The IPO story of the year has finally begun, with word that leading Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba has finally made its first public filing for a listing in New York. But anyone hoping for a blockbuster deal that would have been the biggest tech IPO since Facebook’s (Nasdaq: FB) 2012 offering will be disappointed to learn that Alibaba is seeking to raise a relatively modest $1 billion in the deal. Alibaba made the filing as a separate media report said the company’s high-flying Yu’ebao, its financial product that competes with traditional bank savings accounts, is about to have its wings clipped with new reserve requirement regulations from the central bank. Read Full Post…
I’ve been writing for much of the last 3 weeks about the rapidly fading appetite for Chinese IPOs among western investors, and the latest reports that pork producer WH Group has scrapped its plans for a Hong Kong listing certainly seem to add to the gloom. But I should add that this particular case is slightly different from the many weak performances we’ve seen these last 2 weeks, as it comes in the food space and mostly involves the re-listing of a recently aquired US asset that was already performing poorly. Read Full Post…
A flurry of IPO news is in the headlines as we start this new week, including more troublesome signs from New York for an upcoming tech IPO, and a potentially exciting new offering in Shanghai from China’s leading budget airline. Meantime, another quirky piece of IPO news is making headlines with word that a Sichuan-based soccer club is aiming for an eventual listing in London. The 3 companies involved in these news bits, respectively, are security software maker Cheetah Mobile, budget carrier Spring Airlines and the Sichuan Leaders soccer club. Read Full Post…
Two weeks after this year’s first Chinese IPO in New York, there’s still a bit of life left in the market despite recent signs of slowing momentum. That’s my quick assessment after looking at the performance of the 4 companies to list so far this year, starting with education services firm Tarena (Nasdaq: TEDU), followed by clinic operator iKang (Nasdaq: KANG) and finally online real estate services firm Leju (NYSE: LEJU) and microblogging giant Weibo (Nasdaq: WB). Meantime, media are reporting that this year’s most highly anticipated IPO from Alibaba is getting delayed, after reports emerged last week that the e-commerce giant could make its first regulatory filing for a New York offering this week. Read Full Post…
Mobile game operator Chukong is back in the headlines with its latest filing for a New York IPO, while recently listed 58.com (NYSE: WUBA) is also making news with word that it’s eying strategic acquisitions to complement its popular online classified advertising site. Chukong’s newly released financials reveal that it’s growing at lighting speed in the attractive mobile games space, even as its losses also mount. Meantime, 58.com’s M&A plan looks quite attractive to me, as it attempts to build a diversified classified advertising site that we haven’t seen emerge in China so far. Read Full Post…
Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s worries about the rapid rise of mobile instant messaging service WeChat appear to be well founded, with word that Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) wildly popular platform will create an exclusive shopping channel for Alibaba’s chief rival JD.com. This kind of deal must certainly be Ma’s biggest nightmare, as it will instantly link JD, China’s second largest e-commerce company, with the hundreds of millions of young Chinese who regularly use WeChat to communicate. What’s more, WeChat has shown itself quite capable of converting its users into shoppers who could easily become JD customers. Read Full Post…
Everyone’s buzzing today about the trading debut of Weibo (Nasdaq: WB), following a performance by the Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) microblogging unit that was filled with mixed signals. Potential investors in the company will inevitably have many questions about Weibo’s future, as it seeks to carve out a secure and profitable place for itself in China’s competitive social networking (SNS) space. But from the bigger perspective, this mixed performance is the latest sign that the window of positive sentiment towards Chinese Internet IPOs is closing fast in New York, though it could remain open for perhaps another few weeks.
Signs of weakening sentiment haven’t stopped the flood of Chinese tech firms lining up for new listings in New York, and now we can add mobile game maker Chukong Technologies to the list of new IPO candidates. If anything, recent signs of weakening sentiment may make companies that have already done much of the preparatory work for IPOs accelerate their plans, meaning we could see quite a few new listing applications in May. That’s what Chukong is planning, according to media reports saying the firm has made its first non-public filing for an IPO with the US securities regulator. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…
New developments from leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) and listing candidate Jumei are providing the latest signals that the heady market for Chinese IPOs in New is rapidly losing steam, potentially derailing many upcoming new offerings. Sina has just announced a massive share buyback to support its crumbling stock, just days before a rapidly weakening IPO for its Weibo microblogging unit that could come as soon as this week. Meantime, online cosmetics seller Jumei has sharply scaled back the size of its original IPO plan, again hinting at rapidly weakening demand for shares of Chinese Internet companies. Read Full Post…
An interesting report has just emerged on the nature of traffic on Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibomicroblogging service, casting a spotlight on how people use the platform just a week before it gets set to make a major New York IPO. The timing of this latest report looks a bit suspicious, aimed perhaps at further cooling sentiment towards an IPO that was already losing momentum. But from my perspective, this latest finding that a very small number of Weibo users are responsible for most of the site’s original postings isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To the contrary, this kind of revelation could even help Weibo by differentiating it from rival service WeChat, which is growing much faster. Read Full Post…
Just days after worrisome signs emerged that the frothy market for Chinese IPOs in New York was losing steam, clinic operator iKang Healthcare (Nasdaq: KANG) has become the latest newly listed company to send out a mixed signal about the recent bull market for Chinese shares. iKang has just made its trading debut on the Nasdaq, posting a performance that was quite respectable though far from the big fireworks we were seeing late last year from most newly listed Chinese firms.
The showing marks the latest hint that the wave of bullish sentiment towards Chinese IPOs has crested, though anyone who can manage to list in the next 30 days could still do do respectably. Prospects for new listings after mid-May could be a bit more problematic, meaning we could see some companies accelerate their plans to get to market before then. Most notably, I do expect we’ll see upcoming mega-listings for Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo microblogging site and e-commerce giant JD.com make their debuts within the next 2 weeks. Read Full Post…
