The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Sells $8 Bln Of Bonds In Company’s Debut Sale (English article)
Bottom line: A weak debut for eHi reflects waning investor enthusiasm for Chinese IPOs, while a new $585 million investment in Huayi Bros reflects strong growth prospects for the independent filmmaker.
eHi IPO sputters out of the gate
A flurry of fund-raising events are in the headlines today, led by a weak trading debut for car rental specialist eHi Car Services (NYSE: EHIC) and a big capital infusion for Huayi Bros (Shenzhen: 300027), one of China’s leading independent film makers. Rounding out the activity are reports confirming that smartphone high-flyer Xiaomi has made its largest investment to date, spending $300 million for a stake in iQiyi, China’s second largest online video site owned by Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Apple’s new UnionPay tie-up is aimed at an eventual roll-out of its Apple Pay in China, while Baidu’s reported purchase of 99Pay marks a late but needed bid to boost its electronic payments capabilities.
Baidu eyes 99Bill
A couple of electronic payments stories reflect the rapid changes taking place in China’s banking market, where such payments are quickly making cash and even traditional credit cards obsolete. The higher-profile of the 2 deals has global gadget leader Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) in a deal to accept payments for its China app store in partnership with leading electronic payments firm UnionPay. The second deal has leading Internet search Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) reportedly looking to boost its presence in the space with plans to buy existing player 99Bill for 2 billion yuan ($325 million). Read Full Post…
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…
Bottom line: Alibaba’s new mega bond will pressure it to find good uses for its huge cash pile, while Tencent’s Warner Music tie-up is part of a new wave of deals to monetize its SNS platforms.
Alibaba plans mega bond offer
Leading Internet companies Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700) are both in the headlines today with major new deals, spotlighting their growing need to stay in the news to remind investors why they are valued so high. The larger of the 2 news bits has Alibaba planning to raise a hefty $8 billion through a bond offer, while the other has Tencent in a major new tie-up with Warner Music, one of the world’s top record labels.
I was mostly impressed by the sheer size of Alibaba’s bond offer plan, which is easily the largest I’ve seen by a Chinese Internet company. Tencent launched its own $5 billion bond program earlier this year, but has had to offer the notes in several tranches due to the huge size. (previous post) Baidu raised its own $1.5 billion in a bond offer 2 years ago, and in June announced plans for another major offering without specifying any specific fund-raising targets. (previous post) Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 14. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Seeking $8 Bln in First US Bond Sale (English article)
China’s Tencent (HKEx: 700), Warner Music Partner For Music Streaming (English article)
Shanghai Jin Jiang (Shanghai: 600754) To Buy Louvre Hotels Group For $1.5 Bln (English article)
Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) Reports Q3 Financial Results (PRNewswire)
China’s Banks To Raise $10 Bln In Year-End Preference Share Bonanza (English article)
Bottom line: Tencent’s new WeChat-based free voice service could stand a good chance of success, but will face challenges due to technical issues and resistance from China’s traditional telcos.
WeChat launches free voice calling service
Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) has just announced new quarterly results that show slowing growth for its core social networking (SNS) and gaming units, but everyone is far more interested in the low-key launch of a new free voice calling feature on its wildly popular WeChat platform. The new function, called WeChat phone book, lets users make real-time phone calls for free by routing them over the Internet, and is similar to that offered by the much older Skype. But unlike Skype, which only allows free calls to other Skype users, the new Tencent service allows users to make free calls to anyone with a fixed- or mobile phone account. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 13. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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KKR, Citic (HKEx: 267) In $1.5 Bln Bid For United Envirotech (Singapore: UNIT) (English article)
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: Shanda is likely to sell a controlling stake of its Cloudary online literature unit to an outside buyer, possibly Tencent, as part of a drive to hand over management of its major units to strategic partners.
Shanda’s Cloudary in rumored sale
The slow-motion break-up of former online entertainment high-flyer Shanda Interactive is back in the headlines, with reports the company has sold its online literature unit to Internet heavyweight Tencent (HKEx: 700). This particular rumor looks logical enough for reasons I’ll give shortly. But I’ve heard so many rumors about sale of part of all of Shanda over the past year that I’ll only believe this latest report when we hear an official confirmation. What’s clear from these latest reports is that Shanda founder and chairman Chen Tianqiao continues to look for opportunities to sell part or all of his company, as he reportedly grows restless with his lackluster businesses whose growth has stalled. 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)
