Bottom line: Upcoming Hong Kong IPOs for nuclear energy firm CGN Power and real estate developer are likely to do well, while a third listing for car maker BAIC could get a more lukewarm reception.
Dalian Wanda seeks approval for $6 bln HK IPO
New York has posted a banner year for Chinese IPOs, culminating with the record-breaking $25 billion listing for Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) in September. But Hong Kong is showing it still has plenty to offer too, with a flurry of major new listings coming in the final month of 2015. At least 3 major new offerings are bubbling around the headlines as we head into December, led by one for China’s largest nuclear plant builder, CGN Power Co. Meantime, Beijing-based auto maker BAIC and property giant Dalian Wanda are also revving up for what could well be 2 of the biggest listings for the year. Read Full Post…
Chatter in the microblogging realm this past week was squarely focused on the Double Eleven shopping binge that saw e-commerce sites and smartphone makers log impressive sales on the date also known as Singles Day. But not everyone was boasting about huge sales, as executives from early e-commerce leader Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and smartphone aspirant Smartisan were both uncharacteristically quiet on their microblogs, hinting at mediocre results on the shopping holiday.
The situation was just the opposite at e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), which single-handedly commercialized a day that now generates more sales than even Black Friday or Cyber Monday in the US. That rapid success in such a short time was putting a strain on Alibaba’s Alipay electronic payments arm, which reportedly was restricted to processing payments from Alibaba’s own e-commerce sites. That meant other companies’ sites often couldn’t accept Alipay for payments on their sites during the day.
Bottom line: The new connection between the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges will make China tech stocks accessible to Chinese investors, and could prompt more companies to abandon New York for Hong Kong IPOs
HK-Shanghai link opens doors for Chinese tech buyers
The newly launched link between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock markets should breathe new life and stability into China’s volatile stock markets by making shares of mainland-listed firms accessible to sophisticated Western buyers with billions of dollars to invest. But equally exciting is a bumper crop of new investment opportunities that will soon become available to Chinese investors, who will finally gain access to wide range of top domestic high-tech firms that for years were beyond their reach. Read Full Post…
Lenovo’s (HKEx: 992) talkative CEO Yang Yuanqing was headline news in the microblogging realm over the past week, as the chatty executive formally launched his own account on Sina Weibo and proceeded to bombard the airwaves with a steady series of thoughts on a wide range of topics. Yang is already quite talkative in general, granting numerous media interviews and giving his thoughts on just about anything to anyone who will listen. So this kind of move isn’t really that surprising, and I expect we’ll hear lots from him in the months and years ahead.
Meantime, executives from the equally talkative Xiaomi were also full of microblogging chatter, touting their latest steal of a high-profile executive from another tech firm. In this case they were congratulating themselves for hiring Chen Tong, one of the earliest top employees at web stalwart Sina (Nasdaq: SINA). A final footnote in this week’s microblogging roundup also saw a teasing tweet from the missing CEO of online video site LeTV (Shenzhen: 300104), amid recent speculation that he may have left China to avoid criminal prosecution. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Lenovo’s latest results show its smartphone business continues to gain market share at the expense of profits, and it would be better advised to focus on building a strong brand to increase customer loyalty.
Lenovo smartphones post health sales gains
The latest results for leading PC maker Lenovo (HKEx: 992) don’t look too rosy, even as the company’s smartphone business continued to outperform the global market. There are quite a few pieces to this puzzle, which means the longer-term outlook for Lenovo’s smartphone business is still unclear as the overheated market undergoes a much-needed shakeout. The outcome of this story will be crucial to Lenovo’s future, since the global market for its core PC business is stagnating and even starting to contract as consumers gravitate to a newer generation of more mobile, specialized devices. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 7. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Bright Food Targets Listing Cereal-Maker Weetabix By 2016 (English article)
Bottom line: Sony’s stalling fortunes in China’s smartphone market are the prelude to its eventual pullout, while Lenovo’s high-end push with the Motorola brand is likely to fall flat.
Sony smartphones in China setback
The latest news bits from the overheated Chinese cellphone market show an increasingly grim battle that’s claiming a growing number of victims at the lower and even middle ends. The latest bad news comes from struggling Japanese giant Sony (Tokyo: 6753), which has announced a significant pullback in the market as part of a broader global retrenchment. That could bode poorly for the equally struggling mid-range Motorola, as media report the brand will also target the mid- to upper-range of the Chinese smartphone market under its new ownership by PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Improved working environments are allowing Chinese tech firms to compete with multinationals for top talent, a template that state-run firms and other industries would be wise to follow.
Xiaomi attracts top exec from Spotify
Fast-rising smartphone maker Xiaomi made headlines last week when it lured away a top western executive from European online music streaming giant Spotify by offering him an attractive new job at its Beijing headquarters. The move marks the latest in a stream of high-profile defections by technology executives from comfortable jobs at major western firms to join up-and-coming Chinese names like Xiaomi and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU).
The movement reflects a maturation for China’s fast-growing high-tech sector, whose rapid rise and improving working conditions are making companies more competitive with big western names traditionally preferred by many highly-skilled workers. But the trend is still limited mostly to China’s private high-tech sector, and is largely absent in state-run firms and other industries. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 4. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Xiaomi Said To Seek Funding At Valuation Of About $50 Bln (English article)
Bottom line: Hugo Barra’s remarks in defense of criticism that his employer Xiaomi copies Apple’s designs could mark the start of a longer-term war of words that could end in one or more lawsuits by Apple.
Barra defends Xiaomi’s copycat ways
A trans-Pacific war of words that began with critical remarks made by Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) chief designer 2 weeks ago is continuing, with the foreign face of Chinese smartphone sensation Xiaomi giving fresh remarks on the copycat controversy in his company’s defense. The comments from Xiaomi’s international marketing head Hugo Barra are a bit lame in my view, and I really doubt he would have made such remarks last year when he was still a rising star at global Internet giant Google (Nasdaq: GOOG). Read Full Post…
There was never really much doubt that Chinese PC leader Lenovo (HKEx: 992) would ultimately close its purchase of Motorola Mobility, the former cellphone giant that has rapidly become irrelevant in a sector where change occurs at lightning speed these days. Lenovo has just announced that it closed the purchase of Motorola Mobility from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), some 9 months after first announcing the deal. Now the real work will begin for Lenovo as it tries to figure out what exactly to do with Motorola, including the small possibility that it could retire the company’s storied name. Read Full Post…
