as I’ve been traveling in the US and my schedule has become a bit spotty. But that said, I’ll begin this sunny Monday in Los Angeles with some postscripts to items I wrote about last week on troubled education services firm New Oriental (NYSE EDU) and leading Chinese brokerage Citic Securities (HKEx: 6030; Shanghai: 600030), neither of which is inspiring much confidence in investors these days.
Mobile Internet Passes the Desktop 手机成中国网民最大上网终端
A government agency has just released data showing that mobile Internet users in China have passed traditional desktop users for the first time, posing an interesting challenge for all players that have typically designed their products for people who surf the web from fixed-line PCs at home and in Internet cafes. This move reminds me of a similar shift to mobile from desktop computing now taking place worldwide that is dealing a blow to former PC giants Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), which have long dominated the desktop computing arena but are having trouble in the mobile space.
News Digest: July 19, 2012 报摘： 2012年7月19日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 19. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
- Citic Securities (HKEx: 6030) Announces Preliminary H1 Results (HKEx announcement)
- Yum’s (NYSE: YUM) Profit Disappoints, Hurt By China Costs (English article)
- ZTE (HKEx: 763) Wins China Mobile Hong Kong TD-LTE Tender (English article)
- New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) Gains After Refuting Muddy Waters’ Charges (English article)
- China Mouthpiece Xinhua Reports 5.6 Billion Yuan Revenue in 2011 (English article)
- Latest calendar for Q2 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)
China’s Hawker Aircraft Buy Hits Turbulence 中国公司收购豪客比奇遭遇动荡
In what should come as a surprise to no one, a deal announced last week for a little-known Chinese firm to buy bankrupt US aircraft maker Hawker Beechcraft has already hit its first turbulence with objections from a major trade union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. This objection is only the first of many that I expect to see in this case, not only from the US but also from skeptical Chinese regulators, meaning this deal is almost guaranteed to fail. Let’s look at this first big obstacle, which comes just a week after Superior Aviation Beijing, partly owned by the Beijing municipal government, said it was in exclusive talks to buy Hawker for up to $1.8 billion. (previous post)
UnionPay Gets Setback in WTO Ruling WTO裁定中国银联垄断
In what looks like a big setback for UnionPay, the World Trade Organization has ruled that the financial services network operator has an illegal monopoly that unfairly locks rivals like MasterCard (NYSE: MA) and Visa (NYSE: V) out of the market for settling financial transactions denominated in China’s currency, the renminbi. But while this ruling may represent a victory for Visa and MasterCard in the longer term, I have no doubt that the decision will be meaningless for at least the next few years, as Beijing, even if it decides to comply with the ruling, erects bureaucratic obstacles to make sure that UnionPay maintains its monopoly status for now.
E-Commerce Wars Hit Suning 苏宁沦为电商价格战的新俘虏
Electronics giant Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) has become the latest Internet player to fall victim to China’s bloody e-commerce price wars, issuing a profit warning as companies get set to report their second-quarter results. Suning’s warning shouldn’t really surprise anyone since these price wars have been going on for about a year now. So perhaps the 10 percent drop in Suning shares yesterday — the daily allowable maximum under China’s stock market rules — reflects investor realization of just how bad these price wars have become and fact that Suning will suffer some major profit erosion before the situation finally eases.
News Digest: July 17, 2012 报摘： 2012年7月17日
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
- Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) Shares Plunge 10 Pct As Website Misses Target (Chinese article)
- Machinists Union Challenges Hawker Beechcraft Sale to Chinese Company (Businesswire)
- US Wins WTO Case Over China UnionPay Bank Card Monopoly (English article)
- Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Aims For Top Global PC Spot This Year, Profits Under Pressure (Chinese article)
- 360Buy Allies with NetEase (Nasdaq: NTES) on Gaming Sales (English article)
- Latest calendar for Q1 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)
Portals Shun Olympics, Baidu’s New JV 门户网站避开奥运，百度新设合资企业
Second-quarter earnings season and the London Olympics won’t begin until next week, but we’re already seeing signs that an ad slowdown is hitting profits at many Chinese Internet companies as they get set to report their latest results. Specifically, media are reporting China’s top 4 portals have decided to skip expensive rights for live coverage of Olympic events, and instead are opting to provide less pricey video-on-demand (VOD) rights that allow Internet users to watch recordings of their favorite sports after the events. (English article)
