The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on July 9. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Ping An (HKEx: 2318) Of China Said To Buy Lloyd’s Of London Building (English article)
BMW (Frankfurt: BMWG) Extends Sales Lead Over German Rivals in June (English article)
ICBC (HKEx: 1398) Beats Bank of America on List Of 1,000 Top Global Banks (Chinese article)
China’s top bank got a boost from its second biggest shareholder last week when Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek boosted its stake in ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398), helping to support the lender’s share price as Chinese banks faced an unprecedented liquidity crisis. This kind of buying is exactly the kind of market-oriented support that China’s banks should be getting during this ongoing crisis, as the government tries to wean them from the free handouts they traditionally depended on during the socialist era. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on June 27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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ZTE (HKEx: 763) Sees Return To Profits Amid 4G Build-Out – Official (Chinese article)
The ongoing cash crunch at Chinese banks may be partly behind reports that a trio of regional banks are aiming to make IPOs in Hong Kong, with Bank of Shanghai, Huishang Bank and CGB all aiming to list in the second half of the year. These regional lenders may also be losing patience while waiting for China to lift a freeze on new IPOs that dates back to last year, which has led to a backlog of dozens of companies that want to make offerings. The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) had been giving signals that it could soon lift the freeze, though it may change its mind if the current sell-off on Chinese stock markets continues. Read Full Post…
A liquidity crunch rocking China’s banks has also wreaked havoc on their stocks, prompting their biggest shareholder Central Huijin to step in to try and ease the share sell-off. Huijin so far has limited its buying activity to the Shanghai stock exchange, in what looks like a modestly successful campaign to support shares of big name banks like ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398), China Construction Bank (HKEx: 939; Shanghai: 601939) and Bank of China (HKEx: 3988; Shanghai: 601988). Given the success of this modest program, there’s the interesting possibility that Huijin could expand the program to Hong Kong, where H-shares of the same banks have fallen much more steeply. Read Full Post…
Investors are still pondering Goldman Sachs’ (NYSE: GS) sale this week of its remaining stake in Chinese banking giant ICBC (HKEx: 1398; NYSE: 601398), trying to figure out if the move is a positive or negative for China’s wobbly banking sector. My view is that the move is indeed positive, which is being supported by the latest word that a big portion of Goldman’s stake was purchased by Temasek, the massive Singaporean sovereign wealth fund. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 22. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China’s MIIT to Issue TD-LTE Licenses to All 3 Telcos – Source (English article)
Temasek Buys 280 Mln ICBC (HKEx: 939) Shares, Owns 7.04 Pct of Bank (Chinese article)
No ‘Active’ US-EU-China Solar Talks Under Way: USTR (English article)
Bob Lutz, Chinese In Bid To Buy Fisker Automotive – Sources(English article)
Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) Announces Preliminary Q1 Results (PRNewswire)
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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Goldman Exits China’s ICBC (HKEx: 939), 7 Years And Billions Later (English article)
My first reaction to reading the news that mobile carrier China Mobile (HKEx: 941) had formally scrapped a 4-year-old plan to buy a stake in Taiwanese peer Far EasTone (Taipei: 4904) was: What took them so long? In fact, I wasn’t even aware that China Mobile still even considered this tie-up alive, as the deal attracted controversy from the moment the 2 sides announced it in 2009. This formal scrapping of the deal does seem to represent a milestone of sorts, as it shows that we won’t see any M&A in the sensitive telecoms sectors across the Taiwan Strait anytime soon despite ever warming ties between China and Taiwan. Read Full Post…
A new media report says global banking giant HSBC (HKEx: 5; London: HSBA) is likely to sell-off more of its Chinese assets, continuing an ongoing divorce by top global lenders tired of slow progress in the complex China market. This latest report doesn’t have any specific insider knowledge of a looming sale, but rather quotes analysts saying such a move is likely. (English article) Still, such disposals seem both likely and logical, following HSBC’s sale last year of its 15.6 percent holdings in Ping An Insurance (HKEx: 2318; Shanghai: 601318) after years of inability to get any strategic returns out of the tie-up. Read Full Post…
New statements from 2 of China’s top 4 banks indicate a recent share buyback by their state-owned controlling stakeholder is done, raising the question of just how effective the program was and whether we might see more similar buybacks soon. Based on my own quick analysis, the program does seem have had some limited positive effect, with Shanghai-listed shares of both ICBC (HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398) and Agricultural Bank of China (HKEx: 1288; Shanghai: 601288) outperforming the market over the last 6 months during the program period. Read Full Post…
