Tag Archives: 腾讯

INTERNET: Didi-Uber China Marriage to Shake Up Global Alliances

Bottom line: Didi Chuxing’s new marriage with Uber China could quickly come under stress due to rivalries between the pair outside China, and might force them to forge a broader global alliance.

Didi, Uber set to clash outside China

A couple of new reports are spotlighting how the new mega-merger between Didi Chuxing and Uber’s China unit is creating uncertainty for existing global alliances involving the 2 former bitter rivals. The larger of the headlines has Uber’s US rival Lyft suddenly questioning its alliance with Didi less than a year after the pair formed the tie-up. The other has Didi helping to raise money for Grab, also known as GrabTaxi, a bitter rival of Uber that operates service in 30 cities within 6 Southeast Asian countries. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Tencent Solves Excess Cash Problem with Supercell Buy

Bottom line: Tencent’s Supercell purchase looks like a relatively smart use of its big cash pile, and will give it access to leading-edge games and let it focus on the more important task of developing an ecosystem of products and services around WeChat and QQ.

Tencent gets $8.6 bln charge from Supercell

Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) has been a victim of its own success, accumulating one of China’s largest cash pots even as it remained quite conservative as an acquirer. But now the company has taken some pressure off of itself to invest that cash, with the announcement of its purchase of a controlling stake in Finnish game maker Supercell for a hefty $8.6 billion. I haven’t done any detailed research on the purchase, but this does appear to be the largest acquisition of all time by a Chinese Internet company, and is probably worth as much as or even more than all of Tencent’s other acquisitions to date combined. Read Full Post…

China News Digest: May 26, 2016

The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on May 26. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Undergoing SEC Investigation Over Accounting Practices (English article)
  • Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) Ma Says Daily Mobile Payment Transaction Volume Over 500 Mln (Chinese article)
  • BOE (Shenzhen: 000725) Debuts Flexible LED Display at US Trade Show (Chinese article)
  • Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Limits Number of Search Ads Per Page to 4 (English article)
  • Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Analysts Slash Outlook on Company’s ‘Mobile Crisis’ (English article)

GUEST POST: Tencent Alliance with Zhejiang TV Faces Ups, Downs

Bottom line: The new alliance between Tencent and Zhejiang TV reflects the growing strength of China’s big Internet companies in online video, and will benefit but also challenge both sides.

By Lin Nanwei

Tencent, Zhejiang TV in new partnership

Last week’s World Internet Conference in the scenic water town of Wuzhen attracted media attention due to attendance by most of the sector’s top leaders, even though few said anything substantial. But Tencent (HKEx: 700) Chairman and CEO Pony did a little homework before he came.

The day before the curtain came down on the big event, Ma appeared at another event in nearby Hangzhou to announce a strategic partnership between Tencent and Zhejiang Television & Radio Group, the province’s largest state-owned TV broadcaster. According to reports, the 2 sides will focus on cooperation in development of content, channels and promotional activities. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…

FINANCE: Global Hotel, Chip Deals Highlight China’s Poor Credit

Bottom line: Chinese buyers will lose out to world-class rivals in bidding for top global M&A targets over the next 5-10 years, and credit ratings for the second-tier assets they do acquire will fall after ownership changes.

Stats ChipPac, Starwood deals highlight China’s shaky credit

Two major new deals are showing why China’s credit remains low when it comes to global M&A, hobbled by factors like lack of experience, unknown brands and a growing reality that Beijing may not provide bail outs if their business runs into trouble. The first deal comes in the high-tech chip sector, and has seen the credit rating of Singaporean heavyweight Stats ChipPac (Singapore: STAT) take a hit after being purchased by a Chinese buyer. The second deal has leading Chinese hotelier Jin Jiang (HKEx: 2006; Shanghai: 600574) being snubbed in its bid for US giant Starwood (NYSE: HOT), operator of the Sheraton and Westin Brands.

Neither of these developments comes as a big surprise, but they do reflect the very real challenges that Chinese companies will face as they try to become players on the global M&A scene. Many of these Chinese names have access to big cash from their state-run connections, though converting that to foreign currency and getting necessary government approvals is sometimes challenging. More importantly, these companies have little or no track record at running a major global company, which makes creditors wary and other more experienced suitors often look more attractive. Read Full Post…

News Digest: November 3, 2015

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 3. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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  • Tencent (HKEx: 700) Plans $1 Bln Investment in New Meituan-Dianping (English article)
  • HSBC (HKEx: 5) Targets Chinese Bond Market with Securities JV (English article)
  • Gaming Firm Giant Interactive to Backdoor List Through New Century Cruise (English article)
  • Ming Yang (NYSE: MY) Announces Receipt of “Going Private” Proposal (PRNewswire)
  • Baixing.com Submits Filings, Aims for Year-End IPO on China’s OTC Board (Chinese article)
  • Latest calendar for Q3 earnings reports (Earnings calendar)

INTERNET: Tencent, JD Join Alibaba in Singles Day Courting Frenzy

Bottom line: A growing alliance between JD.com and Tencent could start to seriously challenge Alibaba’s dominance of China e-commerce in the next 2 years, as the rivals use the upcoming November 11 Singles Day to showcase their prowess.

JD joins Nov 11 courtship of online shoppers

This year’s November 11 Singles Day shopping extravaganza is shaping up as a guerrilla courtship of Chinese online shoppers by the nation’s 2 e-commerce leaders, as each vies for supremacy on a date that’s become the world’s busiest for online buying. Just days after leading operator Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) announced its own grand plans to seduce shoppers, rival JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) has come out with its own counter scheme that aims to court China’s hordes or singles in an alliance drawing on its growing ties with leading social networking (SNS) operator Tencent (HKEx: 700).

The stakes in this brewing war are huge. Last year alone, Alibaba reported 278 million orders worth $9.3 billion around the promotion that it created on the November 11 holiday, which represents the epitome of singledom due to its numerical representation as 11-11, or four 1’s. JD declined to give a sales value for its orders last year, but said it posted 14 million orders, which would translate to far more modest but still significant sum of about $500 million worth of merchandise sold based on Alibaba’s rate. Read Full Post…

INTERNET: Time to Enter Alibaba, Baidu After Soros Departure?

Bottom line: Alibaba’s stock could be set for a modest rebound in the remainder of the year after a round of heavy institutional selling, while Baidu’s shares could see more downward pressure on concerns about its stagnating profits.

Alibaba shares set for rebound

Big news at the end of last week saw billionaire investor George Soros declare that he recently sold most of his shares in China’s 2 leading US-listed Internet companies, Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), as he decided to lock in profits on concerns the stocks were overvalued. His actual holdings in both stocks weren’t that big, but his huge influence almost certainly prompted other big fund managers to follow suit. That could explain the big downward pressure both stocks felt during the second quarter.

Of course small investors like myself and anyone reading this post are usually the last to find out about this kind of trading by influential buyers, meaning it’s already already too late to trade on this news. But the more interesting prospect is whether or not shares of one or either companies have reached a bottom and could be set for a rebound. Read Full Post…

Alibaba.com Blows Smoke With HiChina Spin-Off Plan 阿里巴巴网络分拆万网放烟幕弹

Alibaba.com’s (HKEx: 1688) new announcement that it may spin off HiChina, its Internet infrastructure service provider that it acquired just 2 years ago, has all the signs of valuation envy from an industry leader that feels unappreciated by investors. (English article) That’s the only reason I can give for the strange timing of this announcement, coming at the height of one of the worst IPO markets in the last 2 years and at a time when US-listed China companies are particularly out of favor. Let’s look at the numbers: Alibaba.com, easily China’s biggest B2B e-commerce site, purchased HiChina in 2009 for a price that gave it a valuation at that time of around $100 million. Now, an unnamed source being quoted by the Wall Street Journal is saying the IPO could value the company at up to $500 million, or 5 times what Alibaba.com paid for it. I’m sure Alibaba has brought some synergies to the company since the purchase and also invested more money in it, but a 400 percent increase in value in just 2 years seems a bit too rich to me. More likely, Alibaba.com is feeling underappreciated by investors, who have dumped its shares in recent months causing it to lose nearly half its value since July, with a current market cap of around $4 billion. That’s easily the lowest market cap for any category leader in China’s Internet space. Leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) has a current market cap of $5.4 billion, while Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Tencent (HKEx: 700), the leading search engine and online game operator, boast sky-high valuations of $43 billion and $37 billion, respectively. Alibaba.com’s parent company, Alibaba Group, is also no doubt feeling some pressure to show stronger valuations from its units after investors purchased a stake in the parent company last week that valued it at a whopping $32 billion. (previous post) Considering that Alibaba.com is probably the parent group’s most valuable asset and worth just $4 billion, I’m not sure where the other $28 billion of that sky-high valuation is coming from. All that said, this HiChina spin-off plan looks like mostly a distraction to divert attention away from Alibaba’s industry-lagging valuations.

Bottom line: Alibaba.com’s plan to spin off its HiChina infrastructure services unit is a ploy to generate excitement to boost its own industry-trailing valuation.

阿里巴巴网络有限公司(Alibaba.com)(1688.HK)日前发布公告称,公司拟分拆两年前收购的互联网基础设施服务提供商万网(HiChina),後者将赴美上市,其估值颇令人眼红。这是我能想到此时发布公告的唯一原因。目前是两年来首次公开募股(IPO)市场最糟时刻之一,赴美上市的中国企业尤其不受投资者青睐。让我们来看看相关数据。Alibaba.com是中国最大的B2B电子商务网站,2009年以5.4亿元收购万网股权。《华尔街日报》援引一名消息人士的说法称,万网上市时的市值或高达5亿美元,是阿里巴巴网络收购价的五倍。我相信,收购万网後,阿里巴巴为其带来了一些协同效应,也对其投入了更多资金,但仅两年价值就增长4倍,我认为,这样的涨幅有点过高。更可能的情况是,阿里巴巴网络觉得不被投资者看好。投资者近几个月抛售其股票,致使该公司市值自7月来缩水近一半,目前约为40亿美元。在中国互联网领域,对于一个领军企业来说,这样的市值非常低。门户网站新浪(SINA.O)目前市值为54亿美元,百度(BIDU.O)及腾讯(0700.HK)的市值分别为430亿美元和370亿美元。阿里巴巴网络母公司–阿里巴巴集团也面临压力。多家投资机构上周投资阿里巴巴集团,促使其市值高达320亿美元。考虑到阿里巴巴网络可能是该集团最有价值的资产,但其市值仅为40亿美元,我不知道阿里巴巴集团高得离谱的市值从何而来。总而言之,分拆万网的计划看似多半是为了转移投资者对阿里巴巴网络估值的关注。

一句话:阿里巴巴网络有限公司计划分拆万网,目的是为了提升公司落後于行业的估值。

Related postings 相关文章:

More Internet Froth in Alibaba Valuation, Dangdang Price War 阿里巴巴估值奇高凸显网络泡沫

Taobao Mall Drums Up Hype in IPO Run-Up 淘宝商城开放或为IPO造势

Yahoo: A Good Time to Break From Alibaba? 雅虎与阿里巴巴分手时机还不成熟

360Buy $5 Bln IPO Plan Looks Like Desperation 京东商城50亿美元上市计划凸显绝望

I have just one word to describe the news that leading Chinese online merchant 360Buy will try to raise up to $5 billion in the largest-ever Internet IPO for a Chinese company in the US: desperation. (English article; Chinese article) But I have to at least give this company credit for trying to get to market before a looming Chinese Internet bubble bursts, which could rapidly wipe out billions of dollars that investors have pumped into 360Buy, which officially calls itself Jingdong Mall. This is the company that surprised the world in April when it raised a whopping $1.5 billion — a record for a Chinese Internet company — from an investor group that included Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies, better known for its investment in Facebook. (previous post) Digital Sky’s chief later tried to justify the size of the investment, estimating that 360Buy could have a market cap of $10 billion — more than double that of most to Chinese Internet firms and trailing only top players Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) (previous post) Never mind the fact that 360Buy was losing money, which will become quite clear to everyone when if and when it files its IPO prospectus. Lots has happened since that landmark investment five months agol. Most notably, competition in the e-commerce space has heated up considerably with the influx of billions of dollars in new investment. Money-losing online promotions offering goods at ridiculously low prices appear almost daily, and early signs of distress have begun to appear with big names like group buying site Gaopeng and clothing retailer Vancl laying off staff (previous post). 360Buy showed its own signs of distress last month when it abruptly severed relations with e-payments provider AliPay in a move to cut costs. (previous post) I suspect Digital Sky and the other investors from that $1.5 billion funding round are starting to panic, and are now in a race against time to get back some of their investment before China’s bursting Internet bubble is impossible to ignore. If I were a gambler, I would say this offering will raise $1 billion at the most, and quite probably less, if it even makes it to market. The way things are rapidly developing, the company will be lucky to get a valuation of $5 billion.

Bottom line: 360Buy’s sudden rush to raise up to $5 billion in a US IPO is a sign of desperation, as investors look for quick returns before China’s Internet bubble bursts.

看到京东商城要去美国上市筹资50亿美元的消息,我只想用一个词来描述我的看法:绝望。京东商城是中国最大的购物网站,这个上市计划一旦成功将创下中国互联网公司赴美上市筹资额的历史之最。不过,对京东在中国互联网行业泡沫行将破裂前,尝试借助资本市场的努力,我还是至少要给予褒奖。中国互联网泡沫的破裂可能导致投资者对京东商城倾情投入的数十亿美元迅速灰飞烟灭。今年4月,京东商城从包括俄罗斯风投公司数字天空技术(Digital Sky Technologies)的投资者财团成功筹集到15亿美元资金,创下中国互联网公司对外定向筹资的纪录。这让外界倍感意外。数字天空技术更出名的行动当属投资Facebook,该公司後来试图为其投资规模找出理由,称京东商城的估值可能高达100亿美元,较大多数其他中国互联网公司的市值高出一倍有余,仅次于百度腾讯等龙头企业。不要介意京东商城正在亏损,这一事实在这家公司发布上市招股书的时候将大白天下。在五个月前获得标志性巨额投资之後发生了很多事情。最值得关注的是,随着数十亿美元投资的流入,电子商务行业竞争显着升级。几乎每天都能看到提供荒唐低价商品的赔钱促销活动,随着团购网站高朋和服装零售网站凡客的裁员,电子商务行业已经初露危机迹象。上月,京东商城以降低成本的名义突然弃用支付宝,正是前者面临危机的迹象。我猜测,稍早提供15亿美元融资的数字天空技术公司等投资者已经感到痛楚,在不敢无视中国互联网泡沫行将破裂的情况下,正争分夺秒争取上市,以抢先回收部分投资。如果我是一名赌家,我会押注京东商城若决定上市,最多筹得10亿美元,并很可能更少。世事变幻莫测,京东商城若能筹得50亿美元,则需要运气。

一句话:京东商城突然宣布计划赴美上市筹资50亿美元,释放出绝望的信号,机构投资者期待抢在中国互联网泡沫破裂前赶快回收投资。

Related postings 相关文章:

360Buy — More Details But Still Pricey 京东商城值多少?

360Buy Cuts Off Alipay As China Internet Froth Builds 京东停用支付宝印证中国互联网泡沫

360Buy — Are They Really Worth That Much? 京东商城——真值那么多钱?

Group Buying Sites: The First to Fall? 团购网或将在互联网泡沫破灭时应声而倒?

I’ve been writing for more than a month now about China’s looming Internet bubble, and a new domestic media report makes a good case that group buying sites may lead the way when this bubble bursts in the months ahead. (Chinese article) According to the report, China’s field of group buying sites has exploded in recent months, with some 5,000 such sites now operating versus just 2,000 at the end of last year. What’s more, an industry executive at one of the top sites, 55tuan, estimated that all of the top 10 players are now losing money, as they rapidly burn through hundreds of millions of dollars in cash raised earlier this year in pursuit of a very limited base of online Chinese shoppers. Those same consumers, with so many sites to choose from, are becoming more and more selective, forcing the sites to offer promotions that are ridiculously cheap and obviously money losing. Gaopeng, the group buying joint venture between global leader Groupon and leading Chinese Internet company Tencent (HKEx: 700), has captured headlines for much of the last month with reports of its steady layoff of hundreds of employees around China. In July, 55tuan, which earlier this year raised $200 million funding, also reportedly had to abandon plans for an overseas IPO after several major Western investment banks turned it down over concerns about accounting records for many of the companies it has acquired over the last year. (previous article) And to add to the mess, signs emerged last month that Chinese tax authorities were preparing to crack down on the unruly sector, which officials believe could owe more than 500 million yuan, or about $77 million, in unpaid taxes. (previous post)  With all these warning signs flashing, it’s not hard to imagine that the group buying sector is probably already in a state of crisis with a major shakeout likely to begin by the end of the year, which could easily see the closure of at least one or two big players.

Bottom line: The group buying sector, which has seen explosive growth over the last year, is the most likely candidate to lead the bursting of China’s current Internet bubble.

一个多月以来,我写了多篇关于中国互联网泡沫的文章,一家国内媒体的最新报导与我形成了呼应。这篇报导称,团购网可能在未来几个月互联网泡沫破裂时率先倒下。这篇报导称,国内团购网站2010年年底达到2000多家,到2011年7月,这个数字变成了5000家。此外,窝窝团高管估计,现在前十大团购网站全部亏损,这些团购网迅速烧掉了今年稍早筹集的数亿美元现金,争夺仍非常有限的中国网上购物者。这些购物者因为有那麽多网站可以选择,现在已经变得越来越挑剔,迫使网站提供价格便宜得很可笑的促销,明显是赔钱。全球最大团购网站Groupon和中国互联网公司腾讯合资组建的高朋网,在上月多数时间里都是媒体高度关注的对象,该网在中国持续裁员数百名。7月有报导称,窝窝网因遭到几家主要欧美国家投行的拒绝,放弃了赴海外上市的计划,投行为其去年收购的很多公司的会计记录感到担忧。窝窝网今年稍早刚筹资2亿美元。此外,上月有迹象表明中国税务机关准备对团购网行业严加管理,官方估计的欠税额为5亿元人民币,或相当于7700万美元。这些令人警醒的信号已经出现,不难想象团购网站行业可能已经陷入危机,年底时很可能开始发生重大变化,你可能轻易就能发现至少一两家行业龙头关门。

一句话:团购网去年经历了爆炸式增长,很可能在当前中国互联网泡沫破灭时应声而倒。

Related postings 相关文章:

Tax Evasion Report: Trouble Brewing in Group Buying? 团购被曝逃税 行业整顿或在即

Gaopeng, Kaixin Spotlight China Internet Turmoil 高朋网、开心网凸显中国互联网混乱现状

55tuan Scraps Listing Plan After Banks Get Cold Feet 各投行临阵退缩 “窝窝团”放弃赴美上市