Bottom line: Shares of E-House and Leju are likely to trade flat to downward over the next year due to continuing pressure on China’s real estate market, while Renren is likely to get bought out over that period.
Property downturn puts pressure on Leju, E-House
The latest earnings from 2 of China’s 3 top listed online real estate firms reflect the challenges facing the sector, with soaring costs undermining profits at both E-House (NYSE: EJ) and its affiliated Leju (Nasdaq: LEJU). Meantime, a separate earnings report from fast-fading social networking site Renren (NYSE: RENN) shows the former Internet superstar is fast becoming worthless as it sells off assets and its core SNS business shrinks. I expect the end will come soon for Renren, probably in the next 12 months, since the company’s largest asset now is its big cash pot that could attract a buyer who simply wants the money. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: 58.com’s purchase of a secondary real estate trading site at a big discount looks like a shrewd move for the longer term, but could cause a short-term drag on profits due to weakness in China’s property market.
58.com buys Anjuke for bargain price
Local media are buzzing about a relatively large Internet deal that will see leading online classified advertising site 58.com (NYSE: WUBA) buy Anjuke, one of China’s largest online platforms for services involving secondary real estate. But the source of the buzz isn’t the deal itself, but rather the huge bargain that 58.com is getting compared to what Anjuke said it was worth just a year ago. That massive discount reflects the broader gloom surrounding China’s real estate market as it teeters on the edge of a major correction, and certainly doesn’t bode well for listed peers like E-House (NYSE: EJ) and SouFun (Nasdaq: SFUN). Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on December 5. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) To Sell Its Five Star Business In China (Businesswire)
Haitong Securities (Shanghai: 600837) In Talks For Portuguese Investment Bank (English article)
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) To Invest $1.6 Bln In China Factory (English article)
E-House (NYSE: EJ) Gives Details of Partial Spin-off Of Leju (NYSE LEJU) Shares (PRNewswire)
P&G (NYSE: PG) Sells China’s Biggest Battery Maker To CDH For $600 Mln (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) To Launch Its App Store In China – Report (English article)
Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Said To Prepare Inaugural Bond Issue For Today (English article)
Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) Sees Progress In Talks In China On Licensing Fees (English article)
Following last week’s flood of quarterly earnings announcements by many of China’s top tech names, this week many second-tier players are reporting results that are decidedly mixed. Real estate looked surprisingly strong in the earnings reports of E-House (NYSE: EJ) and its newly listed Leju (NYSE: LEJU) unit, while e-commerce and online video looked weaker in the results of LightInTheBox (NYSE: LITB) and newly listed Xunlei (Nasdaq: XNET). Whereas shares of the Internet giants showed little reaction to their results last week, most of these second-tier names showed much bigger movement this week, probably reflecting thinner trading of their stocks by more short-term buyers. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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12 Auto Parts Makers Fined 1.235 Bln Yuan After Anti-Trust Probe (Chinese article)
Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Opens In Shanghai Trade Zone To Sell Imported Products (Chinese article)
Online real estate services empires that took years to build are suddenly coming unglued, with word that Shanghai property firms are joining a list of clients who have stopped giving their business to sector leader SouFun (NYSE: SFUN). I’ll be quite blunt and say that anyone who didn’t see this coming must be living in a cave, even though I was somewhat surprised that the stocks of SouFun and its peers quickly recovered from a sell-off after similar reports emerged last month and in June. We’ll have to wait and see if the stocks rebound again this time, though perhaps this latest news will finally make investors realize that SouFun and its peers could be looking at a prolonged downturn as China’s real estate market finally goes through a much needed correction. Read Full Post…
Investors in China real estate service stocks have a short memory these days, reflecting the broader uncertainty in the country’s real estate market that could be on the edge of a major downturn. After a sharp sell-off earlier this week on concerns about a property bubble, shares of SouFun (NYSE: SFUN) have come bouncing back on news about equity tie-ups with 2 leading home agency companies. Shares of its 2 major listed peers, E-House (NYSE: EJ) and Leju (NYSE: LEJU), have also quickly bounced back from the brief sell-off as investors decided it might be premature to worry about a downturn. Read Full Post…
Shares of US-listed Chinese real estate websites have been on a roller coaster ride these last few days, raising the question of what the next few years may hold for industry stalwarts SouFun (NYSE: SFUN) and E-House (NYSE: EJ), and newly listed Leju (Nasdaq: LEJU). For anyone who doesn’t live in China and is reading this, the issue that’s weighing on investors’ minds is the fate of a Chinese real estate market that’s showing early signs of a needed correction after years of hyper growth. Such a correction would undoubtedly put a chill on transaction volumes and other service-related activities, which form the mainstay of these New York-listed firms. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Bans Use Of Microsoft’s (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows 8 On Govt Computers (English article)
Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital Invests in Quanfeng Express – Sources (English article)
The tide of Chinese firms rushing to list in the US continues, with big new moves coming from security software specialist Cheetah Mobile and Leju, a unit of online real estate agent E-House (NYSE: EJ). Cheetah has filed for a New York listing to raise a hefty $300 million, in what would have been considered a major deal just a half year ago but now looks rather routine in the current wave of new offers by Chinese tech firms. Meantime, E-House is continuing its own IPO drive for Leju, which has just announced a new tie-up that will allow its users to invest in US real estate. Read Full Post…
