Categories
Stocks

GSI Technology IPO

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(Update 21Mar07) The revenue and net income for past 12 months are $50 m and $7 m respectively, according to IPOHome.  

I received this IPO offer from WR Hambrecht today. Since Xinhua Finance Media (XFML) turned out to be cold, I will be more careful here. Luckily I don’t see JP Morgan on the underwriter list. Besides Hambrecht, I saw Needham, Robert Baird. Both are respected regional investor bankers. A bit about the GSI tech, “The Company develops and markets Very Fast static random access memory products that are used primarily in high-performance networking and telecommunications equipment.”

Categories
Business China

Chinese Business Newspapers

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Since I came back, I have read some local business newspapers. No more Xin Ming Evening news, my favorite back in 90s. I read newspaper to get information, and more importantly, get some analysis and local perspective. One may ask why don’t I just go to Internet, e.g., baidu, sina, yahoo finance china, etc. My answer is I can not get some of the anlysis from the web, also I am an old fashioned guy. I am sharing my observations for some of the paper I have read. There is an excellent discussion about all this in this Chinese article if you are really curious.

Categories
China Stocks

Ajisen Ramen and E-House IPO

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I mentioned the Ajisen Ramen 味千拉面 a while ago, see this post. Today from what I read from China-CBN, they are going to do IPO in Hongkong, the symbol will be 0538.HK. Like the Huiyuan Juice, I think this will be a hot one. Please be aware I am not endorsing Japanese noodles here. As matter of fact, I found a better place than Ajisen Ramen near my work place, that’s a Chinese one.

Separately, I heard this rumor from Pacific Epoch that E-House is going IPO in NYSE this year. E-House is a real estate broker in China. Don’t confuse it with Jinfeng Investments (600606.SS), which has provided similar service in the past and has the 金丰易居 brand. Note the founder of E-House has worked for Jinfeng.

Categories
China

New Shanghai Library

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I visited the new Shanghai library the first time. Not sure whether the library was built before or after I left Shanghai in 1997, the old libaray was located near Nanjing Road, and People’s Square. Anyway, I was amazed by the number of knowledge hungry people in the library.

IMG_4680 

Categories
China

Shanghai Real Estate Spring Expo

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I went to the Shanghai Real Estate Spring Expo, at Shanghai Expo Center on Yan’an Road. Again it has been more than 10 years since I visited Shanghai Expo Center last time. The expo itself is very crowded, and some developers offer free bus ride to and from the Expo Center to demo unit. I feel some people have to buy the house because in Chinese tradition, one has to buy the house if he is getting married.

IMG_4694 

Categories
China Stocks

Bought Some Shares in Shanghai

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Finanlly I bought some A Shares in Shanghai Stock Exchange this afternoon. This is more than 10 years after my last purchase 🙂

I realized Chinese domestic stock market is still not widely open to foreign investors. There is a thing called QFII, stands for qualified foreign instiutional investors. Here is a good explaination for QFII from Havest Fund. I believe Morgan Stanley and others have QFII funds. There are also many mutual funds investing in Hongkong and asia pacific. You can ask them if you are interested. As an alternative, investors can look at Chinese ADRs traded in NYSE, Nasdaq, and H Shares in Hongkong Stock Exchanges. Personally I don’t think domestic market is mature enough for average joe in the UK, US, etc.  

Categories
China

Starbucks to Give Away Free Coffee

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Dripped coffee only, available 10 AM to noon Friday March 16 in participating stores in China, as I understand from this Yahoo news people in US already enjoyed it on March 15. Actually I heard it from my coworker first. Please don’t pass on to the people work in Cloud 9, as I don’t like wait in long line 🙂

Categories
China

BOA Card RMB withdrawl at CCB

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I mentioned it once in my blog: getting Ren Ming Bi (Chinese Yuan) at China Construction Bank using Bank of America ATM card. I tried it yesterday. It works great. The rate is 7.72, or $194.29 for CNY 1500. Don’t know if there is a transaction fee. The last I heard is there is none. There maybe some limit on how much one can withdraw each day.

BOA and CCB are partners in China. Talking about partners, many foreign banks are partnering with local banks these days, because the China banking industry will open up to foreign banks according to WTO.

Categories
China Stocks

Opening Account Round Two

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I went to ChinaClear, the Chinese securities clearing house. I don’t know what’s the equivalent in the States? I do believe they have something similar but it’s just behind the scenes. In other words, we don’t need to know all the details.

Categories
China Stocks

Opened Stock Account in Shanghai

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I thought about this for quite a while, debating whether I should joined the party in Shanghai. Finanlly I decided to pull the trigger. I went to China Merchant Bank (招商银行), and opened my stock trading account there (the securities department of CMB). The procedure is very much like that in US. I filled out a bunch of forms, including the acknowledgment of risk, showed my IDs, paid 90 Yuan for the card. I am still waiting for the final approval before I can buy stocks.

(Update 14Mar 4PM Shanghai time) I heard from my broker that I already have securities account (I bought and sold stocks in Shanghai in 1995/97). Because I could not find the old account No. I need to go to 中登公司 to get it straight.