Day: November 25, 2007

Categories
Stocks

UGG boots

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Last Updated on November 25, 2007 by stlplace

I heard these UGG shoes (boots more exactly) from my friend Sophie not long ago. Today when I visited the west county mall, I stopped by the Journeys and Nord Strom, and I saw those boots were both displayed on the predominant spots. Not surprisingly, I also saw quite a few people are wearing those funky (fashion) shoes. Being curious about the stock, I looked at company Deckers (DECK) which owns UGG, and attributes its growth mainly to UGG boots lately. Here is the Q3 2007 report. While the recent growth is very impressive, I think:

1) Its sole dependency on UGG for growth could make it more vulnerable to the change of consumer taste;

2) It got majority of revenue from the US market, a slowdown in US economy could spell trouble for them;

I will add more comments if I got time to read its 10Q and 10K.

ugg boots pic

Categories
China IPO

VisionChina Media IPO on the deck

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Last Updated on December 12, 2007 by stlplace

“For every Focus Media, there are 10 AirMedia or VisionChina Media”.

I took bus and taxi from time to time when I was in Shanghai, because I don’t have my own car. One thing I notice is those LCD screens on bus, metro and taxi. There are news on the bus LCD, the ones in metro and taxi are mostly advertisement. Twice have I seen the NFL (American national football league) stuff on metro. Anyway, I think this LCD advertisement thing should make money, both for the transportation companies and advertisers.

Now one such company, VisionChina Media (proposed ticker:VLSN), is coming to Nasdaq. Here is the excerpt from Pacific Epoch: Out-of-home advertising network VisionChina Media Inc. set the price range for its planned Nasdaq initial public offering at US$9.50 to US$11.50 per share, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. VisionChina plans to sell 13.5 million American Depository Shares in the offering to raise up to US$155 million. Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch & Co, CIBC World Markets, and Piper Jaffray are underwriting the IPO. VisionChina generated net income of US$3.7 million in the first nine months of 2007. VisionChina uses real-time mobile digital TV broadcasts to provide content and advertising on mass transit systems in China. The company began operations on April 8, 2005. VisionChina plans to trade under the ticker “VISN”.

Continue reading “VisionChina Media IPO on the deck”
Categories
Stocks

Wang Shi: Vanke not endorsing house flipping

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Last Updated on November 25, 2007 by stlplace

vanke pic

“万科不鼓励炒房”, the original Chinese article is here at 21cbh.

<21世纪>:万科怎么看待炒房客?

王石:在高档住宅方面,万科占的比例很小,同时万科也不鼓励炒房。这不是说你要炒房我们就不卖给你房子,但是我们在合同当中是有一些限制,不鼓励炒房。我们有一条规定,买了万科的房子,在房产证交给你之前,你要办过户手续万科是不给办的。当然,办了房产证之后,你要炒那是你自己的事,跟万科没有关系。

<21世纪>:怎么看待外国人到内地炒房?国内房价高企多少应该归因于海外炒家?

王石:现在这种势头还是有的,尤其人民币升值吸引大量热钱往里进。海外购房者不可能成为中国购房的主力军,国内的房价也不可能是外资购房者哄抬起来的,就连香港这么国际化的地方,你能说香港的房价是外来投资者支撑的吗?中环的高档写字楼那些另当别论,光看住宅的话,更多的还是当地购房者购买,因为人口比例在那里摆着呢。

万科的开发是针对主流市场,当然我们开发的高档住房,外来投资者占的比例可能达到20%,但主流市场一定不是他们。举个例子,香港居民到深圳购房的比例都不超过8%。

My take: house flipping has been highly profitable in the past few years. Besides the famous Wenzhou housing flippers, I have heard brokage firm such as E-Housing (NYSE:EJ) has made money from this too. But Vanke is not interested in making this. They are focusing on their main business: build the homes that (potential) customers will love, crave or dream about.