For the latest news on U.S.- and Hong Kong-traded Chinese stocks, visit our new Bamboo Works site.
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
Embattled smartphone and telecoms equipment maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) is all over the headlines today, led by word that the company has strongly bounced back into the black after a major restructuring to cut costs and realign its businesses. ZTE also announced aggressive sales targets this year for its fast-growing smartphone business, which it hopes will offset much slower growth for its older networking equipment unit. But the upbeat news was partly offset by word that the US is launching a new probe into ZTE and several other smartphone makers, after a US company filed a patent infringement complaint. Read Full Post…
Shenzhen Airlines officials sentenced for fund misuse
China’s recent wave of anti-corruption probes at big state-owned firms is moving in another new direction, with word that 6 officials at regional carrier Shenzhen Airlines have been found guilty and sentenced for misappropriating funds. This particular case represents a new wrinkle in the recent wave of probes because it involves corruption through the use of business shenanigans, rather than direct bribes and embezzlement that have been the focus of most investigations so far. At the same time, Chinese graft investigators are getting some moral support from abroad, with word that Britain’s anti-corruption watchdog has received more funds for its own investigation of Rolls-Royce (London: RR) related to the luxury car maker’s activities in China and Indonesia. Read Full Post…
It’s not too often that I agree with articles published in the People’s Daily, but for once I have to say that a new attack by the newspaper on personal health products maker Nu Skin (NYSE: NUS) looks at least partly deserved. That said, I did find the language used to attack Nu Skin somewhat comical and exaggerated, even if it the basic ideas are probably true. I was also somewhat surprised at how big a market China has become for Nu Skin, reflecting how easily such companies can win over Chinese consumers and businesspeople who often assume that any product with a western name must be good and trustworthy. Read Full Post…
The growing field of big Chinese global investors has gained a new member, with word that a unit of Citic Group, one of the nation’s oldest conglomerates, is taking a stake in a major new fund being set up in New York. Word of that deal comes as Citic Capital wraps up another major deal, as it finally closes its long and difficult plan to buy out New York-listed telecoms software maker AsiaInfo-Linkage (Nasdaq: ASIA). Both deals underscore not only Citic’s own aspirations as a global investor, but also the broader rise of Chinese private equity firms on the world stage as they aim to compete with big western names like KKR and Carlyle. Read Full Post…
New data is highlighting an online trend that I wrote about last year, namely that microblogs have peaked in popularity and are starting to decline, in a bad sign for leading web portal Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) as it rushes monetize and list its popular Weibo service. Frankly speaking, I’m not too optimistic anymore about the prospects for Sina Weibo, which is really just a copy of US social media pioneer Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) and hasn’t shown much ability to innovate in the rapidly changing social networking (SNS) space. All that said, I imagine this latest report from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) is prompting new urgency for Sina to separately list its Weibo unit, and that such an IPO could come later this year. Read Full Post…
I have to admit I was a bit surprised to read a report that Jin Jiang (HKEx: 2006； Shanghai: 600754) has become the first of China’s hotel operators to expand on the global stage, with word that the Shanghai-based chain has signed a deal to enter Indonesia. I really expected one of the US-listed Chinese hotel companies like Home Inns (Nasdaq: HMIN) or China Lodging Group (Nasdaq: HTHT) to make that move first, since those companies are more entrepreneurial than the stodgier state-run Jin Jiang. But that said, this small move by Jin Jiang looks like a prudent way to test out international markets as it looks for global growth opportunities. Read Full Post…
Just days after making headlines for being selected to buy Portugal’s top insurer, Chinese investment firm Fosun International (HKEx: 656) is back in the news as a finalist in the bidding for Forbes Media, publisher of Forbes magazine. The deal is just the latest in a recent series of major purchases for Fosun, and more broadly kicks off a year that could see record overseas M&A by a rising group of Chinese investment firms. Fosun’s evolving strategy seems to target companies that are profitable but also laggards in their areas, which is relatively common among such investors. But in this case, I have serious doubts about its pursuit of Forbes due to the global rapid decline of the traditional media industry. Read Full Post…
Anyone who was hoping to get a big discount on an iPhone from China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) will be majorly disappointed to learn the popular smartphones will be quite pricey under the new partnership between China’s leading wireless telco Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL). The pair have just announced pricing for the iPhones under a deal reached between China Mobile and Apple in December, with the 5s starting at 5,488 yuan ($914) for the cheapest model with 16 GB of memory. (English article; Chinese article) By comparison, a comparable US model, which has been on the market since September in most of the world, costs around $650. Read Full Post…
The microblogging space was buzzing with a bit of the past, the present and the future last week, with executives from some of China’s top gadget and Internet companies all hyping their various agendas in cyberspace. In a blast from the past, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak was all over the place in microblog postings from a number of tech companies executives he visited on a trip to China.
In the present, meanwhile, TCL (HKEx: 1070; Shenzhen: 000100) Chairman Li Dongsheng was at the CES trade show in Las Vegas and also attended a board meeting of Imax (NYSE: IMAX), using both opportunities to hype a new home theater tie-up with the US-based large screen movie format specialist. In the future, Long Wei, the low-key founder of leading online restaurant critic site Dianping, was hyping his company’s recent global expansion, perhaps hinting at more to come. Read Full Post…
Traditional Chinese appliance makers are showing a sudden interest in moving outside their usual comfort zone, with word that sector giant Midea (Shenzhen: 000333) is applying for a banking license. Midea joins a fast-growing queue that has seen rivals Haier (HKEx: 1169) and Gree (Shenzhen: 000651) make similar moves outside their traditional areas, in what looks to me like a typical herd mentality that one often sees in Chinese industries.
In this case the urgency to diversify doesn’t seem that critical, since I don’t expect consumer demand for big appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators to fade anytime soon. That contrasts sharply with a parallel diversification drive in the traditional retailing sector, where companies like electronics seller Gome (HKEx: 493) and supermarket operator Wumart (HKEx: 1025) are facing an unprecedented challenge from a new generation of e-commerce firms like Jingdong and Yihaodian. Read Full Post…
Some new figures are showing just how dramatically China’s group buying sector has contracted over the past year, with word that another major player Wanzhong has folded due to lack of funds. Wangzhong’s closure comes as the number of group buying casualties finally starts to slow, simply because so many have now left the space. I do expect we’ll see at least one or two more major closures or mergers this year, and previously predicted that former high-flyer LaShou could be one of those. But that said, the year could also see 2 or 3 major players finally emerge that have the potential to make IPOs and post strong long-term growth, similar to what we’ve seen recently from global sector leader Groupon (Nasdaq: GRPN). Read Full Post…
