Bottom line: Baidu and Tencent’s new co-investment in Bitauto’s Yixin could be followed by other similar tie-ups between the pair for assets in their non-core areas if they work well together.
Tencent, Baidu co-invest in Bitauto’s Yixin
The past week has been a turbulent time for China’s “Big 3” Internet companies, which have been thrown into uneasy partnership with the surprise mega merger between hired car services leaders Didi Chuxing and Uber’s China operations. Now a new wrinkle has emerged in an unusual story that made headlines in June, when 2 of the Big 3, Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Tencent (HKEx: 700), jointly invested in Bitauto (NYSE: BITA), a provider of car-related online services. The latest development is seeing Baidu and Tencent co-invest again in a car financing venture backed by Bitauto. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on August 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Massive Funding, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Backing Helped Didi Outrun Uber in China (English article)
China Starts to Lose Its Taste for McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) and KFC (NYSE: YUM) (English article)
Tablet PC Sales Fall in Q2, But Lenovo (HKEx: 992), Huawei Post Gains (Chinese article)
Bitauto (NYSE: BITA) Consortium Invests $550 Mln in Yixin Capital (PRNewswire)
Online Children’s English Learning Platform Vipkid Wins $100 Mln Series C Funding (English article)
Bottom line: A new $300 million investment by Tencent, Baidu, JD.com and a private equity firm in Bituato is aimed at providing major strategic partners to ensure its continued profitability as an independent car trading platform.
Baidu, Tencent, JD invest in Bitauto
China’s non-stop chain of Internet M&A has created some strange bedfellows, including a new investment that will make partners out of search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) and social networking giant Tencent (HKEx: 700). The pair, 2 of China’s top 3 Internet companies, are coming together with e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) and another private equity firm to invest a fresh $300 million in online car listing services firm Bitauto (NYSE: BITA). The investment by each company is relatively small, and has slightly different significance for all 4 parties involved. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on June 7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bitauto (NYSE: BITA) Announces $300 Mln Investment from Tencent, Baidu, JD.com (PRNewswire)
Suning (Shenzhen: 002024) Pays 270 Mln Euros for 70 Pct of Soccer Club Inter Milan (Chinese article)
TCL (Shenzhen: 000100) to Take Handset Maker TCL Communication (HKEx: 2618) Private (English article)
Yingli (NYSE: YGE) Announces Preliminary Financial Results for Q1 (PRNewswire)
Bottom line: Both Autohome and especially BitAuto look like strong candidates for buyout bids, following rapid declines in both companies’ stocks due to a rapid slowdown in China’s car market.
Internet auto stocks run out of steam
We’ll begin the new week with a look at 2 of China’s leading online auto specialists, BitAuto (NYSE: BITA) and Autohome (NYSE: ATHM), whose shares have both tanked over the last 3 months in tandem with a rapid cooling of China’s car market. The trend is similar to what’s happened at online real estate service providers, whose shares have slumped for the last year due to a prolonged and much-needed correction in China’s overheated property market.
China stock watchers will know that E-House (NYSE: EJ), one of the two major US-listed real estate services firms, launched a privatization bid in June, part of a broader wave that has seen dozens of Chinese firms leave New York this year due to low valuations. (previous post) That leads to my next prediction, namely that BitAuto, Autohome or potentially both could soon become the latest companies to join the privatization queue. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The sale of a major stake in Bitauto reflects a growing alliance between buyers Tencent and JD.com, and could be followed by a similar sale of a stake in Bitauto rival Autohome.
JD, Tencent buy into Bitauto
A newly announced deal that will see Internet giants Tencent (HKEx: 700) and JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) buy nearly a third of online auto specialist Bitauto (NYSE: BITA) is filled with intriguing implications for China’s consolidating online sector. The deal further cements a growing alliance between Tencent, China’s largest social networking (SNS) operator, and JD, the second largest e-commerce firm. At the same time, the tie-up with Bitauto has fueled speculation that the country’s other major listed online car specialist, Autohome (NYSE: ATHM), could become an acquisition target by one of China’s other leading Internet firms. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 10-12. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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A couple of interesting news bits are coming from the auto space, where a top foreign website operator is buying into the China car story, and where 2 major domestic manufacturers are set to announce a new tie-up. The former news is seeing US-based AutoTrader purchase a stake in Chinese peer BitAuto (Nasdaq: BITA), reflecting the arrival of a new generation of auto-related foreign firms to the fast-growing Chinese auto market; meantime, the second news is seeing a new R&D tie-up between Chery Automobile and GuangzhouAuto (HKEx: 2238), reflecting the industry’s overheated state and perhaps signaling the resumption of a stalled but much-needed consolidation.
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 3-5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline. ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════
A couple of interesting news bits are coming from the auto space, where a top foreign website operator is buying into the China car story, and where 2 major domestic manufacturers are set to announce a new tie-up. The former news is seeing US-based AutoTrader purchase a stake in Chinese peer BitAuto (Nasdaq: BITA), reflecting the arrival of a new generation of auto-related foreign firms to the fast-growing Chinese auto market; meantime, the second news is seeing a new R&D tie-up between Chery Automobile and Guangzhou Auto (HKEx: 2238), reflecting the industry’s overheated state and perhaps signaling the resumption of a stalled but much-needed consolidation.
