Bottom line: Alibaba’s interest in Metro’s China operations is part of its new retail strategy, while the purchase of a British payments company by its Ant Financial unit could give it a strong toehold in the European payments market.
Alibaba in new shopping spree
After a period of relative quiet, e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is suddenly springing into three relatively major headlines simultaneously on the investment front. Two have a European angle, one involving a major potential investment in German retailer Metro and the other in a British financial services provider by its Ant Financial affiliate. The other is a trans-Pacific deal of sorts, and has the company investing in Bilibili (Nasdaq: BILI), a leading U.S.-listed Chinese video streamer.
In all honesty, this particular flurry of deals seems a bit random and it’s almost certainly coincidence that all are in the headlines at the same time. But that said, each does reflect one or more tendencies by this hyperactive company, which I’ve previously said has far more cash than it knows what to do with. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba’s purchase of 33 percent of Ant Financial looks like a shrewd move for both firms, making Ant more attractive in the run-up to an IPO likely to be one of the world’s biggest this year.
Alibaba and Ant back together
In what looks like a homecoming of sorts, e-commerce giant Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) has just announced it is taking back a major stake in its Ant Financial affiliate. Followers of this pair will know they have quite a long and complex relationship, and were actually once part of the same company. But they were split apart around a decade ago for political reasons, which apparently aren’t an issue anymore.
The other major plank to this story is Ant’s own story, including the unusual way in which this deal was structured. The company, whose core asset is the popular Alipay electronic payments service, is gearing up for what could be one of the biggest fintech IPOs of this year, likely to raise several billion dollars in Hong Kong. Thus this particular move could be designed to draw more attention to this lesser-known Alibaba offspring, and also to relieve it of some of its financial burden in the run-up to that offering. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Ant Financial’s purchase of 20 percent of Hong Kong restaurant ratings site OpenRice looks like a smart, incremental move to boost its presence in its first major foray to build a local customer base outside China.
Ant Financial buys into HK’s OpenRice
We’ll close out the week with a lighter story, with word that Alibaba’s(NYSE: BABA) Ant Financial affiliate has taken a nibble at Hong Kong with an investment in the territory’s most popular restaurant ratings site. On a more serious note, we should point out that this particular acquisition comes after the much higher-profile failure of Ant’s bid to buy US money-transfer giant MoneyGram (NYSE: MGI), which was vetoed by Washington on national security ground.
This latest particular purchase is somewhat interesting, as Hong Kong is quickly evolving into an important test case for whether Ant can successfully export its popular Alipay electronic payments service to other markets. Alipay is already widely available throughout the world, but only as a vehicle for Chinese to make payments when traveling overseas. Thus Ant really hasn’t tried to target local consumers in any market in meaningful ways outside China. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The inclusion of Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace on the latest edition of a US blacklist for piracy signals US is taking a tougher line on trade issues.
Alibaba calls itself ‘scapegoat’ after landing on US blacklist
What a difference a year makes. It was just about this time a year ago that Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma scored a major coup by becoming the first major Chinese business leader to score a visit with incoming US President Donald Trump. (previous post) The pair were all smiles back then, with Ma trumpeting a plan to create 1 million American jobs by helping US businesses selling their products into China over Alibaba’s popular e-commerce platforms.
Fast forward to the present, where Ma isn’t smiling anymore, and Alibaba has even taken the unusual step of accusing Trump of making the company into a scapegoat in a growing tide of US protectionism. The abrupt turnabout hinges on two major developments, the most recent being the placement of Alibaba’s consumer-to-consumer (C2C) Taobao website on Washington’s annual “notorious” list of marketplaces with rampant trafficking in pirated goods. That follows another setback for Ma earlier this month when a plan by his Ant Financial saw its plan for a major US acquisition crushed by the Trump administration. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The collapse of Ant Financial’s purchase of MoneyGram reflects growing resistance from a Trump administration willing to mix business and politics in its relationship with China.
Ant’s purchase of MoneyGram sinks
In yet the latest sign that the Donald Trump administration intends to take a hard line towards Chinese M&A, Washington has killed a $1.2 billion deal that would have seen Alibaba-affiliated (NYSE: BABA) Ant Financial purchase US money-transfer specialist MoneyGram (Nasdaq: MGI). This particular development isn’t a huge surprise, since the deal was first announced about a year ago and its closure deadline was extended several times while the US hemmed and hawed on its national security review.
The de facto veto is also just the latest move by a Trump administration that has shown it won’t let US companies in the strategic tech and financial industries be acquired by Chinese counterparts. But this particular veto is also noteworthy because it’s one of the largest so far involving a purely private sector Chinese buyer. Up to now, nearly all the deals to be vetoed have come from buyers with strong links to Beijing, either directly or through government-supplied financing. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba’s move into unmanned coffee shops could stand a strong chance of success due to its relative simplicity, while WeChat’s move into Hong Kong convenience stores should also be relatively well received.
Alibaba samples coffee shops
Convenience stores are shaping up as the next battlefield in the wars for supremacy between Internet titans Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700), at least based on the latest headlines. One of those has Alibaba preparing to roll out an unmanned coffee store concept in its hometown of Hangzhou, while the other has Tencent’s WeChat rolling into Hong Kong in a big way in a new tie-up with 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) probably doesn’t need to be too worried just yet about the new threat from Alibaba in coffee shops, though many of the dozens of smaller coffee chains that have set up shop in China these last few years might take note. Likewise, Hong Kong’s incumbent electronic payments service, Octopus, probably doesn’t need to worry just yet either. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Yu’ebao’s further lowering of investment limits shows the Ant Financial-owned fund is growing too unwieldy, and the company would be better advised to diversify its wealth management product portfolio.
Yu’ebao gets too fat on cash
Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) founder Jack Ma is quickly discovering that his super-aggressive promotional ways can sometimes yield too much success. That’s my quick assessment of the bottom line from reports that Yu’ebao, the phenomenally successful fund launched by Alibaba’s former financial unit Ant Financial, is further capping the size of individual investments it will take.
The new cap is being set at a relatively low 100,000 yuan ($15,000), and comes just three months after Ant set an initial upper limit of 250,000 yuan per individual Yu’ebao account. The limits are clearly being put in place to avoid Yu’ebao spiraling out of control, as the fund has already become the world’s largest just four years after its launch. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Yum’s purchase of a high-end take-out delivery service looks smart in targeting a higher margin, niche product in the competitive space, while McDonald’s and Starbuck’s rapid growth in mobile payments reflects rapid growth of the technology.
Yum buys take-out specialist Sherpa’s
Three of the world’s top restaurant chain operators are in the China headlines as we head into summer, in different moves that reflect their attempts to tap into the nation’s growing love affair with high-tech dining. The most interesting of the headlines has Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM), parent of the KFC and Pizza Hut chains, buying up one of China’s oldest take-out delivery services, hinting at a potential big push into the ultra competitive space. The other two headlines have McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) and Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) independently releasing new data that show just how hot electronic payments have become for both companies.
As someone living here in China, I have to admit I have completely embraced the country’s homegrown brand of mobile electronic payments, which has quickly become dominated by Ant Financial’s Alipay and Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat. But at the same time, I’ll also openly admit I’ve eschewed the home delivery services that are also all the rage in China, though the tide seems to be fading as people rediscover the fun of actually going out to eat. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Sesame Credit’s new tie-ups with Unicom and a shared phone company are part of a string of deals to aggressively build up its credit rating business, and could add buzz to Ant Financial’s future IPO.
Sesame Credit in 2 new deals
Lest anyone think Alipay is the only asset in financial services giant Ant Financial’s portfolio, the company’s newer Sesame Credit unit is also hankering for headlines these days, with a couple of new deals for its service. The larger of those will see China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), the nation’s second largest wireless carrier, waive deposit requirements for some of its users with high credit scores, based on Sesame’s system. The other deal looks similar, and will see a shared phone operator also waive deposits for people with similarly high credit.
This kind of aggressive promotion is quite typical of Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and one of the main people calling the shots at both companies. Ma likes to be ahead of the curve, and is quite aggressive about peddling his vision for emerging sectors like credit ratings. That strategy has served him well in e-commerce and electronic payments, where Alibaba now dominates. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Ant Financial’s open letter to MoneyGram could hint at a new raised offer coming soon for the company, though rival suitor Euronet is likely to bid equally aggressively and has a slightly better chance of winning the contest.
Ant makes case to MoneyGram workers, US politicians
Three weeks after being surprised by an unsolicited counterbid for US money transferring specialist MoneyGram, China’s Ant Financial is finally speaking out on the matter beyond its initial reaction to the rival bid. The former financial unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) frankly isn’t saying much about future plans in its open letter to the MoneyGram community, and there’s no hint on whether it will raise its offer for the US company.
Instead, the letter seems aimed at reassuring MoneyGram employees that their jobs will be safe, and on reassuring wary government officials that information on MoneyGram users won’t be recklessly used. Those messages look squarely aimed at quelling the very real possibility that such a deal could get vetoed by Washington on national security grounds, even though the jobs issue doesn’t really fall into that category. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Qudian’s IPO will get a moderately warm reception in New York, drawing interest due to its status as a major private fintech firm but also wariness owing to many uncertainties in the young sector.
Qudian moves closer to IPO
Anything involving movement of money has always been slightly problematic in China. Be it paying for things online, paying to play computer games, or even borrowing small sums to buy something like a smartphone, nothing has ever been easy for Chinese consumers. That’s mostly due to the creaky financial system they inherited when the country began its march into the modern era starting in the 1980s and ’90s.
That lack of services has been a godsend for a new generation of companies that are now making their way to market by supplying some of the many basic financial services that consumers crave. An IPO by one of the largest of those looks set to happen in the next 3 months, with word that microlender Qudian has made its first private filings for a New York listing to raise up to $1 billion. Read Full Post…
