Bottom line: Hong Kong IPOs by Qingdao Bank and Bank of Jinzhou will debut weakly due to concerns about their bad debts, and sentiment is unlikely to improve towards regional Chinese lenders anytime soon.
Qingdao Bank IPO prices weakly
The only thing worse than a national Chinese lender is one of the country’s hundreds of smaller local banks. That’s the message coming from investors this week, as a chilly reception for a new offering from Qingdao Bank (HKEx: 3866) has forced the lender based in eastern Shandong province to slash its fund-raising plan by 10 percent. The news is a bad sign for Bank of Jinzhou (HKEx: 416), based in nearby Liaoning province, which is a few steps behind with its own IPO seeking to raise up to nearly $1 billion.
Two factors are undermining these IPOs by China’s regional banks, which have been flocking to market in the last 2 years after listings by most of the nation’s biggest lenders a decade or more ago. The most immediate factor is a resumption of IPOs on China’s domestic markets, which is set to occur next week after a half-year pause. The second is a broader issue, namely the fact that most of these lenders are sitting on mountains of questionable loans that will probably go bad in the next 1-3 years. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Baidu’s new joint venture bank with Citic could help it catch up to stumbling private banks backed by Tencent and Alibaba, which are struggling due to restrictions on their operations by Beijing.
WeBank seeks new funding
Two headlines are highlighting the opportunities and challenges that private banking is presenting for China’s Internet giants. The larger of the news items has online search leader Baidu(Nasdaq: BIDU) forming a joint venture with traditional banking giant Citic Bank (HKEx: 998), as it plays catch-up with Internet rivals Tencent(HKEx: 700) and Alibaba(NYSE: BABA). The second headline involves Tencent’s recently formed WeBank online bank, which is reportedly looking to raise $1 billion nearly a year after its official launch.
China’s Internet companies have rushed into financial services over the last 2 years, as Beijing tries to breathe new life into a stodgy sector previously dominated by big state-run firms. Both Tencent and Alibaba have been at the forefront of the movement, with each getting licenses to open private banks earlier this year under a new pilot scheme. But the transition has been filled with obstacles, partly due to lack of regulation but also because of resistance from the traditional banks. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: China Postal Bank’s signing of several major global institutions as cornerstone investors reflects the attractiveness of conservative financial service firms as China’s economy slows.
Conservative Postal Bank draws big global investors
What’s likely to be this year’s biggest IPO has just moved one step closer to market, with word that Postal Savings Bank of China is near a deal to sell about 15 percent of itself to a group of mostly foreign investors ahead of a planned $20 billion new offering. This particular IPO will provide one of the most conservative choices yet to investors looking to buy into China’s financial services market.
That’s because Postal Bank historically served as a place for consumers to park their savings, and did little actual lending like traditional banks. That difference appears to be a major factor making Postal Bank so attractive now compared with more traditional lenders like ICBC(HKEx: 1398; Shanghai: 601398), which are standing on the cusp of a bad loan crisis as China’s economy rapidly slows. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: CICC and Jiuxian are benefiting from a growing number of domestic listing options for private Chinese companies, but both will still need to show they can be profitable industry leaders for investors to take them seriously.
Jiuxian finally debuts on China OTC
A couple of new IPOs are highlighting the growing allure of China’s increasingly diverse stock markets for domestic companies that used to flock to New York. Leading the headlines is a very respectable performance in the long-awaited Hong Kong trading debut for CICC (HKEx: 3908), China’s oldest investment bank. The strong debut came even after CICC had to scale back the offering due to weak demand, and market watchers are attributing the performance to separate news that China will resume domestic IPOs by year-end after a pause of several months.
In the other headline, online wine seller Jiuxian has become the latest Chinese Internet firm to list on the country’s 2-year-old over the counter (OTC) market. The loss-making Jiuxian had initially aimed to list in New York, but abandoned that plan for a simpler offering at home. It joined other money-losing startups making similar listings over the last week, including online classified ad site Baixing and Alibaba-backed (NYSE: BABA) soccer club Evergrande Taobao. (previous post) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The arrest of a leading private equity executive for insider trading and Jin Jiang’s new fund-raising represent the latest efforts to clean up China’s unruly stock markets and make them more attractive to international investors.
Private equity giant detained for insider trading
I don’t normally write too much about China’s domestic stock markets due to their chaotic nature, but a couple of news items are shining a spotlight on the ongoing major task of cleaning up these unruly venues as they try to become more international. The larger of the 2 stories is making big waves here in China, where the one of the nation’s best-known private equity chiefs has been detained for insider trading. The second item has recently acquisitive hotel operator Jin Jiang (HKEx: 2006; Shanghai: 600574) preparing for a major new fund raising, as it tries to clean up its own financial house in a bid to become China’s first global hotel operator.
Each of these items is quite different, though both are focused on different aspects of cleaning up a domestic stock market that often seems more like the Wild West than a place for serious investors. Share price manipulation is common practice in the market, which is reflected in the insider trading story. The Jin Jiang story reflects the murky relationships that often exist between listed companies and government entities, making it nearly impossible for serious investors to clearly understand a company’s financial health. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: CICC’s IPO will price and debut weakly due to uncertainty about its prospects following recent management turmoil, though the stock could do well over the longer term if its new executive team performs well.
Investor unimpressed by CICC offering
Chinese investment bank CICC is quickly discovering just how much its fortunes have faded, with word the former financial superstar has scaled back its Hong Kong IPO by 20 percent due to lack of investor interest. Just a month or two ago CICC might have been able to blame the lukewarm sentiment on the broader market, as a massive sell-off on China’s A-share markets infected Hong Kong. But strong recent demand for 2 major new listings in Hong Kong shows positive sentiment is returning, and that CICC is being left out of the rebound.
IPOs by Chinese companies have come creaking back to life in Hong Kong lately, led by last week’s strong debut for IMAX China (HKEx: 1970), the Chinese unit of Canadian big-screen theater technology company IMAX (NYSE: IMAX). Since debuting last week, IMAX China shares have risen by a third on big hopes for rapid expansion in China’s theater market. Last week, the stodgier China RE insurance company also priced shares for its upcoming $2 billion Hong Kong IPO at the top of their range, after getting strong demand. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The offshore market for Chinese IPOs will see a brief resurgence in the next month as China’s stock markets stabilize, but the window will be short-lived as China’s economy shows new signs slowing sharply.
Imax China jumps in HK debut
After an extended period with few new listings, a new wave of IPOs by Chinese firms in offshore markets could be coming, led by stodgy insurer China RE. Sources are saying the re-insurer has taken a major step forward in its creaky IPO process by setting a price range for its stock after receiving strong feedback from investors.
This particular deal has been in the works for the last month, but it’s still relatively encouraging to see that it’s moving closer to the end. But the fact that it comes in the conservative and unexciting insurance sector means we’ll probably have to wait for a more controversial offering to see if the fall IPO season will really take off. Such a riskier deal could come in the next week or so if we see renewed activity for the other major offering in the pipeline, a $1 billion IPO by faded investment banking superstar CICC. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Beijing should wean big state-run banks off government hand-outs to force them to lend more responsibly, and should even consider allowing one or two failures to make its point.
3 banks seek public, private money
Three mid-sized Chinese banks were in the fund-raising headlines last week, reflecting the difficult times many now face as they struggle with growing volumes of bad debt due to China’s slowing economy. The trio, Postal Savings Bank of China, Everbright Bank (HKEx: 6818) and Huishang Bank, were aiming to raise a massive $10 billion collectively to bolster their balance sheets, each by taking in new investors.
But their target investors were quite different. Postal Savings Bank and Huishang both chose to court the private sector through share offerings to big institutional buyers. By comparison, Everbright chose to seek funds from its state-run parent. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: New Hong Kong IPOs by CICC and China Re are likely to move ahead and receive solid but not extremely strong demand, though a resumption of new listings in China might not occur until early next year.
New listings set to resume in HK
New signs are emerging of an upcoming resumption for China company IPOs, which have come to a standstill these last few months due to huge stock market volatility. The latest signs of new life are coming from 2 major financial services firms, with investment bank CICC and insurance giant China Re reportedly set to meet securities officials in Hong Kong this week. Both companies filed for Hong Kong listings earlier in the summer, but later went quiet as investor appetite for new shares was quashed by huge volatility on Chinese and Hong Kong stock markets.
This latest activity comes just a week after we saw similar signs of life in both Hong Kong and China. One of those saw outdoor advertising specialist Focus Media take steps for a backdoor listing in Shenzhen, while the other saw snack food giant Liwayway also take initial steps for a Hong Kong listing in the next 6 months. The activity led me to call on China’s securities regulator to quickly lift its current temporary ban on new IPOs as soon as the current market volatility subsides. (previous post) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Stiff restrictions on private investment in Chinese financial services will hobble a new insurance tie-up for Ant Financial, and were likely a big factor behind the resignation of the head of Tencent’s young WeBank.
WeBank chief resigns
China’s 2 largest Internet companies are in the headlines for major new moves in financial service, reflecting the rapidly evolving picture for this newer part of their business. Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) was in the headlines for more positive developments, as its affiliated Ant Financial unit announced a new insurance tie-up with Cathay Financial (Taipei: 2882), one of Taiwan’s leading financial services companies. The news was less upbeat for Tencent (HKEx: 700), with word that the head of its young WeBank was leaving just 9 months after the bank’s launch.
Both of these stories reflect the huge potential financial services hold for big private companies like Alibaba and Tencent, as Beijing opens the sector to private investment. But at the same time, the newness of the opening means that many rules are unclear and sometimes even contradictory. Tencent has learned that lesson quickly with WeBank, which has faced major limitations in its early days. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Major new moves by Minsheng Investment, SPD Silicon Valley Bank and Ant Financial spotlight Shanghai’s leading role in China’s push to liberalize its financial services sector with more private investment.
Shanghai leads charge into private banking
Three Shanghai banking stories are in the headlines today, spotlighting the leading role the city is playing as China tries to develop a private banking sector. Leading the trio of headlines is the year-old China Minsheng Investment, a major new private equity company backed by the nation’s oldest private bank, which is exploring a major new infrastructure project in Indonesia.
The second story has media reporting that Ant Financial, the finance unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), will become the biggest tenant in Shanghai’s new tallest building when Shanghai Tower opens for business soon. The final news bit involves Shanghai’s own SPD Bank (Shanghai: 600000), whose joint venture with US-based Silicon Valley Bank has finally received permission to do business in China’s currency, the yuan, 3 years after the venture’s formation. Read Full Post…
