Bottom line: Xiaomi’s Singles Day sales show it’s still dependent on low-end models for its smartphone business, while Tencent shares could be set for a pause as it celebrates adulthood with its 18th birthday.
Tencent turns 18
After a couple weeks’ hiatus, I’m returning to the blogosphere with one item from last week’s Singles Day shopping extravaganza, and another from one of the few major Internet companies that was absent during that festival. In the Singles Day headlines is word from Xiaomi that it topped the list for most sales by a smartphone maker during the shopping fest. Meantime, media are noting that social networking giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) has just celebrated its 18th birthday by announcing it will give out 300 of its shares to each employee. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Microlender Qudian could raise $500 million or more in an IPO in the first half of next year, most likely in New York, and could get a modestly positive reception as one of the first in a new wave of private Chinese financial firms to list overseas.
Qudian hires CFO, investment bank
Growing signals are emerging that an offshore IPO could be coming soon for Qudian, a financial firm that began its life as a microlender named Qufenqi helping college students to buy things like computers and smartphones. That’s my assessment after learning from one of my sources that Qudian has hired a foreign-trained CFO and also an investment bank, typical developments for a company that wants to make an offshore listing within the next year and often even sooner.
From an investor’s perspective, the company would offer an interesting private play into China’s financial sector, albeit a relatively niche part of that sector. Investors can already buy into numerous Chinese banks and other financial institutions like brokerages and asset managers. But most of those are state-owned and make many of their decisions based on government directives, with the result that their decisions often have a heavy political element that doesn’t always make commercial sense. Read Full Post…
Residents urged to accept new homes at complex set for demolition
As my 6 year sojourn in Shanghai rapidly winds down, a couple of items from my daily life this past week seem to nicely summarize many of the themes I’ve written about these last 4 years. One of those was related to China’s vast bureaucracy and propensity for scandals, while the other reflected the relenting change that is so much a part of daily life not only in Shanghai but throughout China.
The former instance involved a visit to my local bank, where my attempt to make a simple ATM money transfer turned into a half-hour-long ordeal that didn’t even end with accomplishment of my original task. The second saw a banner emerge outside a large residential compound slated for demolition near my home, encouraging residents to quickly sign agreements to relinquish their apartments in exchange for new ones outside the city. Read Full Post…
Two names closely associated with e-commerce are in the headlines, led by industry leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), which is coming under fresh assault from a coalition of US trade groups for allowing trafficking in pirated goods in its online marketplaces. The other headline involves parcel delivery giant ZTO Express (NYSE: ZTO), which is coming under a different kind of assault as investors dumped its newly-listed New York shares on their first trading day after an impressive $1.4 billion IPO. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Walmart’s investment in an online grocery delivery company is the latest advance in its rapidly growing alliance with JD.com, which could help to reignite its stagnating position in China’s retail market.
Walmart invests in New Dada
The growing alliance between global retailing titan Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) is taking yet another step forward, with word that the former is making another new investment in the latter in the hotly contested online grocery space. In this case the investment itself, in a JD-backed online grocery specialist called New Dada, is a relatively modest $50 million. Instead, the investment is more symbolic because it takes direct aim at the market-leading position of e-commerce titan Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on October 28. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bottom line: The closure of former Time Warner Chinese TV station CETV reflects the broader decline of traditional broadcasting worldwide, and also heavy restrictions on foreigners for operating video delivery channels in China.
CETV pulled from China airwaves
As Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) pursues a blockbuster merger deal with AT&T (NYSE: T) in the US, a much quieter story in China reflects the end of a frustrating chapter for the entertainment giant and many of its western peers that hoped to make a fortune in the world’s most populous market. That story has the relatively obscure Tom Group (HKEx: 2383) announcing the shuttering of its China Entertainment Television station, also known as CETV. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Growing national security concerns are likely to kill the pending purchase of Germany’s Aixtron by a Chinese buyer, and could also kill the pending sale of NXP’s standard products unit to a similar buyer.
Germany calls for review of Aixtron sale to China
A major cross-border chip deal that I failed to notice earlier this year is suddenly in doubt, with word that Germany has reversed course and wants a security review for the proposed sale of local chipmaker Aixtron (Frankfurt: AIXA) to a Chinese buyer. Such a move would mark the first potential killing of a cross-border chip deal in Europe, which would be following the US and Taiwan in voicing concerns about China’s sudden voracity for overseas makers of high-tech microchips. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on October 27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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China Returns to US IPO Market in a Big Way With ZTO Express (English article)
Li Ka-Shing’s Tom (HKEx: 2383) Ceases Operation of CETV Television Channel (HKEx announcement)
Bank of China HK (HKEx: 2388) to sell 70.5 Pct of its stake in Chiyu Banking (English article)
Credit Card Management App U51.com Wins $84 Mln Series C+ Funding (English article)
EU Approves Chinese HNA’s Acquisition of Swiss SR Technics (English article)
Bottom line: Huawei may have lost its top position in China’s smartphone market in the third quarter, while Xiaomi’s new model with a screen that takes up the entire front surface could bring some buzz back to the company.
Huawei loses ground in China smartphone race
A trio of smartphone headlines nicely summarize the rapid changes constantly gripping the space, where today’s superstar can become little more than a footnote in just a year. The latest rising superstar Oppo is leading the headlines, with a new report saying it overtook Huawei to become China’s smartphone leader in the third quarter. Meantime, former market leader Xiaomi is also in headlines as it rolls out a new intriguing model in a bid to regain its former glory. Last but not least is the faded ZTE (HKEx: 763; Shenzhen: 000063), one of the industry’s oldest players, which is changing smartphone chiefs in its own bid to find new relevance in the tough market. Read Full Post…
