Bottom line: Alibaba’s decision to sell one of its early US e-commerce sites just a year after the launch looks smart and decisive for new ventures that aren’t performing well, while its new China-based dining services site will face stiff competition.
Alibaba tries dining services with Koubei
Acquisitive e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is throwing up a rare white flag of surrender in the US, selling off its 11 Main site just a year after launching the e-commerce platform. That surrender looks relatively minor, as Alibaba never really gave the site much time to develop. But the quick decision to call it quits reflects the challenges Alibaba will face as it tries to show investors that it can be competitive outside its home China market, which will be critical to its future growth.
Meantime, Alibaba was in another separate headline that looks much more typical for the company, announcing a new mega tie-up worth nearly $1 billion that will take it into the dining services category. That initiative looks squarely aimed at Dianping, often called the Yelp (NYSE: YELP) of China, and Dianping’s major backer Tencent (HKEx: 700). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: WH Group’s decision to sell its stake in Spain’s Campofrio just a year after the purchase reflects its need for cash to pay down a big debt load, and also overly optimistic expectations at the time of the acquisition.
WH Group sells Campofrio stake
Just a year after making its second major global acquisition, Chinese meat processing giant WH Group (HKEx: 288) is having second thoughts about Spain’s Campofrio and is selling its stake in the company. WH Group gave a brief statement on the move, which appears to show it needed the cash and that Campofio was dragging on its financial performance. If that’s the case, this unusually quick flip-flop reflects one of the biggest risks that Chinese companies will face as they shop in an unfamiliar global marketplace that is quite different from their own home market. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Caffebene could become the first big victim of an unsustainable Chinese coffee explosion, while KFC’s new lawsuit against rumor mongers reflects one of the many challenges it will face as it tries to rebuild its China image.
Caffebene China chief quits
A couple of new China fast-food headlines reflect the rapidly changing environment, as traditional players like KFC (NSYE: YUM) try to move upscale to attract consumers who now have many more choices than they did a decade ago. The upscale move has seen a massive explosion in premium coffee shops, which is behind one headline that has South Korean giant Caffebene showing signs of distress following its recent aggressive China expansion.
Meantime, the other more humorous headline has KFC suing 3 companies for spreading false rumors about its products on social media, including one saying it uses chickens that have 8 legs. On a more serious note, this story comes as KFC struggles to regain its skidding China momentum, and shows that Beijing isn’t the only one frustrated over the kind of rumor-mongering that regularly happens on popular services like Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) and Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat. Read Full Post…
Shanghai may be famous for its entrepreneurial spirit, but its track record isn’t quite so stellar when it comes to nurturing top entrepreneurs. That could be starting to change, however, with word that Dalian Wanda Group, one of China’s most dynamic companies, plans to move its headquarters to Shanghai from its current location in Beijing.
As a longtime foreigner living in Shanghai, I’ve always been surprised by the relatively small number of major private companies for a city of our size. We should certainly be proud of some of our city’s most outstanding entrepreneurs, with names like Guo Guangchang of Fosun Group and Spring Airlines (Shenzhen: 601021) Chairman Wang Zhenghua as 2 outstanding examples. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A potential future spin-off of Yum’s China operations looks like a good move that would give the new company more focus, while McDonald’s China franchising drive also looks good if it can find the right partners.
Investors eye spin-off for Yum’s China unit
China was once the hot story for fast food companies like KFC and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD), as Chinese consumers flocked to the concept of reasonably priced food that was served quickly in attractive restaurants with friendly workers. But that story has become quite stale in recent years, leading this pair of global heavyweights to look for new China stories to pump up their local business and excite investors.
KFC has been trying to achieve that goal through a major overhaul of its China restaurants over the past year, and now is back in the headlines as some investors call for its parent, Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM), to split off its China operations into a separate company. Meantime, McDonald’s is trying to bring some excitement back to its China story by rapidly accelerating the expansion of its traditional franchised store model in the market. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Citic Capital and Fosun are expanding their tastes beyond the traditional Chinese preference for distressed assets, reflecting growing sophistication and diverging strategies of China’s emerging private equity buyers.
Citic Capital in group buying OmniVision
Chinese private equity is in a few major headlines this week, picking up assets in the technology, insurance and retail sectors in the US and Japan. The wide range of deals and geographies reflects the diverging strategies of some of China’s emerging private equity giants, which are rapidly developing their own individual personalities on the global stage. Citic Capital is behind 2 of the latest deals, picking up a retail asset in Japan and a US company that specializes in imaging technology. Meantime, Fosun International (HKEx: 656) has made a major new purchase in the US, offering to buy the remaining stake in an insurer that it first invested in last year. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Gree’s launch of a smartphone line is far too late and could signal the start of a major shake-out for the sector, while ZTE’s move into Japan will be tough but could reap big rewards if it can gain traction.
Gree starts shipping smartphones
You know China’s smartphone market is due for a major correction when a stodgy home appliance maker like Gree (Shenzhen: 000651), better known for its air conditioners, enters the market. But that’s exactly what’s happened, in a move that has the word “dud” written all over it. Meantime, the more established smartphone maker ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063) is making a risky but wiser move by targeting the lucrative but often ignored Japanese market, as it looks for growth alternatives outside a Chinese market that is the world’s largest for smartphones but also incredibly competitive. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new e-commerce joint venture by Japan’s Itochu and Thailand’s CP Group marks the latest major advance for China’s fledgling free trade zone program, whose policies should eventually expanded to the entire country.
Itochu forms new venture in Shanghai FTZ
China’s fledgling Free Trade Zone (FTZ) program got a new boost last week when a group of corporate giants from Japan, Thailand and China announced a major new retailing joint venture in the original zone in Shanghai. That news came just a week after a major expansion of the Shanghai zone, and the announcement of a plan for 3 additional FTZs in other parts of China.
This sudden expansion of the FTZ program is a welcome development for the many private companies whose growth plans have been stymied for years by China’s huge bureaucracy. That group includes not only big multinationals like Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and HSBC (HKEx: 5; London: HSBA), but also a growing number of homegrown private giants like JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), which also harbor global aspirations. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Coke’s proposed $400 million purchase of a Chinese protein drinks maker is likely to get quick regulatory approval, and could make significant contributions to its China operations within the next 2 years.
Coke makes new China M&A bid
Six years after a high-profile failure for a major China acquisition, global beverage giant Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) is trying once again with a smaller plan to buy a Chinese maker of protein drinks. This latest play for the maker of China Green-brand drinks looks like a smarter move by Coke, since the deal is valued at a relatively modest $400 million. By comparison, Coke’s failed attempt to buy leading Chinese juice maker Huiyuan (HKEx: 1886) was valued at $2.3 billion, which drew strong scrutiny from China’s anti-monopoly regulator that ultimately vetoed the deal in 2009. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Tuniu is likely to quickly resolve a revolt by some of its third-party travel agents, and a sell-off of its shares looks overdone, while Rakuten’s third foray into China could finally succeed thanks to its choice of a more suitable partner.
Rakuten invests in Fanli
We’ll close out this week with a couple of stories buzzing through the Internet realm, led by a travel agent rebellion against online travel site Tuniu (Nasdaq: TOUR). Meantime, Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten (Tokyo: 4755) is taking its third try at the China market through a new investment in an e-commerce company called Fanli.com, following failed previous forays with leading online travel agent Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU).
These 2 stories are mostly linked by the fact that both involve Internet companies. But in a twist that looks purely coincidental, Rakuten was also one of the earlier investors in Tuniu before the latter made its New York IPO early last year. It’s not clear if Rakuten still holds that stake in Tuniu, but if it does its shares just lost nearly 5 percent after a Thursday sell-off on reports of the merchant revolt. But Tuniu’s shares are about 75 percent above their IPO price, meaning its early investors are still doing quite well. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Yum’s new upscale Italian restaurant looks like a smart concept for the China market, but a broader campaign to move its Chinese KFC stores upmarket looks like too little too late.
A year after announcing plans for a major overhaul of its aging Chinese KFC stores, Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM) is adding another prong to its China reboot with the launch of an upscale Italian eatery as it tries to to regain relevance in its most profitable market. Yum’s newest China restaurant brand, Atto Primo, is situated in the heart of the Shanghai Bund, home to some of the city’s oldest and most famous buildings and most expensive restaurants. Yum is calling the restaurant a “lab” for now, but I suspect it could quickly expand the concept with new outlets if it proves popular. Read Full Post…
