stlplaceLast Updated on March 11, 2007 by stlplace
As an old saying goes (I hope mine could worth 100 words). I took this one at Beijing Airport. Did you notice the “retiring room”?
Last Updated on March 7, 2007 by stlplace
Listened to Heelys first conference call over the Internet because I got waked up by the luggage delivery people at 5 AM. Now I got both luggages from the United Airline. I am happy despite they deliver it on strange time such as 12 AM or 5 AM. I do appreciate the delivery team’s hard work though.
Back to conference and Heelys earning report. The Q4 result is as good as I expected. You can see the number here. Although they did not give the guidance but in Q&A session they gave out the backlog as of Dec 31 06 is $ 50 m, which we could assume will be filled in Q1 07. So the Q1 07 result will also be good. Going forward they only say 20 to 25% in next few years. It’s probablly a very safe number for them.
Last Updated on March 6, 2007 by stlplace
Heard about this Kai’en English from a colleague, they offer spoken English, Youth English, Business English, test preparation, etc.
Why English training is so hot? According to the S1 prospectus of Xinhua Finance Media, page 108 (under Radio section), “the average wages of Chinese employees with advanced and intermediate levels of English are 72.5% and 24.3% higher than those with basic levels of English, respectively”. By the way, I listened its “Easy FM” here in Shanghai, and I think it’s a good source to learn English.
One year training cost at WallStreet English is CNY 15,000, my colleague joked it’s CNY 50 per day. It’s mostly spoken English. It’s not small amount for average workers in China.
Last Updated on March 6, 2007 by stlplace
(Update 07Mar07) I saw an updated F1 prospectus at SEC web site. So I would assume the IPO is still on?
Just heard from a friend in the States, this is not offical, but the rumor is the IPO is called off. I assume the reason is the recent sell off of Chinese stocks inside and outside China scared lots of potential foreign buyers.
IPO is a very interesting game for issuing companies, underwriters and buying institutions. Companies do the road show and get people excited. They also talked to underwriter to determine the issuing prices. The underwriters bought all these shares from companies at the issuing price and sell those shares to institutions (a.k.a, their buddies). They receive a fee from this transaction.