Tag Archives: Blackstone

TRAVEL: Anbang Chases US Hotels, China Lodging Profits on Services

Bottom line: Anbang Insurance is paying a big premium for US luxury hotels and may have to sell them for losses when China’s property market corrects, while China Lodging looks like a good bet due to growing profits from its focus on hotel franchising and management.

China Lodging posts big profit growth

A couple of hotel stories are in the headlines as we head into the new week, led by a surprise blockbuster deal that will see Chinese insurer Anbang buy US-based Strategic Hotels & Resorts for $6.5 billion. Meantime, one of China’s largest private hotel operators, China Lodging (Nasdaq: HTHT), has just reported its latest quarterly results that showed a big jump in profitability, as it mimics western peers by focusing on franchising and management services rather than self-developing properties.

These 2 stories both involve hotels but are also quite different, since Anbang’s move is squarely focused on overseas markets and its purchase represents an investment in property ownership. By comparison, China Lodging, owner of the budget Hanting hotel chain, is a domestic story of a company trying to move away from property ownership and into the higher end businesses of hotel management and franchising services. Read Full Post…

STOCKS: Attractive But Hobbled, Fosun Launches Buy-Back

Bottom line: Fosun International looks like a good stock pick for the next year due to strong profit growth, as long as founder Guo Guangchang can steer clear of China’s 2-year-old anti-corruption campaign.

Fosun’s Guo is company’s biggest asset, risk

Today marks the launch of a new series on some of my favorite Chinese companies, as I aim to spotlight a group of US, Hong Kong and China-listed names that look set for the best growth over the next 5 years. I’m kicking off the series with fast-rising private equity giant Fosun International (HKEx: 656) because it happens to be in the news, with word the company has launched a fledgling share buyback to support its struggling stock.

In many ways, Fosun encapsulates both the big potential benefits and also the major risks facing many private Chinese companies as they seek to become big players both at home and abroad. Fosun is actually part of a much larger group based in China’s commercial capital of Shanghai, and its private equity arm has been one of the most successful ventures of its savvy founder Guo Guangchang. Read Full Post…

IPOs: Pactera, New Oriental Online Unit Eye China IPOs

Bottom line: Pactera is likely to get sold and re-listed in China later this year, while New Oriental is likely to make a domestic listing worth up to $100 million for its Xun Cheng online education in a similar time frame.

Blackstone shops around Pactera

The homeward migration of overseas-listed Chinese firms is moving ahead, with word that privatized IT outsourcing firm Pactera and the online unit of education giant New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) are both potentially eyeing domestic IPOs in the upcoming Year of the Monkey. These stories represent 2 different threads from the larger story of overseas-listed Chinese companies returning home to make new IPOs.

The thread represented by Pactera has seen around 40 US-listed Chinese companies receive privatization offers over the last year from buyout groups hoping to re-list the firms in China at higher valuations. The New Oriental bid represents a second, more recent trend that has seen US-listed category leaders indicate they will keep their primary listings in New York, but then spin off some of their smaller units for separate domestic listings in China. Read Full Post…

News Digest: February 2, 2016

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 2. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════

  • Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) VP Questioned by Police for Illegal Activity (Chinese article)
  • New Oriental Proposes China IPO for Xun Cheng, After Tencent Investment (PRNewswire)
  • Blackstone Shops China Software Firm Pactera to Potential Buyers (English article)
  • Sinovac (Nasdaq: SVA) Announces Receipt of Proposal to Buy the Company (PRNewswire)
  • OPPO, Vivo Snap at Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) Heels in China Mobile Market (English article)

News Digest: July 12-14

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 12-14. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  • Alibaba Estimates Own Market Value At $130 Bln (Chinese article)
  • China’s Hony Capital Snaps Up Pizza Express For $1.6 Bln (English article)
  • China’s 3 State-Owned Carriers Form Telecoms Tower Firm (English article)
  • China State TV Says Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone Creates Security Concern (English article)
  • Headphone Maker Beats Sues Chinese Counterfeiters For $135 Bln (English article)

Pactera Bows From NY, Dianping Waits

Pactera signs privatization deal

I’m always looking for signs that the overseas IPO market for Chinese tech firms may finally be warming after a long winter now in its third year, but the latest signs from privatizing IT outsourcing firm Pactera (Nasdaq: PACT) and restaurant ratings site Dianping are hardly encouraging. Pactera has just announced it has formally signed a buyout offer that will take the company private, making it the latest in a long string of Chinese companies to de-list from New York. Meantime, media are reporting that Dianping, a dynamic site often likened to US site Yelp (NYSE: YELP), doesn’t plan to list for the next 5 years. Read Full Post…

Big Investors Lose Taste For Pactera, Youku

Blackstone, Temasek give thumbs down to Pactera, Youku

Two Chinese tech leaders are feeling the effects of fickle western institutional investors, with word that one big name has lowered its buyout offer for IT outsourcing firm Pactera (Nasdaq: PACT) , while another has dumped its sizable stake in video sharing site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU). In the former case, it’s private equity giant Blackstone that’s lowered its offer for Pactera, while in the latter its Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek  dumping its Youku Tudou stake. Both cases are due to company specific factors; but they also show that big-name investors may carry a certain level of prestige for companies that attract them, but they also bring a certain level of risk. Read Full Post…

News Digest: September 14-16, 2013

The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on September 14-16. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  • Blackstone-Led Buyout Group Lowers Bid For Pactera (Nasdaq: PACT) (English article)
  • Suntech (NYSE: STP) Announces Management Change, Appoints New CEO (PRNewswire)
  • Tencent (HKEx: 700) Tenpay To Introduce Account Balance Services – Source (English article)
  • LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) Engages Financial Advisor for Offshore Debt Obligations (PRNewswire)
  • Temasek To Sell 7.7 Mln Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) Shares For Up To $185 Mln (English article)

Pactera Joins Privatization Queue

Pactera gets privatization offer

Anyone looking to invest in the China IT outsourcing story will be disappointed to learn that Pactera (Nasdaq: PACT), the sector’s biggest publicly listed player, has just announced a plan to privatize at a nice premium to its last share price. If the privatization succeeds, Pactera would join rival Camelot Information Systems (NYSE: CIS), which is engaged in a similar de-listing, removing what were once 2 of China’s most exciting tech companies from the publicly listed realm for international investors. While the Pactera move reflects a broader privatization trend among US-listed Chinese companies, it also reflects the failure of Chinese IT outsourcing firms to realize the big hopes that many once held for them. Read Full Post…

E-House, Blackstone Moves Auger Real Estate Rebound 中国房地产市场可能接近底部

There’s a couple of interesting news bits coming from the struggling real estate sector, which indicate its current downturn could be nearing a bottom and that better days may be on the horizon in the next year or two. One of those bits is seeing E-House (NYSE: EJ), one of China’s top real estate services providers, taking control of the China franchise of major US home seller Century 21 (NYSE: CTC); while the other is seeing several major players, including Blackstone (NYSE: BX) and China’s sovereign wealth fund, setting up a real estate financing joint venture. Let’s start with the E-House deal, which is seeing the Chinese firm take a 58 percent stake in Century 21 China for a relatively modest $25 million. This deal is clearly being driven by a weak real estate market that has seen transaction volumes plummet as China takes steps to cool the market, driving E-House into the red in its latest quarter (company announcement) and leaving transaction-driven brokerages like Century 21 also struggling. This deal comes as E-House attempts to buy out China Real Estate Investment Corp (Nasdaq: CRIC), its joint venture with Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) (company announcement), and is the latest sign of consolidation as the real estate services industry struggles for survival. The moves look like good ones for E-House, and should leave it well positioned to be a true industry leader when the current downturn ends. The second news bit is seeing Blackstone, China Investment Corp (CIC) and domestic real estate developer Greentown (HKEx: 3900) in talks to set up a real estate finance joint venture with 2 billion yuan, or about $300 million, in registered capital, with CIC holding 60 percent. (English article) Establishment of this venture is yet another sign that the big players like CIC and Blackstone see the current downturn ending in the next 1-2 years, as that’s the earliest we might see any of their new projects come to market. With many of the country’s real estate developers now facing a cash crunch in the current downturn, demand should be strong for this kind of financing in the next 1-2 years, boding well for the venture.

Bottom line: A big acquisition by E-House and a major new real estate financing joint venture are signs that China’s real estate downturn is near bottom.

Related postings 相关文章:

Soufun Shores Up Foundation With Strong Results, Outlook 搜房网靓丽财报和前景或预示房产业向好

Real Estate Relief Coming With Foshan Reversal 佛山放宽限购政策的启示

Sina Results: Not So Diversified After All 新浪仍依赖广告,突围遇阻