Bottom line: Ant Financial could raise more than $22 billion in a 2017 IPO if China’s Internet bubble remains intact for the next year, though there’s a 50-50 chance that bubble will burst and the company’s value will stagnate or even come down.
Ant Financial targets massive dual listing
Just a week after reports emerged that it was nearing one the biggest fundings of all time by a private Chinese company, a new report is saying that Alibaba-affiliated (NYSE: BABA) Ant Financial is on the cusp of formally closing a massive capital raising of more than $3.5 billion. Flush with all that cash from only its second funding round, the company is looking quite confident and saying it hopes to make the biggest IPO of all time on a Chinese domestic stock exchange.
Specifically, the latest report in the influential China Business Network says Ant hopes to eclipse the current record held by the 2010 IPO from Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288), one of China’s big 4 state-run lenders. Ant’s offering could come as soon as next year in a dual listing in China and Hong Kong, following the surprise disclosure that Ant would meet the strict profitability requirements for such a listing . Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 25. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Alibaba, Tencent, Ping AnInsurance JV Seeks $1 Bln Series A Funding (English article)
Bottom line: Shares of China’s big 4 banks could see some upside in the next year, as they work with Beijing to keep their bad loans and slowing profit growth within government-set limits.
Qatar sells down AgBank stake
A major sell-down by one of Agricultural Bank of China’s (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288) largest foreign shareholders looks a bit ominous for the lender, coming just after all of the nation’s big 4 banks reported rapidly declining profit growth and swelling bad loans. That raises the bigger question of whether we could see a broader exodus from Chinese banking shares by investors in the months ahead, and whether the stocks are looking at a longer term downturn while they work out the billions of dollars in non-performing loans on their books. Read Full Post…
Observers who were overwhelmed by Chinese banks’ fund-raising frenzy after the global financial crisis should get ready for something much bigger, with word that Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288) is planning to raise a massive $12.8 billion as a new round of money-raising kicks off. China’s banks are notorious for lending in line with directives from Beijing, with the result that they often make poor decisions based on political rather than commercial factors. That reality means that most major Chinese lenders are now sitting on mountains of questionable loans, and the situation could get much worse as the nation’s real estate bubble shows early signs of finally getting ready to burst. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 9. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM) Gains in Trading Debut After $168 Million IPO (English article)
AgBank (HKEx: 1288) Plans to Raise $12.8 Bln In Capital (English article)
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Says In Talks For Phone Recycling Program In China (Chinese article)
TCL (HKEx: 2618) Says Smartphone Sales Tripled To 8.83 Mln Units In Jan-April (Chinese article)
Yingli (NYSE: YGE) To Supply 30 MW PV Modules to Turkey’s Tekno Ray Solar (PRNewswire)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on March 24. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
ICBC (HKEx: 1398) Cuts Off Alipay, To Phase Out 3rd Party Payment Platforms (Chinese article)
P2P Lending Platform China Risk Finance Weighs US Listing – Source (Chinese article)
Agricultural Bank Of China (HKEx: 1288) Announces Annual 2013 Results (HKEx announcement)
Wanda To Add 780 RealD (NYSE: RLD) 3D Cinema Systems Across China (Businesswire)
Camelot (NYSE: CIS) Announces Shareholder Approval of Merger Agreement (PRNewswire)
Note: After first publishing this post, CCB formally announced it will purchase 76 percent of BicBanco for 13.6 billion Brazilian reais ($720 million). To view the announcement, click here.
After living in China for a while, one comes to realize that new trends among big state-owned enterprises often happen quickly and in waves in response to directives from Beijing. That looks like the case among the nation’s big 4 lenders, with word that China Construction Bank (CCB) (HKEx: 939; Shanghai: 601939) is in late stage talks for its first major global acquisition of a bank in Brazil. CCB’s sudden interest in global acquisitions comes just weeks after another domestically-focused big 4 lender, Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank) (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288) was also reportedly in talks to buy Hong Kong’s Wing Hang Bank (HKEx: 302) Read Full Post…
Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 600188), the last of China’s “big 4” banks to go public, is now becoming the last of the quartet to eye a global expansion, with word that it’s weighing a bid for Hong Kong’s Wing Hang Bank (HKEx: 0302). I’m generally not a huge fan of AgBank, mostly because its history as a lender to farmers and other agricultural enterprises makes it the least market-oriented of China’s biggest 4 national lenders. But that said, this baby step onto the global stage looks like a relatively well conceived plan for perhaps some bigger steps in the next few years. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
China Probes Pricing At Drugmakers Including GSK, Merck (English article)
China Merchants Bank (HKEx: 3968) Sets Up Online Branch On WeChat (Chinese article)
HKEx Approves AgBank (HKEx: 1288) To Issue $5 Bln In Medium-Term Notes (HKEx announcement)
Qihoo (NYSE: QIHU), Sogou Increase Search Traffic Share in June (English article)
Beijing Praises Baby Formula Brands for Price Reduction (English article)
A liquidity crunch rocking China’s banks has also wreaked havoc on their stocks, prompting their biggest shareholder Central Huijin to step in to try and ease the share sell-off. Huijin so far has limited its buying activity to the Shanghai stock exchange, in what looks like a modestly successful campaign to support shares of big name banks like ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398), China Construction Bank (HKEx: 939; Shanghai: 601939) and Bank of China (HKEx: 3988; Shanghai: 601988). Given the success of this modest program, there’s the interesting possibility that Huijin could expand the program to Hong Kong, where H-shares of the same banks have fallen much more steeply. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 27-29. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) To Buy Online Video Firm For $400 Mln-Paper (English article)
Websites Closed In Crackdown On Pirate Movie Networks (English article)
AgBank (HKEx: 1288) OKs Plan To Issue 90 Bln Yuan In Capital Instruments (HKEx announcement)
China Telecom (HKEx: 728) Sells E-Surfing Media Stake To Parent (HKEx announcement)
