Bottom line: Alibaba’s Ant Financial unit is likely to get a strong valuation with a planned new private placement, and will embark on a series of high-profile moves before making a multibilllion-dollar IPO next year.
Ant Financial eyes 2016 IPO
Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) high-profile spat with Beijing is finally starting to subside, paving the way for the company’s affiliated financial unit, Ant Financial, to move into the headlines with word of plans for a major new fund-raising. But anyone holding Alibaba stock shouldn’t get too excited about Ant, which is separate from the listed company and whose rapid rise will only benefit Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
At the same time, other media reports are saying that Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) has formally cleansed its popular WeChat mobile messaging platform of a holiday red-envelope feature from Alipay, Ant Financial’s most valuable asset. That development isn’t a surprise, but it does spotlight one of several major challenges that Ant will face as it tries to carve out a profitable place for itself in China’s fast-evolving financial services sector. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on February 3. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Ant Financial Unit Weighs Private Placement, Valued At $50 Bln (English article)
WeChat Freezes Out Alipay, Sets Stage For Lunar New Year’s Red Envelope War (Chinese article)
Everbright Securities Agrees to Buy Hong Kong’s SHK & Co Brokerage Unit (English article)
GM (NYSE: GM) Confirms Indonesia Factory Plan With China’s SAIC Motor (English article)
BYD (HKEx: 1211) Gets Government Approval For Auto Finance JV (HKEx announcement)
Bottom line: Tencent’s strong early showing for a new WeChat-based advertising service and its investment in a take-out dining service reflect building momentum in its drive to build WeChat into a major new profit center.
BMW, Coke launch ad campaigns on WeChat
A couple of media reports are shining a spotlight on Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) WeChat, and some of the new steps it is taking to monetize the hugely popular service that is rapidly expanding beyond its roots as a mobile messaging service. At the same time, another report from Tencent itself is providing some insight into who exactly uses WeChat. It should come as no surprise that the report shows WeChat’s biggest fans are young and mostly male users, which are some of the most attractive targets for the online merchants and advertisers that Tencent wants to do more business on the platform. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 27. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Just 58.7 Pct Of Products Genuine In Random Government E-commerce Audit (Chinese article)
WeChat Unveils First Big Advertisers For Moments Function, Includes BMW, Vivo (Chinese article)
Actress Zhao Wei Invests HK$5.1 Bln In Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Film Unit (Chinese article)
Wanda Invests $1 Bln In Sydney Land Development Project (Chinese article)
Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Brings Motorola Back to China as Moto X Phone Released (English article)
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 23. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Wanda Cinema (002739.SZ) Surges To 44 Pct Limit on Shenzhen Trading Debut (English article)
WeChat Global MAU Reaches 440 Mln, Moments Ad Rates Revealed (English article)
Ping An (HKEx: 2318) Acquires City Of London Property For $482 Mln (English article)
TCL (Shenzhen: 000100) Reorganizes Into 3 Main Produce Areas (Chinese article)
TAL Education (NYSE: XRS) Announces Unaudited Results Fiscal Q3 (PRNewswire)
Bottom line: High-spending advertisers could provide a major new revenue source for Tencent, as it rolls out new ad-based services on its popular WeChat Moments function.
WeChat rolls out new ad services
Internet stalwart Tencent (HKEx: 700) is revving up its drive to monetize its popular WeChat mobile messaging platform, with word that it’s rolled out advertising services for one of the platform’s most popular functions. The move will start inserting ads into WeChat’s popular Moments function, known as pengyuouquan in Chinese, in a gamble that risks alienating many of the hundreds of millions of platform’s users. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on January 21. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Itochu, Charoen (Tokyo: 8001) Pay $10.4 Bln for Stake in Citic (HKEx: 267) (English article)
China Telecom Incremental Increases Outpace China Mobile, Unicom in 2014 (Chinese article)
Spring Airlines (Shanghai: 601021) To Make Trading Debut In Shanghai (Chinese article)
New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) Announces Second Fiscal Quarter Results (PRNewswire)
Bottom line: A new list of China’s top apps spotlights fast-growing names like news app Today’s Headlines, photo app Meitu and dictionary app Youdao, which could raise hundreds of millions of dollars in new funds this year.
Meitu earns place on top 10 app list
A newly released list of China’s top 10 apps for 2014 is shining a spotlight on an up-and-coming field of lesser known names that could be companies to watch, as many are much younger than stalwarts like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700). The “BAT” trio of China’s biggest Internet firms took 4 of the top 10 spots on the list, which was compiled by Baidu. But far more interesting were some of the other names, including recently listed social networking app Momo (Nasdaq: MOMO) and news app Today’s Headlines, which made its own headlines with its meteoric rise last year. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Tencent’s inclusion in a national credit database initiative reflects the big commercial potential of WeChat, but a lawsuit over rumor spreading also highlights one of WeChat’s biggest liabilities.
Tencent joins credit card database drive
Two stories in the news are showing how WeChat is likely to become the future big bread-winner for Internet giant Tencent (HKEx: 700), even as the wildly popular mobile messaging service poses tricky liability risks for its parent. The first headlines spotlights WeChat’s huge potential, with reports that the central bank has invited Tencent to take part in development of a new national credit database. The latter news isn’t quite so upbeat, with a Shenzhen-listed drugmaker suing Tencent for failing to stop the spread of rumors about its products over WeChat. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: New IPOs by Chinese tech firms will slow sharply next year, with profitable, sector-leading companies the most likely to make successful offerings.
Linekong finishes flat in banner year for IPOs
On this final day of 2014, I thought I’d take a look at the scorecard for high-tech IPOs this year, including how they’ve performed since their debuts and what we might expect for next year. It seems fitting to start the discussion with the final high-tech IPO of the year, which came with a flat trading debut on Tuesday for mobile gaming company Linekong (HKEx: 8267). That may sound bad, but it’s actually quite good for gaming stocks that have become investor pariahs over the last 2 years. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Weibo’s latest moves to stop users from defecting to WeChat reflect the company’s concerns over its fading momentum, and send a negative signal that will put pressure on its stock.
Weibo takes new steps to counter WeChat’s rise
An entertaining war is breaking out in the social networking (SNS) space, with word that the Twitter-like Weibo (Nasdaq: WB) is taking steps to punish people who use the service to promote their parallel accounts on archrival WeChat. I say this particular war is somewhat entertaining, as it seems quite petty and reflects the intense competition between these 2 companies. But at a more serious level, Weibo’s move reflects the very real fact that its service is rapidly losing eyeballs to the trendier WeChat, which is far more versatile and is also optimized for the fast-growing mobile Internet space. Read Full Post…
