Month: November 2007

Alibaba debut in HK

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on December 12, 2007 by stlplace

Alibaba logo

(Update Nov 6) Keso wrote an interesting piece about Ma Yun and Alibaba IPO. DBANotes also has an interesting article about Alibaba IPO. The author Fenng works for Ali.

(Original) The ticker symbol is 1688.HK. It opened at HKD 30.00, a big jump from the IPO price HKD 13.50.

I have not looked at its prospectus, as I am not interested in big name IPO, nor am I an expert in B2B. Andy Yu wrote a good blog about B2B, the business Alibaba is involved in.

On the other hand, I do like the other arm of Alibaba group, the Alimama, or Ali Soft. Alimama is an online ad platform for small business. I think at some point it will challenges Baidu and Google.

Alibaba and Alimama are separate divisions of Alibaba group, the group owned and managed by big mouth Ma Yun.

Tags 1688.HK, alibaba-IPO, alimama, alisoft, Andy-Yu, B2B

Stocks

Cheaper gourmet coffee

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on November 4, 2007 by stlplace

Week in review 10/27/07 to 11/03/07

1) I found the coffee at On the Run (Mobile gas station) is as good as Panera. I used to get a cup of coffee at Panera every morning, it costs me about $1.70, now I’m paying $1 for similar thing.

Even at this price, I believe “On the Run” is still making money. Now I seriously think Starbucks is in trouble, at least in the US, because I think many Starbucks customers will do as I do: save the money. Note McDonald and Dukin Donuts also offer gourmet coffee at competitive prices.

Stocks

Saturday routine

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on November 3, 2007 by stlplace

The Saturday morning at my STL home is much quite than the apartment I stayed in Shanghai. No more “冰箱, 彩电, 空调” noise from the old applicance collectors. No more street noise from cars, buses, and people. But I also miss some of the good things in Shanghai. The newspapers, the babi bum 巴比馒头, and 长沙米粉.

1) Babi bum 巴比馒头: they are inexpensive, only 1.00 Yuan for a bum, and 1.20 Yuan for the Soybean milk. The waiting lines could be long, but the waiting time is still acceptable, 10 minutes maximum. I like the 肉包子there.

2) Newapapers. Because I like business, finance and stocks, I read the following newspapers published on Saturday.

Tags 21st-century-business-herald, Capital-Week, Money-Weekly

China Stocks

Mindray Q3 report

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on November 2, 2007 by stlplace

(Update) I also listened into its conference call, and it confirmed some of my thought: Chinese domestic market becomes more friendly; south America has strongest international growth, while NA has the slowest.

(Original) I went to Panera bread this morning. Here is what I saw: Bagel, 89 cents; coffee, $1.59 to $1.79. These prices haven’t changed from 3 months ago. No time to check out sandwich price (will do it later). By the way, its stock (Nasdaq:PNRA) closed under $40 ($39.28) yesterday! Sounds like a bargain?

Seriously, Mindray (NYSE:MR) had another good quarter. From its earning report, Chinese goverment finally step in and bought lots of diagnostic stuff. I think this was delayed by the anti-corruption movement last year. Also, the numbers from Europe and South America are quite strong. In other words, the US did not have a good number last quarter. Note US is supposed to be the growth driver this year. I am not sure is the purchase is delayed by the sub-prime crisis. Overall, Mindray is on the track. This is a stock one can own and have good sleep in the night.

Tags Giant-Interactive, Mindray, Panera

Stocks

CROX almost crashed

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on November 1, 2007 by stlplace

(Update: 10pm Nov. 1 CDT) The Crocs board approved up to 1 million shares buy back immediately. See this news from Reuters. Crocs has about 80m shares outstanding as of now.

(Original 5pm Nov. 1 CDT) From yesterday closing price of $74.75, to today’s closing price of $47.74. It’s a $27.01 hair cut, or 36.13% loss. I was kind of caught off guard, as it had two spectacular quarters in Q1 and Q2, also due to I just got back from counting Crocs in Shanghai. Because I heavily weighted this stock before the earning, my portfolio had its largest loss in one day.

But in stock, we should look forward, not backward. There is no “what if”, “should have”, “would have”, etc. Fundamentally, the company and the business are still OK. But short term, I am a little reluctant to catch the falling knife 🙂

A better idea may be buy some of the new Crocs products, the Mammoth crocs looks pretty warm, huh?

crocs mammoth pic

Tags Crocs, falling-knife, mammoth

China Stocks

CROX not so fantastic quarter

Post author By stlplace
Post date November 1, 2007
No Comments on CROX not so fantastic quarter

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on November 2, 2007 by stlplace

Crocs (Nasdaq:CROX) reported a solid quarter yesterday. It also raised its own year 2007 guidance, but the number is not enough to exceed the street’s “sky high” expectation. The stock already got crushed in the after hour and pre-market trading. It’s likely it will suffer for a while. But I think the fundamental of the business is intact. From my observation in China, this thing just got started…let’s see what Olympics can do for this next year.

Another interesting story about Crocs. When I told my wife that I will have big “paper loss” on CROX stock today, she said why didn’t I sell it yesterday. Yeah, I agree I was a bit too optimistic about the stock. She also said the Crocs should sell few shoes as the weather becomes colder. Very much true. I think that’s one reason the company guided conservatively for the Q4 (and 2007 full year) results.

Seasonality is more an issue for international growth because Europe and Japan, the main growth area currently, is usually colder than US in winter. Unfortunately Australia and Brazil can not make up that…

Tags Crocs, CROX, Mindray, MR, Vanke