stlplaceChinese like the number NINE. This is the office building I work these days, the Chinese name is Long Zhi Meng (dream of dragon). The office building is attached to the shopping mall, which has food, coffee, fitness, department stores and Carrefour, the super market. So essentially once you are in the building, you can spend the whole day there without leaving the building (smart bosses, huh?).
The following is the building external view and the noodle place.
I mean the stock for the short term, not the hotel. They reported the Q4 2006 and full year results today. Here is the result. It’s good number, but again the current stock price is way ahead of curve. Going forward they are “going to beep up franchise hotels in Beijing and China”, translated in plain English: franchise hotel does not generate much revenue, the profit margin may not be as good as leased/operated hotel too. They expect a 60% to 70% top line growth for 2007, which is reasonable. But that may not satisfy the lofty expectation from the Street.
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”?
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.
(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.
This is from what I feel after spending 36 hours Shanghai. I read quite a few newspaper, magazine, and watch the “finance” section on the TV (first Caijing etc.), as part of research for Xinhua Finance Media IPO, stock market is a very hot topic in all those places. The scary part is, in one program this analyst promoted how easy it is to make money using options (as Quan Zheng in Chinese).
I am in Shanghai now. The flight connection was not as smooth as I expected, finanlly I got here about 5 and a half hours late than original schedule. I got oppertunity to see the new Beijing airport on the way: very impressive infrustructure. I guess it’s ready for the big party in 2008. I will talk more about my thoughts and airline customer experience later.
I also read Buffett latest anual shareholder letter as I talked in my previous post. Very good stuff and fairly easy to read.
My second reading assignment is Xinhua Finance Media F1 prospectus. I agree with some of the analysts the valuation is a bit high at $12 to $14. It implies a market cap of $800 m and note its 2006 revenue is about $59 m. I don’t think media and advertising industry enjoy a high margin. The growth oppertunity is there, so is the competition and challenge…I flipped through the TV channel and was impressed by the “No.1 Caijing”, the competitor program of Xinhua’s Fortune China. I tried to search for Fortune China but was not successful.
I will be in Shanghai this Saturday, and stay there for an extended period of time. I am going to do some bargain hunting, after the big drop in Shanghai stock market 🙂
Just kidding. Seriously, every time I visit China, I learn something new. This is not flattering. I hope this time I can learn more. If anyone who is interested in meeting a software guy with deep interest in stocks and business, we can talk in Chinese 中文 or English.
Be aware I may not update blog for 2 days due to travel.
I received an Email from my broker WR Hambrecht asking me if I am interested in Xinhua Finance IPO. I talked it a little in a previous post; now I feel it’s not another Maritz. Also after yesterday’s crash, I got a little warmed up on it. So I called them and indicated my interest. Don’t know if I will get some. We will see.
Here is their F1 prospectus. I think some of comparables include: FMCN, JRJC in China and Viacom, Reuters in the US. Just on the top of my head, will do my reading and report my finding later. By the way, Xinhua is a very well known name and brand in China.
First, a little disclaimer, the title was inspired by my friend Zhong Siwei “Let’s think China” blog. I think this pretty well summerizes the “blaming game” after yesterday’s global market sell off. Whether it has credit or not, from CNBC to the Newspaper and Internet, all fingers pointing to one place, China. No wonder typically soft spoken Premier Wen Jiabao, firmly declared “financial market stability is the key….”. I think he really meant “it’s not our fault”.