Year: 2008

Categories
Fun

This crazy presidential election

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on September 4, 2008 by stlplace

Normally I don’t talk about politics or religion in my blog. But I was indeed excited by the John McCain interesting VP pick (last Friday) shortly following Barack Obama’s historical nomination last week. I am not talking just from gender or race point of view. I am talking about the excitment this election generates from the ordinary people. This noon when I was at lunch at “Jack in the Box”, I heard people talking about election.

I also noticed the intense emotional discussion on some of the Chinese bbs board. But I was not happy when I saw words like “McSame”, or more insulting ones like “Hussain”, “Osama” (to label Barack). Although I could not vote, I do have my own point of view, but I would not try to disparage someone just because I don’t agree with him/her. Also, I felt either president McCain or Obama will do better than president Bush, because they are centrist in heart, and they have a low bar for comparison.

There are lots of mis-information on the web, to smear the candidates from people with an agenda. I found this factcheck is a refreshing one because it lists the fact, and let voters to decide.

Continue reading “This crazy presidential election”
Categories
IPO

Coca Cola bought Huiyuan Juice

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on March 22, 2009 by stlplace

(Update Sept 5) It seems there are anti-trust concern about this acquisition. Some source says if this merge approved, Coca Cola will have 40% of juice market share in China. Another concern is, like many Chinese companies (Sohu, Netease), Huiyuan is actually registered in Cayman Island, theoritically it is M&A between two foreign companies. It seems the recently approved Chinese Anti-trust law did not say clearly how to treat such cases. Maybe my wife (China licensed attorney) will know.

(Update Sept 3) More analysis at 21cbh in Chinese. Coke paid about a PE of 42 for Huiyuan, not surprisingly high considering the huge potential in Chinese juice market.

(Original) It was not too long ago Huiyuan Juice, one of the largest juice producer in China, went public in Hongkong Stock Exchange. Now Coca Cola (NYSE: KO) is buying it for 17.9 billion HKD, at more 200% premium of the stock closing price (4.14 HKD) as of August 29. Coke is paying 12.20 HKD per share.

Chinese story at 21cbh. English story at Bloomberg.

Huiyuan Juice factory pic
(source: the standard)

The ticker symbol for Huiyuan is 1886.HK.

Categories
Fun Web

Labor day weekend

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on September 1, 2008 by stlplace

Install software (web hosting)
Drupal, WordPress and phpBB. Had problems with the Chinese input (display). Found the solution to WordPress problem from web. Re-install the phpBB with Chinese langugage pack manualy, because I could not add Chinese langugage after the fantastico automatic installation. I will fight the Drupal problem later on (with the confidence installing phpBB manually).

John McCain event
Attended John McCain road to convention Rally at O’Fallon. Don’t get me wrong. I am not endorsing any candidate in this election, nor can I vote because I am not US citizen. I am interested in the election politics and have my own opinion though.

Continue reading “Labor day weekend”
Categories
Fun

iPhone girl

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on September 5, 2008 by stlplace

(Update Sept 3) It appears we are all duped by this news. There are reports (mitbbs) that this while thing is manufactured by MacRumors, or someone in China. I was not surprised to see another Fu Rong Sister like thing.

(Original) I heard about it from web these days, and found NY Daily news has pictures of this iPhone girl. She is a factory worker for Foxconn, the contract manufacturer for Apple iPod and iPhone. I remember a few years ago there were reports on bad working conditions for workers assembling iPod. Hope this time she won’t get fired for this honest and minor mistake. Note she was smiling at the camera, as I understand her month salary is about the retailing price of an iPod. Sometimes happiness is not directly related to how much money we make.

Continue reading “iPhone girl”
Categories
Fun

McDonald Douglas DC-9

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on August 26, 2008 by stlplace

Yesterday I rided the DC-9 (Northwest Air) from MSP to STL. My seat is near the wing, and it was very noisy. So I did some search, and here is the wiki entry of DC-9. As I guessed, DC-9 is an old aircraft (30+ years old). Quote Wiki:

“The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 (initially known as the Douglas DC-9) is a twin-engine, single-aisle jet airliner. It was first manufactured in 1965 with its first flight later that year. The DC-9 was designed for frequent, short flights. The final DC-9 was delivered in October 1982.
……
Northwest Airlines operates a fleet of DC-9 aircraft, most of which are over 30 years old. With severe increases in fuel prices in the summer of 2008, Northwest Airlines finally began retiring its DC-9s, switching to Airbus A319s that are 27% more fuel efficient…”

The flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul to St. Louis was only half full. I guess NWA could use a smaller plane to save some fuel, and noise.

Categories
Master Series

Buffett CNBC interview

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on August 25, 2008 by stlplace

When the Master speaks, we all listen. Here is what he said on CNBC “squawk on the street” Aug 22. Note I don’t pay attention to CNBC and “Squawk on the Street”, unless it’s someone like Buffett or Gross (Pimco) speaking. Here are the transcripts at CNBC. I read it from trader1688 first. Some interesting quotes:

What Chinese company got Buffett interested?
6:22 AM: Buffett reveals that Berkshire made a half-billion dollar bid on a Chinese stock that wasn’t accepted. He wouldn’t say what stock or what industry. He did say that under the right circumstances he could have a lot of money in China, but noted that there are government restrictions on foreign ownership that must be overcome.

Buffett left some money on the table
7:05 AM: Buffett confirms that he sold 60 percent of his Anheuser-Busch [BUD 67.79 0.03 (+0.04%) ] shares at prices around $61-$62 before the company agreed to a friendly merger with InBev at a sweetened price of $70. Buffett says at the time he wasn’t sure the deal would go through given Anheuser’s strong resistance to InBev’s original bid. “In retrospect, I was wrong,” but he says that often happens.

Continue reading “Buffett CNBC interview”
Categories
Beijing Olympics

It’s all Usain Bolt

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on August 20, 2008 by stlplace

Boy, he makes the 100 meters, 200 meters so easy.

Usain Bolt Jamaca Beijing Olympics 2008 100 meters
(Bolt hold Jamaica flag after winning 100m; Source: China.org.cn)

What else can I say? I wish I could be talented in stocks as he does in running 🙂

Also maybe we should visit the beautiful caribbean country of Jamaica, and we may get some inspiration there.

Categories
Investing

A wipe out story from mitbbs

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on August 20, 2008 by stlplace

Original link here. Some discussions at trader1688. I don’t know even if Warren can come back from this one. Just like in soccer, when you are 0:10 and have 10 minutes left, basically even Maradona (wiki: Diego Maradona) can not help. That’s why we don’t want to “all in” (in this case, use margin) when we speculate. As Buffett and Munger did in the past, always keep some cash at hand.

发信人: failed (Failed), 信区: Stock
标 题: 紧急求救：FNM损失已经12万了，我该怎么办？谢谢您了！！！！！
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Tue Aug 19 12:35:30 2008), 转信

I understand investment is a personal choice and I deserve whatever I have.

However, during this critical moment,
your any comments are sincerely appreciated.

Thank you so much!!!

Continue reading “A wipe out story from mitbbs”
Categories
Beijing Olympics Shanghai Composite

Disappointing moment

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on August 19, 2008 by stlplace

Obviously when Chinese track star Liu Xiang quit the race due to heel injury, we are all disappointed. Not only the fact he could not get a “face saving” gold medal, and he is China’s only hope on track and field (at least from men side); but also the fact we did not know how serious his injury was. At the same thing, I can fully appreciate the pressure on him, imagine 1.3 billion put hope on me. I would not think about that probability. My wife has a lot sympathy for Liu Xiang, but I rebutted “at least he is far richer than most of Chinese” 🙂

Stock market
China TechFaith also disappoints:
From Reuters, UPDATE 2-China TechFaith gives weak Q3 outlook; to cut jobs. So CNTF is following Spreadtrum SPRD’s step. Don’t try to bottom fish on them yet! I expect the handset business in China continues to be challenging, for the near future.

The broader market:
The US market goes sideways as financials and consumer spending continue the downward pressure. In China, the mood is much pessimistic, as the Shanghai composite drop around 2300, the lowest since early 2006. So are we heading to a real estate crash in China? Let’s me borrow one word from Mr. Greenspan, it’s possible, but unlikely.

Categories
IPO

Spreadtrum account receivable problem

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on August 16, 2008 by stlplace

SPRD_AR_inv_2Q08
(Spreadtrum A/R and inventory from 4Q 06 to 2Q 08, click to enlarge)

As shown in the picture above, their A/R (account receivable) jumped from $1.4 m on Mar 31 to 17.4 m June 30; inventory did not reduced much. This is also evident from its reduced cash postion. Read more details from its earning release if you are interested.

Source: my google spreadsheet, data from SPRD investor relation and SEC filings.