Category: China

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China Stocks

New Oriental EDU Seconday Offering

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The following is from Reuters. I have not seen the final prospectus from SEC web site yet. 

“HONG KONG, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Investors and New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (EDU.N: Quote, Profile , Research), China’s largest education group, and its investors have raised US$334 million after pricing 8.05 million American Depositary Shares at a 1.78 percent discount to its last closing price.

Investors including Tiger Global and the founder of New Oriental sold the shares at US$41.5 apiece.

The shares sold comprised 92 percent of existing shares and 8 percent of new shares, the source said.”

(Update 09Feb07) The prospectus is here. If you look carefully at the “selling shareholders” section, you will find “Tigerstep Developments Limited, a company incorporated in British Virgin Islands, is wholly owned by Bamei Li, mother of Michael Minhong Yu”. Yu’s mom is probablly the richest grandma in China 🙂 

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China Stocks

Second Look at Huiyuan Juice IPO

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I noticed this juice thing is getting popular in China, just like the coffee did in recent years. In summer 2004, when I attended a bunch of formal dinners in Ningbo, juice is an option, as is the wine. Juice is also offered in the airplane. One thing I noticed that the orange juice in China is mostly “from concentrated”, probablly due to cost and taste reasons. So the demand and the growth is there. The problem with the company, from I read from FinanceAsia:

“Among the potential concerns, observers say, is the cost of buying juice concentrates and fruit puree, which increased by more than 50% in the first nine months last year. The company buys about 56% of this raw material from abroad, making it vulnerable to swings in international prices, particularly for oranges.”

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Business China

Chinese Solar Stocks are Hot

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First is the SunTech Power (STP), it came to NYSE a little more than a year ago. The stock almost doubled from its debut. The company is founded by Australian Haigui and based on Wuxi, Jiangsu province. This is the largest Chinese solar panel marker and it’s profitable.

Then comes the Canadian Solar (CSIQ). Don’t know why it’s called Canadian. Maybe founded by Canadian Haigui? Anyway the company is based in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

Just before Xmas 2006 two new players joined the party. Solarfun (SOLF) is based in Qidong, Jiangsu province. The rumor is the founder came from SunTech Power. Trina Solar (TSL), is based in Changzhou, Jiangsu. TSL is hot in last few days (don’t know why, not my specialty).

Last but not least, here comes the JA Solar (JASO). From its prospectus it’s from Hebei. The CEO worked for SunTech Power before founding the company.

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Business China

Sohu Coming of Age

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When I first came to the US in 1997, there is no Chinese web portals. We read Chinese news primarily through BBS. The Chinese language support for the browser was not widely available either. I remember a friend told me something about installing the “Chinese version of DOS” on the PC so that he can read the Chinese. Then comes the RichWin (the Sina), the Sohu and Netease. And the Internet Explorer incorporated the Chinese language support so we don’t need to install NJStar for the PC.

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Business China

Another New Oriental?

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A few months ago I saw a statement from New Oriental about the “Oriental Standard”. I thought Oriental Standard was some “New Oriental” knockoffs, which also provide English education in China. I was wrong. After a little research, now I believe Mr. Yu Minghong owned the ancester of Oriental Standard (it’s called New Oriental Professional Education Center) before 2006. It’s an IT training and service subsidiary of New Oriental group. In order to prepare the New Oriental IPO in NYSE, that subsidiary was spun off. The Oriental Standard focused more on IT professional service and outsourcing, in addtion to IT training.

Separately, I read Chinese news and it says Oriental Standard raised fund from Doll Capital, the company took 51job to Nasdaq a few years ago. To make things more interesting, it seems Oriental Standard still uses the New Oriental domain name. Oh, well, just like Lenovo still uses the “thinkpad” after they bought the PC/laptop from IBM 🙂

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Business China

Jinjiang Inn Hook up with Expedia

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Zhao Huan Yan published his January report for China domestic hotels industry. I am interested to learn some update on the economy chain such as Jinjiang Inns. I noticed Expedia, the leading US online travel consolidator, is establishing partnership with Jinjiang Inn. It seems foreigners can use expedia to book the Jinjiang Inn soon.

(Update 04Feb07) I looked up expedia, it appears you can book many 2.5 stars (and up) hotels in Shanghai right now, some of them are belong to Jinjiang group (such as the famous Peace Hotel in Nanjing Rd Bund). Have not seen Jinjiang Inn (or Jinjiang Stars yet).

I vaguely remember the foreigners make up about 7 to 8% of guests for Jinjiang and Home Inns (Rujia). This includes the foreigners already in China. In other words, I don’t expect Expedia Jinjiang partnership to give Jinjiang Inn a huge leg up in this “foreigners market”.

jin jiang Inn

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China Stocks

Old Ladies in Kansas and Shanghai Housewives

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It seems the “irrational exuberrance” in Chinese domestic stock market finally got a reality check. Here is an excellent article from MarketWatch. Again quoted from the article:

“There was a story on the front page of The Wall Street Journal about a group of little old ladies in the Midwest who soured on their boring portfolio as they watched dot-com investors get rich. The good ladies had traded their utilities for the shares of technology firms.

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China

Promotions of China Economy Hotels

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I noticed they usually offer some discount during Chinese New Year. Because by tradition majority of people will stay with families (at home). Here are some promotions:

Jinjiang Inn

Home Inns

English reservation pages:

Jinjiang Inn

Motel 168

Surprisingly Rujia doesn’t have English for reservation, although I did see foreigners when I stayed there. I think telephone is more common used (compared to web) for reservation in China.

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Business China

Chatea Got 2nd Round VC Fund

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I wrote about Chatea, a Chinese fast food company a while ago. I have been there in my China trip last year. Apparently they are expanding all these years and they just announced a new round of funding. GGV (together with IDGVC, SIG, Neil Shen, TECO and FMCG) invested $10.68 m for 20% stake. Note Neil Shen (co-founder of Ctrip and Home Inns) is on the list again. As suggested in the article, once the estimated market capital reaches $100 m, they will go for IPO (most likely 2008). So stay tuned.

This is another good play for “emergence of Chinese middle class consumers”.

IMG_3974

(Update 02-11-2023) It looks like all Chatea restaurants are closed now.

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Business China

Mindray MR Secondary Offering

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It appears that Mindray started new offering today. I read its SEC filings here. The insiders will sell 9,827,220 shares and the underwriter will have option to buy additional 1,474,083 shares from selling share holders. That alone won’t have dilution effect.

Separately, the company filed S1 form for stock options registration. That will dilute the stocks if option being excercised.

One thing I am not 100% sure is the difference between secondary offering and insider selling after lock up period (usually 180 days after IPO). I think this one belong to “secondary” because it’s not 180 days after its IPO yet (Sept 26, 2006).

(Update 01Feb07) FinanceAsia has more details about this selling.