The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on July 30-August 1. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Giant Interactive, Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) Jack Ma to Pay $4.4 Bln for Game Firm Playtika (Chinese article)
China Postal Bank’s $10 Bln IPO Stirs Foreign Interest, But Valuation a Worry (English article)
Besttone Holdings to Pay 6.9 Bln Yuan for China Telecom (HKEx: 728) Online Video Assets (Chinese article)
Meituan-Dianping Roll Out New Food and Beverage Platform (Chinese article)
Fosun (HKEx: 656) to Buy Brazilian Real Estate Management Fund Rio Bravo (Chinese article)
Bottom line: Recent calls for boycotts of KFC, iPhones and McDonald’s by Chinese patriots are unlikely to result in long-term damage for any of the companies, but could become a problem if any of China’s ongoing territorial disputes escalate.
Chinese patriots call for KFC boycott
It seems China’s restless patriots are back at work following a 4 year break, venting their latest anger at the US by smashing Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhones and calling for boycotts of KFC. This particular bout of Chinese patriotism follows a ruling 2 weeks ago by an international court that found in favor of the Philippines in a territorial dispute with China. The last major bout of similar patriotism came back in 2012, and involved another territorial dispute between China and Japan. But in that instance, Beijing gave much freer rein to many of the patriots, which resulted in long-term Chinese sales declines for the big Japanese automakers. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba’s bid for Polish C2C site Allegro looks like a smart move into a related developing market, but could be thwarted by rival Tencent, while affiliate Ant Financial’s new Taiwan insurance tie-up also looks smart though relatively small.
Alibaba bids for Poland’s Allegro
E-commerce giant Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and its Ant Financial affiliate are in a couple of major headlines as the weekend approaches, each focusing on a strategic growth area. In the first case, Alibaba has entered the bidding for a leading Eastern Europe online auctions site, competing with global rival eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) for Poland’s Allegro. The second deal has Ant, owner of leading electronic payments service Alipay, expanding its financial services holdings with the purchase of a majority stake in the insurance unit of Taiwan’s Cathay Financial (Taipei: 2882). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: LeEco’s latest mega purchase will throw a lifeline to the struggling Vizio TV brand, as its latest issue of new shares at a big discount reflects growing investor fatigue and skepticism with the company.
LeEco throws lifeline to Vizio
Acquisitive online video superstar LeEco(Shenzhen: 300104) is back in the headlines for its latest mega-purchase, signing a deal to buy Vizio, a US-based TV brand that is at once one of the nation’s largest and also most obscure. At the same time, LeEco, formerly known as LeTV, is in separate but somewhat related headlines in a big cash-raising exercise through a new share issue. The company has become quite adept at such cash raising these days, often using its overvalued stock to bring in new money. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on July 27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) to Buy US TV Maker Vizio for $2 Bln (English article)
South China Morning Post CEO Resigns, Takes Position at Temasek (Chinese article)
Huawei Says Sold 60.56 Mln Smartphones in H1, Consolidates World No. 3 Position (Chinese article)
Gome (HKEx: 493) in Online Alliance with China Resources’Feiniu.com (Chinese article)
China’s 4G Subscriber Base Surpasses 600 Mln in June – MIIT (English article)
Bottom line: Wanda may need to raise its offer price again to buy Carmike, while a plan to privatize its property unit stands a good chance of winning shareholder approval.
Wanda ups Carmike bid
Conglomerate Wanda Group is in a couple of a major headlines, one involving its traditional real estate business and the other for the newer entertainment unit it’s building up as part of a diversification drive. The real estate headline centers on Hong Kong-listed property developer Dalian Wanda (HKEx: 3699), which has just received an endorsement from a major shareholder in its bid to go private. The second item centers on Wanda’s fast-growing cinema business, and has the company boosting its offer for US theater operator Carmike (Nasdaq: CKEC) after minority stakeholders complained a previous bid was too low. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Giant Interactive’s new bids for Caesars Entertainment online game unit and Supercell show it has lots of cash for global acquisitions, which it hopes to use to vault it into the big leagues of Chinese online game companies.
Giant chases global acquisitions
Online gaming company Giant Interactive may be mostly a memory for US investors, following its de-listing from New York in 2014. But the company wants the world to know it still has global aspirations. That’s my interpretation of the latest series of reports, which have Giant pursuing several major global acquisitions in Finland, Israel and the US.
Two of the reports appear to be related, and say Giant is in talks to buy the online game unit of US gambling giant Caesars Entertainment (Nasdaq: CZR), which includes Israeli game developer Playtika. One of the reports adds that Giant is also in talks to potentially join a group led by Chinese Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700), which has agreed to buy a controlling stake of Finnish game giant Supercell. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on July 23-25. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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MasterCard (NYSE: MA) May Apply for China Payment License This Year (English article)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) Maps Enters 13 South American Countries as Olympics Nears (Chinese article)
Samsung (Seoul: 005930) Countersues Huawei in Lawsuit Tug-of-War (Chinese article)
Giant Interactive Said to Lead Group Bidding for Caesars Online Game Unit (English article)
Private Car Service Provider UCar Lists on China OTC, Valued at 40 Bln Yuan (Chinese article)
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on July 22. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Uber, Didi Chuxing Want to End Rivalry, Discuss Possible Merger – Source (Chinese article)
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on July 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Strong Demand From China Buoys Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) Forecast (English article)
Midea (Shenzhen: 000333) Takes 85.69 Pct of Kuka After Tender Offer (Chinese article)
China Second, Behind US, on 2016 Fortune 500 List of Biggest Global Companies (English article)
China Box Office Growth Slows to 21 Pct in H1, Unlikely to Reach 60 Bln Yuan Target (Chinese article)
China Film Plans Nation’s Largest Entertainment-Industry IPO (English article)
Bottom line: A Chinese group’s decision to downsize an earlier deal to buy Norway’s Opera was likely due to insufficient funds to complete the deal, but will still give Qihoo an important new browser asset in its drive to go global.
China group downsizes deal for Norway’s Opera
Just a day after trumpeting its successful privatization from New York, software security specialist Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU) is being more low-key in announcing the new failure of its bid for Norwegian browser maker Opera (Oslo: OPERA). In fact, Qihoo was really just one member of a group that bid $1.2 billion earlier this year to buy Opera, owner of the world’s fourth most popular web browser. (previous post) Following the decision to scrap the sale, the 2 sides have simultaneously announced a smaller deal that would see the Chinese group buy about half of Opera’s assets for about $600 million. Read Full Post…
