Bottom line: Alibaba’s Koubei is unlikely to gain major traction despite its $1.1 billion in new funding, due to its late arrival to a crowded O2O take-out dining space already dominated by Baidu, Ele.me and Meituan-Dianping.
Koubei raises $1.1 billion
The longer I stay in China, the more the latest stories coming from the Internet sector look like I’ve seen them before. That’s certainly the case with Koubei, the Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) online-to-offline (O2O) take-out dining delivery service, which is close to landing a fresh $1.1 billion in new funding. In this case, Alibaba’s extremely late arrival to the space looks a lot like its vain attempt to play catch-up to Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat with a service called Laiwang back in 2013. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on July 30-August 1. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Giant Interactive, Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) Jack Ma to Pay $4.4 Bln for Game Firm Playtika (Chinese article)
China Postal Bank’s $10 Bln IPO Stirs Foreign Interest, But Valuation a Worry (English article)
Besttone Holdings to Pay 6.9 Bln Yuan for China Telecom (HKEx: 728) Online Video Assets (Chinese article)
Meituan-Dianping Roll Out New Food and Beverage Platform (Chinese article)
Fosun (HKEx: 656) to Buy Brazilian Real Estate Management Fund Rio Bravo (Chinese article)
The headlines last week were littered with signs of growing unrest and chaos among the dozens of US-listed Chinese companies trying to privatize from New York and return to China in search of higher valuations. One of the biggest items saw signs of a new bidding war break out for private clinic operator iKang (Nasdaq: KANG), while another saw data center operator 21Vianet (Nasdaq: VNET) mount what increasingly looks like a stealth privatization campaign. A third saw social media website operator YY (Nasdaq: YY) become the first to abandon its privatization bid altogether, casting doubt on many of the other similar pending offers that have gone for months without any progress. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new China Life bid for iKang could trump Yunfeng, while 21Vianet could be mounting a stealth privatization bid that would see it slowly sell most of its shares to big buyers before mounting a formal de-listing attempt.
China Life eyeing bid for iKang?
A few strange twists are taking place in the story that has seen some 40 US-listed Chinese companies launch privatization bids since the start of last year, led by the surprise re-heating of a bidding war for private clinic operator iKang (iKang). In a separate headline, data center operator 21Vianet (Nasdaq: VNET) gave a new signal that it will abandon a previous buyout offer and may launch a stealth de-listing bid instead. And in the strangest development, the board of web portal operator Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) has rejected an investment plan by the company’s founder that looked like a prelude to a possible buyout offer at the time. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on June 17. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) Rejects Investment Proposal From CEO, Seeks Other Options (PRNewswire)
Bottom line: A lackluster debut for China Online Education and abrupt end to the bidding war for iKang point to weak investor interest in US-listed Chinese stocks, which is likely to persist through year end.
51Talk operator fizzles in NY trading debut
Chinese IPOs in New York continue to sputter heading into the summer months, with the latest offering by China Online Education Group (NYSE: COE) debuting flat after raising a very modest $46 million. Meantime, one of the most hotly contested privatizations in an exodus of Chinese companies from New York has come to an abrupt and somewhat disappointing end in the case of clinic operator iKang (NYSE: KANG). That development has come with word that 2 groups vying to buy out iKang have suddenly dropped their bids, yielding to a third group associated with e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on June 9-13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bottom line: A bidding war for iKang could see prices rise above the current highest offer of $25 per ADS, while a buyout bid for TCL Communication will be priced at a slight premium to the current stock price and meet with little resistance.
iKang attracts new buyout offer
The twisted privatization tale of private clinic operator iKang (Nasdaq: KANG) has just taken a new turn, with its receipt of another buyout offer from Yunfeng Capital, the private equity investor with ties to e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). This development makes Yunfeng the third party to bid for iKang, which has easily become the most contested of some 40 US-listed Chinese companies trying to privatize from New York. Meantime, a far less contested buyout offer has just come in Hong Kong, where faded cellphone maker TCL Communications (HKEx: 2618) has just received a buyout offer from its China-listed parent. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on June 8. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bottom line: The accelerating pace of deals by Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma could be cause for concern, potentially overwhelming the company and Ma and creating headaches as they work to integrate so many new tie-ups.
Alibaba in new deal frenzy
It’s no secret that e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) has been on a buying binge over the last 2 years, snapping up billions of dollars worth of smaller companies and forging new alliances as it tries to get into just about any Internet and media business it can find. But even a veteran industry watcher like myself is getting dizzy this week by the accelerating series of deals, which has seen the company and its charismatic founder Jack Ma in at least 4 headlines involving major new tie-ups in a wide variety of spaces.
One of those is coming in the logistics space, with Alibaba announcing its purchase of a stake in a major Chinese parcel delivery service. Another comes in entertainment, where the company is reportedly in talks for a smart TV joint venture with PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992). Yet another deal is in finance, with Jack Ma reportedly buying a stake in the Hong Kong-listed Reorient Group (HKEx: 376). And all of those deals are coming a day after media reported that Ma has become a new investor in the sports entertainment unit of online video services high-flyer LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104). Read Full Post…
Just a day after getting some extremely worrisome news that could see many of its most popular offerings censored, leading online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) has announced a more positive development in the form of a $1.22 billion investment led by e-commerce leader Alibaba. The move is part of Alibaba’s recent buying binge, which has already included a handful of investments of this size, as it tries to get into every area of the Internet imaginable. The tie-up does have some positive elements that could help Youku Tudou, and comes as a slight surprise since media were reporting just a month ago that the company was preparing to sell a similar stake to Alibaba rival Tencent (HKEx: 700). Read Full Post…
