The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 22. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Tiger Global Snaps Up Alibaba Shares At Lofty Valuation (English article)
Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) Announces Resignation Of 2 Board Members (PRNewswire)
Shuanghui International Changes Name To WH Group (Businesswire)
New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) Announces Unaudited Fiscal Q2 Results (PRNewswire)
Citic Securities (HKEx: 6030) Gives Preliminary Financial Data For 2013 (HKEx announcement)
Traditional Chinese appliance makers are showing a sudden interest in moving outside their usual comfort zone, with word that sector giant Midea (Shenzhen: 000333) is applying for a banking license. Midea joins a fast-growing queue that has seen rivals Haier (HKEx: 1169) and Gree (Shenzhen: 000651) make similar moves outside their traditional areas, in what looks to me like a typical herd mentality that one often sees in Chinese industries.
In this case the urgency to diversify doesn’t seem that critical, since I don’t expect consumer demand for big appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators to fade anytime soon. That contrasts sharply with a parallel diversification drive in the traditional retailing sector, where companies like electronics seller Gome (HKEx: 493) and supermarket operator Wumart (HKEx: 1025) are facing an unprecedented challenge from a new generation of e-commerce firms like Jingdong and Yihaodian. Read Full Post…
App stores have suddenly become a hot ticket in China’s online space, with word that 4-year-old operator Wandoujia has just landed $120 million in funding from a group led by Japanese tech investor giant Softbank. The deal comes just a half year after online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) acquired another app store, 91Wireless, for more than $1 billion, leading me to wonder if Wandoujia could soon become a target for one of China’s cash-rich and recently very acquisitive top Internet companies. Such a purchase would certainly make sense for names like e-commerce leader Alibaba and social networking giant Tencent (HKEx: 700), which, along with Baidu, are all spending heavily to build up their mobile Internet business. Read Full Post…
I have to admit I was quite disappointed to read that China’s regulator has set an extremely modest target for a new group of virtual network operators (VNOs) that will finally break the telecoms services monopoly held by China’s big 3 state-run telcos. I wasn’t expecting huge things from this new group of operators, who will lease network capacity from the trio of existing telcos and then sell telecoms services under their own brands. But the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s goal of just 50 million VNO mobile service subscribers by the end of next year looks ridiculously low to me and hints of worries that this new pilot program could be plagued with problems. (English article) Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Mobile To Sell iPhone Next Week, Unicom, China Telecom Cut Prices (Chinese article)
Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) CEO Says Still In Dark On China Antitrust Probe (English article)
Zhou Weiping Resigns As Interim CEO, CFO Of Suntech (NYSE: STPFQ) (PRNewswire)
Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) Denies In Talks To Sell Stake To Alibaba (Chinese article)
LDK (NYSE: LDK) Enters Further Forbearance Arrangement With Noteholders (PRNewswire)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 9. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba in Talks to Invest in Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) – Sources (English article)
Youku Tudou, China Mobile Video Contest Generates More Than 100 Mln Yuan (PRNewswire)
US Pressures South Korean Telcos To End Huawei Cooperation (Chinese article)
ZTE (HKEx: 763) Names New Global Head of Mobile Devices, Amid Consumer Focus (Businesswire)
Coolpad Rolls Out Online Phone Brand, Targets 10 Bln Yuan In First Year Sales (Chinese article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 8. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Tencent (HKEx: 700) In Talks To Invest In Jingdong – Source (English article)
Yingli (NYSE: YGE), China National Nuclear Corp In Solar Projects JV (PRNewswire)
Lenovo (HKEx: 992) To Gradually Enter US Smartphone Market – Americas Chief (Chinese article)
Alibaba, Suning Chances Good For 1st Round Of Private Bank Licenses (Chinese article)
China Suspends Ban On Video Game Consoles After More Than A Decade (English article)
Many companies from traditional sectors have been taking a serious look at the Internet these days, worried that failure to develop a solid web strategy could result in their eventual demise. For sectors like retail and some other traditional product categories, I agree that strategy makes sense as the Internet radically changes the way that these industries operate. But I find the recent Internet obsession by the CEO of Vanke (HKEx: 1036; Shenzhen: 000002), one of China’s leading real estate developers, a bit more difficult to understand, since property doesn’t seem like a sector that can easily migrate to the web. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 3. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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It’s quiet outside as markets reopen on this first work day after the New Year, so I thought I’d start off 2014 with some predictions for the year ahead in the sectors that I cover. Generally speaking, I do think the first half of the year will see a continuation of strong momentum that began in late 2013 for many sectors. But that momentum will slow as we near the mid-year mark, and 2014 could end with a whimper as the Chinese economy continues to slow and Beijing pushes for higher quality growth. Read Full Post…
The microblog realm has been buzzing loudly this final week of 2013 with stories that are likely to be major themes in the new year, led by a probable IPO by Jingdong, China’s second largest e-commerce firm. Meantime, e-commerce leader Alibaba was showing no signs of slowing down the endless promotion of its recently launched mobile instant messaging (IM) service Laiwang, as it tries to catch up with Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) hugely popular WeChat rival service. Lastly, tweets coming from top e-commerce firms Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) hint that 2014 could see the start of consolidation in the booming but also fiercely competitive parcel delivery sector, perhaps including a few major acquisitions and closures and a long-awaited domestic IPO for China Postal Express, the parcel delivery unit of China’s Post Office. (previous post) Read Full Post…
