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…
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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Car Maker Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) Sued In China For Trademark Infringement (English article)
SouFun (NYSE: SFUN) Tumbles In New York On Commission Concerns (English article)
China Says GSK-Linked (London: GSK) Trial Being Handled According To Law (English article)
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 20. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Three industry leaders have just announced their latest quarterly results, and the numbers look downbeat for online travel giant Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and Internet real estate services firm Soufun (NYSE: SFUN). Meantime, some limited results from solar panel maker Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) look more positive, showing that both sales and prices are picking up more quickly than expected amid a spotty sector recovery from a 2 year downturn. Read Full Post…
The number 1,000 took on new significance in the blogosphere this past week, with tech titans Lenovo (HKEx: 992), Huawei and Xiaomi in a sudden new rush to chop prices for some of their newest products to under 1,000 yuan. The number translates to roughly $160, and is certainly not a bad price for the relatively high quality smartphones and tablet PCs that are suddenly being sold by the trio at that price and even less.
Meantime, tech executives were also paying tribute on their microblogs to Pat McGovern, the billionaire founder of the IDG media empire that was one of earliest venture capital investors to realize the potential of China’s Internet. McGovern, who died last Wednesday, leaves behind an empire that helped to fund some of China’s most recognizable Internet names, including sector leaders Tencent (HKEx: 700), Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and SouFun (NYSE: SFUN), and many others. Read Full Post…
Perhaps I was a bit hasty a couple of weeks ago in declaring that a new IPO plan by online real estate company E-House (NYSE: EJ) for its Leju unit looked like the recycling of an old listing that flopped and was eventually privatized. Since that initial announcement, E-House has followed with a couple of new plans for Leju, both involving collaboration with Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s biggest Internet company. In the latest of those, E-House has just announced that Tencent will become a strategic investor in Leju, paying $180 million for 15 percent of the unit. (company announcement) Read Full Post…
I don’t usually like to toot my own horn, but my prediction last month that we could soon see a major fund-raising exercise by high-flying e-commerce firm Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS) has come to pass, with word that the firm is preparing to sell stock and bonds worth more than $600 million. Investors weren’t extremely excited about the plan, with Vipshares falling slightly after the announcement came out. But considering that the company’s shares have risen about 8-fold over the last year alone, the reception wasn’t all that bad either. From the strategic perspective, this new massive fund raising hints that Vipshop wants to take advantage of the recent wave of M&A sweeping China’s e-commerce space, and I expect we could see some big deal announcements later this year. Read Full Post…
The group of big Chinese web firms driving a recent wave of M&A has a new member, with word that fast-rising e-commerce site Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS) has made its first major acquisition. The move marks the latest step in consolidation in China’s overheated e-commerce sector, which is crowded with around a half dozen major players and many smaller ones that are mostly losing money. Vipshop is one of the few players that is quite profitable, even though it doesn’t have a huge cash pile as it spends heavily to quickly build up its business. That leads to my next prediction that we could see the company raise some money soon through a share or bond sale, as it seeks to build up a war chest to help fund future acquisitions. Read Full Post…
The latest earnings season for US-listed Chinese Internet firms has begun with a big yawn, hinting at a looming wave of investor fatigue after a surge in positive sentiment at the end of 2013. I’ve been writing about these companies for quite a while now, and can truthfully say it’s quite common to see their stocks rise or fall by 3 percent or more after they announce their quarterly results. It’s much rarer for shares to remain unchanged after such announcements, though that’s largely what has happened after web portal Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) and online real estate services firm Soufun (NYSE: SFUN) kicked off the latest earnings season with release of their fourth-quarter results. Read Full Post…
Many companies from traditional sectors have been taking a serious look at the Internet these days, worried that failure to develop a solid web strategy could result in their eventual demise. For sectors like retail and some other traditional product categories, I agree that strategy makes sense as the Internet radically changes the way that these industries operate. But I find the recent Internet obsession by the CEO of Vanke (HKEx: 1036; Shenzhen: 000002), one of China’s leading real estate developers, a bit more difficult to understand, since property doesn’t seem like a sector that can easily migrate to the web. Read Full Post…
