Bottom line: Alibaba’s new Disney tie-up is unlikely to gain much traction due to overcrowding in China’s Internet video market, while its tie-up to sell $8 billion worth of bad debt from asset manager Huarong looks mildly positive.
Alibaba in streaming tie-up with Disney
E-commerce giant Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) is in a trio of headlines as we head into the year-end holidays, led by a new tie-up with Disney (NYSE: DIS) as it looks to leverage its growing stable of media assets. But in a sign of how much attention the company now attracts, the other 2 stories in the headlines aren’t really ones that Alibaba would care to trumpet too much.
The larger of those is mildly positive, with media reporting that Alibaba’s Taobao C2C marketplace is teaming up with one of China’s leading bad asset sellers to auction off $8 billion in soured loans. The other headline is one that’s becoming a small headache for Jack Ma, and involves Evergrande Taobao the soccer team that he co-owns. That story has one of Japanese car maker Nissan’s (Tokyo: 7201) China joint ventures suing the club for breach of contract related to a high-profile sponsorship dispute. Read Full Post…
Domestic and overseas investors have been feasting on a flood of sour loans being churned out by China’s economic slowdown, mostly by buying shares in big state-run firms that try to recover money from those bad assets. In the latest wrinkle of that story, 8 major institutional buyers have spent a hefty $2.4 billion to purchase 21 percent of China Huarong Asset Management, one of the leading bad asset managers.
But bad asset management isn’t always such an easy game to play, as another group of China-backed investors is learning after their ill-advised purchase 2 years ago of insolvent Swedish car maker Saab. That group, called National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEV) has declared bankruptcy, signaling an end may finally be near for the Swedish car maker that probably should have died several years ago. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 29. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) CEO Nadella To Visit China Amid Antitrust Probe – Source (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on April 10. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Goldman (NYSE: GS), Warburg Advance In China Huarong Sale: Sources (English article)
MIIT To Begin Private Sector Broadband Network Trials in H2 (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 17-19. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Goldman, Morgan Stanley In Talks To Buy Stake In China’s Huarong: FT (English article)
China Seen Probing IBM, Oracle, EMC After Snowden Leaks (English article)
