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The booming market for Chinese IPOs in New York got some worrisome signals last week after investors shunned 2 new listing candidates, raising the very real possibility that the current wave of enthusiasm is quickly ebbing. That could mean a new period of stagnation or even a downturn is looming for the sector, which suffered for 2 years before rebounding sharply in the second half of 2013. Read Full Post…
Educational services provider Tarena (Nasdaq: TEDU) has become the first Chinese company to list in New York this year, posting a disappointing debut hinting that US investor enthusiasm towards China stocks may be starting to cool. But truth be told, Tarena hardly looks like the vast majority of Chinese companies rushing to list in New York, most of which are in the Internet space. By comparison, Tarena is a relatively niche provider of education services for software engineers that is growing quickly enough but is still quite small. Read Full Post…
I wasn’t historically a big fan of JD.com, China’s second largest e-commerce firm, largely because it often seemed more interested in hype than actually doing good business. But the company’s recent tie-up with Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700), and now the latest word of a new partnership with more than 10,000 convenience stores, have me thinking that perhaps JD has finally matured a bit in the run-up to a planned New York IPO to raise up to $1.5 billion. This latest convenience store tie-up looks quite shrewd for a number of reasons, most notably because it takes aim at one of the biggest weaknesses of its chief rival, leading e-commerce firm Alibaba. Read Full Post…
Word that Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) CEO Dick Costolo is making a trip to China just 4 months after his company’s IPO will almost certainly set to world tweeting about whether the social networking giant could be considering a play for the world’s largest Internet market. Such a move seems just a tad unlikely in the very near future, since Costolo has previously said that China isn’t a place where Twitter can operate due to the country’s tough self-censorship laws. But much has happened in the last 4 months that could be causing him to re-think his position, including the recent entry to China by corporate networking giant LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) and the upcoming $500 million New York IPO for Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo, often called the Twitter of China. Read Full Post…
I wanted to take this opportunity to commend Internet companies YY (Nasdaq: YY) and Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS) for taking the risky move of launching New York IPOs at the heart of a deep freeze in investor sentiment towards Chinese companies in 2012. The pair, which have both just announced their latest stellar results, were 2 of the only major offerings by Chinese firms in New York that year. Shares for both received an initial tepid reception due to the chilly investment climate at the time. But all of that has changed more recently with a sudden surge in investor interest, and anyone who was brave enough to buy the companies’ shares shortly after their IPOs has been handsomely rewarded. Read Full Post…
The recent window of positive sentiment towards Chinese tech firms continues to fuel a wave of offshore IPO plans, with video sharing site Xunlei and Lenovo (HKEx: 992) parent Legend Holdings the latest subjects of new listing rumors. All these reports come as a top New York Stock Exchange executive predicts 15-20 Chinese firms will list in New York this year. (English article) That forecast by David Ethridge, a senior vice president at NYSE Euronext, certainly looks quite bullish, especially compared with only 6 companies that listed in New York last year and just 2 in 2012. But it’s also worth noting the figure is a bit more conservative than another forecast earlier this month from an unnamed investment banking source for as many as 30 New York listings this year. (previous post) Read Full Post…
The pace of new Internet IPOs coming out of China continues to build up steam, with word that yet another e-commerce company has hired investment banks for a mega offering to raise up to $600 million. The move by Jumei.com, an online seller of cosmetics, comes just a week after JD.com, China’s second largest e-commerce firm, made its first public filing for a New York IPO to raise up to $1.5 billion. A new separate report is now saying that JD.com founder and chief executive Liu Qiangdong could enter the realm of China’s richest men following the offering, with his stake in the company expected to give him a net worth of up to $7 billion. Read Full Post…
When does an 87 percent rise in your share price in just 3 months make you a laggard? The answer: When your name is online travel agent Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR), and the 87 percent rise makes you the worst performer among a quartet of Chinese Internet companies to make New York IPOs at the end of last year. The sudden surge in investor interest towards these companies will almost certainly lead many Chinese Internet firms to speed up their New York listing plans in the first quarter of this year, starting off with word that Tuniu, another online travel services firm, is accelerating its plans for a listing in the next few months. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 18-20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Boosted by the big success of the IPO for its money-losing Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR) online travel unit, Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) is reportedly aiming to test investor appetite for a similar offering next year for its loss-making iQiyi online video unit. Frankly speaking, I don’t think this plan looks very good for a number of reasons, led by the fact that money-losing firms aren’t very attractive in general to investors. Qunar has been the only money-loser of 5 Chinese tech companies to make New York IPOs in the last 2 months, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if investors were attracted to the firm chiefly for its strong ties to Baidu, its controlling stakeholder. Read Full Post…
Newly listed car website Autohome (NYSE: ATHM) got an early Christmas present, as its shares soared in their trading debut in what’s likely to be the final IPO by a Chinese firm on Wall Street this year. Meantime in other IPO news, online literature company Shanda Cloudary could be moving closer to its long-delayed listing with talk that its longtime CEO has resigned. These 2 news bits cap a bumpy year for Chinese IPOs in New York, where new offerings were nearly non-existent for most of 2013 before a sudden flurry of activity in the last 2 months. Read Full Post…
