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Journalist China
Business news from China By Doug Young.
Doug Young, journalist, has lived and worked in China for 20 years, much of that as a journalist, writing about publicly listed Chinese companies.
He is based in Shanghai where, in addition to his role as editor of Young’s China Business Blog, he teaches financial journalism at Fudan University, one of China’s top journalism programs.
He contributes regularly to a wide range of publications in both China and the west, including Forbes, CNN, Seeking Alpha and Reuters, as well as Asia-based publications including the South China Morning Post, Global Times, Shanghai Daily and Shanghai Observer
Financial conglomerate Citic Group is quickly emerging as a company to watch, as it consolidates its various domestic operations to assemble a compelling investment alternative to China’s stodgy state-run banks. But the company isn’t limiting itself to the domestic market, and has taken a new step onto the global stage through a new equity tie-up with US brokerage BTIG. (company announcement)
The deal looks particularly interesting because Citic isn’t doing it directly through its publicly traded Citic Securities (HKEx: 6030; Shanghai: 600300) unit, but instead is forming the tie-up using its recently acquired CLSA brokerage unit based out of Hong Kong. Industry watchers will recall that Citic Securities acquired CLSA in a 2-step process that saw it take a small stake and then eventually buy out the brokerage completely. If that pattern is any indicator, many may be wondering if Citic could follow the same pattern with BTIG, which is a mid-sized US brokerage that would be easily digestible by a big name like Citic. Read Full Post…
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…
China Internet titans should consider stepping down
Web portal Sohu.com (Nasdaq: SOHU) was in the headlines last week as founder and longtime chief executive Charles Zhang discussed a major restructuring for one of China’s oldest Internet companies to ensure its long-term survival. (Chinese article) His disclosure put Sohu alongside most of China’s other major Internet companies in announcing such plans, as each seeks to chart a new course in a rapidly changing environment. 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…
After watching their shares and prospects soar over the past year, solar stocks are suddenly hitting a cloudy patch as investors anxiously wait for most companies to return to the profit column following a 2 year sector downturn. That wait may have just gotten a lot longer, following a warning from Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) that it will fall far short of its previous sales forecasts for the just-ended first quarter.
Trina blames the problem on short-term factors, as it and other Chinese panel makers work to finalize an agreement to avoid the European Union’s previous threat of anti-dumping tariffs. But hidden in the optimism from Trina and its Chinese peers is the fact that the new agreement is likely to have many of the same effects as the original punitive tariffs. That means most of these Chinese companies will suddenly face resurgent new competition from western rivals in Europe once a deal is reached. Read Full Post…
News of major new fund-raising by 2 Chinese financial firms is casting a spotlight on the wide range of private lending organizations that are likely to emerge in the years ahead, fueled by Beijing’s desire to create a more efficient lending environment. In this case we’re seeing activity at opposite ends of the spectrum, led by a massive new rights offer by private equity giant Fosun International (HKEx: 656), and a more modest but still significant second-round venture capital investment for peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform Ppdai.com.
Both of these moves spotlight the wide array of choices that investors will soon have for private-sector financiers in China. But this emerging sector will also carry significant risk, since Beijing is still trying to figure out how to adequately regulate this group to ensure its longer-term healthy development. Read Full Post…
Tencent cash pile to double with new mega bond plan
In writing my final post of the week, I’ve just come to the realization that all 3 of my daily posts this Friday mention leading Internet firm Tencent (HKEx: 700), which has just announced a massive bond issuing program almost certainly aimed at future M&A. Perhaps it’s not surprising that Tencent’s name is showing up in almost everything related to the Internet in China these days, since the company is quickly becoming the nation’s dominant online company alongside leading e-commerce firm Alibaba and search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). 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 reports emerged that China’s top 2 online travel agents were in talks for a potential merger, rivals eLong (Nasdaq: LONG) and venture-backed Tongcheng have announced their own new tie-up that could be prelude to a similar marriage. In an interesting twist, this newest deal looks like it’s being engineered behind the scenes by Tencent (HKEx: 700), China’s leading Internet company that is also a major stakeholder in both eLong and Tongcheng. Such a dynamic would be similar to the bigger deal that emerged earlier this week, which could see leading online search firm Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) orchestrate a much larger merger between Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and Qunar (Nasdaq: QUNR). 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…
Rising e-commerce giant JD.com has been all over the blogosphere this past week, trumpeting some major adjustments in its core e-commerce unit as it also prepares to become one of the first companies to challenge China’s 3 major telcos under a new plan to open up that sector. Of course all of this comes against the backdrop of JD.com’s own upcoming New York IPO, which could raise up to $1.5 billion.
If I was being cynical, I might say that much of this buzz is aimed at keeping JD in the headlines as it prepares to list, especially since last week saw early signs that the red-hot New York market for Chinese IPOs may be starting to cool. But in this case, I do think that much of the buzz coming from JD seems genuine and isn’t just hype, as the company tries to position itself to pose a major challenge to e-commerce leader Alibaba. Read Full Post…
