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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
After gobbling up billions of dollars worth of debt from Chinese Internet companies over the last year, investors may finally be starting to get full on the bond feast with word that online real estate services firm E-House (NYSE: EJ) has sharply trimmed its plan for a new major offering. One can interpret this unexpected twist in a number of ways, which I’ll explain shortly. But from my perspective the development looks like one of the first signs that a resurgence of interest in US-listed Chinese tech firms over the last few months could quickly dim in the first half of 2014 as investors turn their attention to other companies. Read Full Post…
The year 2013 will go down as a major turning point for China’s solar panel makers, with some names emerging as new sector leaders after a prolonged downturn while others quietly disappeared. The latter category saw former leader Suntech (OTC: STPFQ) go bankrupt and LDK (NYSE: LDK) quietly sell off many of its assets, while the former category has seen Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) and Shunfeng (HKEx: 1165) emerge as names to watch in the future. Canadian Solar in particular has been coming back strong in the second half of this year with a steady stream of good news, including its latest mega-deal to sell panels in China. Read Full Post…
Newly listed car website Autohome (NYSE: ATHM) got an early Christmas present, as its shares soared in their trading debut in what’s likely to be the final IPO by a Chinese firm on Wall Street this year. Meantime in other IPO news, online literature company Shanda Cloudary could be moving closer to its long-delayed listing with talk that its longtime CEO has resigned. These 2 news bits cap a bumpy year for Chinese IPOs in New York, where new offerings were nearly non-existent for most of 2013 before a sudden flurry of activity in the last 2 months. Read Full Post…
I was somewhat amused today to read an announcement from stodgy domestic smartphone maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) trumpeting the success of a “cool” new online campaign for its high-end brand of nubia smartphones. But after giving the matter some thought, I do have to compliment ZTE for its new approach to create some buzz around its smartphones, which currently enjoy a reputation as dependable but also quite stodgy and low-end products. Most Chinese refer to phones from domestic names like ZTE, Huawei and Lenovo (HKEx: 992) as guochan, literally meaning “made in China,” which carriers distinctively negative overtones for inferior quality and lack of imagination. ZTE is clearly trying to cast off that image for its nubia line with this new China-based campaign. Read Full Post…
Spin doctors from Chinese tech titans Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Alibaba have been hard at work these last few days, doing their best to promote their products and add positive interpretations to news involving their companies. Tencent chief Pony Ma was actively hyping up several of his company’s products and services, while an Alibaba executive was touting a visit between founder Jack Ma and visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron. Tencent also got a helping hand from restaurant ratings giant Dianping, whose low-key founder was hyping a new tie-up between Dianping and the payments platform on Tencent’s wildly popular WeChat instant messaging service. Read Full Post…
It seems China’s second largest online real estate services firm E-House (NYSE: EJ) is suffering from a case of envy over sector leader SouFun (NYSE: SFUN), and is now following its larger rival with plans for a major new convertible bond offering. The offering marks the latest in a steady stream by some of China’s biggest US-listed tech firms, which are discovering strong investor appetite for their debt that can be converted later into company stock. While a recent string of New York IPOs by Chinese firms have attracted more media attention lately, this ongoing series of bonds has actually raised far more money for some of China’s biggest tech firms. Read Full Post…
In a development that many would say was widely expected, Beijing’s recent campaign to root out official corruption at state-owned companies is spreading deeper into the system, with word that an executive from grocery chain operator Lianhua Supermarket (HKEx: 980) is under investigation. I don’t normally follow Lianhua, as it’s a distinctively second-tier company that operates unimpressive grocery stores that are usually mostly empty whenever I happen to shop there. But that’s exactly why this particular probe is interesting, as it shows that the anti-corruption campaign is moving beyond the high-profile biggest state-run companies that have been targeted so far and into the smaller firms that populate the big majority of China’s corporate landscape. Read Full Post…
The IPO world is humming with activity as we head into what’s likely to be the final week of new listings this year, with web firm Autohome gaining some momentum in New York as China Everbright Bank struggles to find an audience in Hong Kong. In another smaller offering in Hong Kong, a death care services firm called Fu Shou Yuan International is attracting some big-name investors in the run-up to its offering, shining a spotlight on the big potential for such services in China. Read Full Post…
Most people are focusing on Alibaba in the new announcement of its major new logistics tie-up with leading home appliance maker Haier (HKEx: 1169), so I thought I would take a different approach and focus instead on the underappreciated Haier. Actually, I should clarify and say that Haier was formerly underappreciated, as investors quickly discovered its shares after announcement of the $360 million tie-up, bidding the stock up to a 14-year high on optimism about the new partnership. I’ve always been quite positive on Haier, one of China’s top brands in home appliances, and think this new venture continues its tradition of carefully considered partnerships with good chances for success into new areas. Read Full Post…
A recent rush into financial services by Chinese Internet firms took a new twist last week when China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), the nation’s second biggest wireless carrier, announced it will move into the space with the establishment of a new joint venture. Unicom joins China’s major Internet companies and a wide range of other firms in launching such joint ventures, with Alibaba, Tencent (HKEx: 700) and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) all announcing similar tie-ups this year. Read Full Post…
With the 4G telecoms era now formally begun, China’s 3 major telcos are suddenly rushing to give out more details about their plans in this new era of high-speed mobile communications. In the latest news from this fast-moving story, media are reporting that China Telecom (HKEx: 728; NYSE: CHA), the smallest of the nation’s 3 wireless carriers, will formally launch its 4G brand as soon as later this week. Meantime, leading telco China Mobile (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) has disclosed pricing plans that look quite aggressive for its 4G service in the city of Chongqing. I should also add I’m not surprised that we haven’t heard anything yet from the nation’s third telco, China Unicom (HKEx: 762; NYSE: CHU), which has a recent history of slowness and disorganization in response to such major new developments. Read Full Post…
