Category: IPO

Two new Chinese IPO

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came to the US (NYSE) today.

One is VanceInfo, which I mentioned earlier in an earlier post. Quote myself:

“Also, I noticed the first Chinese software outsourcing company, VanceInfo, is going IPO in NYSE. Here is the prospectus. One word of caution: from my own experience, the Dec IPO ususally is not going to be a strong as the investment bankers try to make their bonus. So be careful.”

Another one is the first real estate developer (home builder, the one scared many people recently) listed in the US, Xinyuan Real Estate Co., based in Zhengzhou (Henan) China. Prospectus here. This one (NYSE:XIN) “The Company’s network covers more than 34 million people in five strategically selected Tier II cities, including Chengdu, Hefei, Jinan, Suzhou and Zhengzhou…”. One reason for the US listing is Chinese regutory is very tight on the listing of real estate developers, being afraid of the repeat of housing bubble seen in Japan, Hongkong and most recently the US.

Xinyuan Real estate logo

Here is a link to a Xinyuan community in Zhengzhou (via Soufun). And Chinese intro: 鑫苑（中国）置业有限公司，成立于1997年，是一家专注于大型复合社区开发，拥有10余家分子公司的专业房地产企业集团。过去的十年，年均销售复合增长率86％，客户满意度近100％。公司已在郑州、苏州、成都、合肥、济南等地拥有房地产开发项目，目前在建面积超过200万平方。2006、2007年连续两年入选中国房地产百强企业，2007年跻身中国中西部房地产公司品牌价值TOP10。

Tags 鑫苑置业, VanceInfo, VIT, XIN, Xinyuan-real-estate

IPO

NetSuite Open IPO

Reading Time: 2 minutes

(Update Dec 18) The company raised its IPO price range: now it’s between $16 and $19. I am NOT bidding it.

WR Hambrecht sent me an email about Open IPO. This got me to read its prospectus. NetSuite is a new kind of software company co-founded by Larry Ellison, the founder and chairman of Oracle. By new I meant they provide “software as service”, vs. the tradtional software companies such as Microsoft, in which a consumer buys product, install it, do some customization, and (possibly) run updates, etc. Quote its prospectus:

“NetSuite is a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management application suites for small and medium-sized businesses. We provide a comprehensive suite of enterprise resource planning, or ERP, customer relationship management, or CRM, and e-commerce capabilities that enables customers to manage their critical back-office, front-office and web operations in a single application…We deliver our suite over the Internet as a subscription service using the software-as-a-service or on-demand model. Our revenue has grown from $17.7 million in 2004 to $67.2 million in 2006. For the nine months ended September 30, 2007, we had revenue of $76.8 million. As of September 30, 2007, we had over 5,400 active customers…”

Tags N, NetSuite, open-IPO, WR-Hambrecht

China IPO

VisionChina Media IPO on the deck

Post author By stlplace
Post date November 25, 2007
No Comments on VisionChina Media IPO on the deck

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“For every Focus Media, there are 10 AirMedia or VisionChina Media”.

I took bus and taxi from time to time when I was in Shanghai, because I don’t have my own car. One thing I notice is those LCD screens on bus, metro and taxi. There are news on the bus LCD, the ones in metro and taxi are mostly advertisement. Twice have I seen the NFL (American national football league) stuff on metro. Anyway, I think this LCD advertisement thing should make money, both for the transportation companies and advertisers.

Now one such company, VisionChina Media (proposed ticker:VLSN), is coming to Nasdaq. Here is the excerpt from Pacific Epoch: Out-of-home advertising network VisionChina Media Inc. set the price range for its planned Nasdaq initial public offering at US$9.50 to US$11.50 per share, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. VisionChina plans to sell 13.5 million American Depository Shares in the offering to raise up to US$155 million. Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch & Co, CIBC World Markets, and Piper Jaffray are underwriting the IPO. VisionChina generated net income of US$3.7 million in the first nine months of 2007. VisionChina uses real-time mobile digital TV broadcasts to provide content and advertising on mass transit systems in China. The company began operations on April 8, 2005. VisionChina plans to trade under the ticker “VISN”.

Tags China, media-IPO

IPO

Squeeze the bubble

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In last few days many new Chinese IPO listed in the US are under pressure, notablly:

E-House China (EJ), China Digital TV (STV), Wuxi Pharma (WX)

and last but the least, Giant Interactive (GA), the No. 1 online gaming company in China, owned by well known Chinese entreprenur Mr. Shu Yuzhu. According to CnAnalyst, GA also has the highest margin in all Chinese stocks listed in the US, with a gross margin 90% and net margin 70%. It sounds to me they are in drug dealing business 🙂 Because those numbers easily beat monopoly companies such as PetroChina (PTR) and China Mobile (CHL), or leading search company Baidu (BIDU).

All right, I shall be more positive in my blog: actually I like Wuxi Pharma among those new companies, along with the Longtop (LFT) I mentioned earlier. Because I think their business are more sustainable.

Wuxi Pharma Tech pic

Tags EJ, GA, STV, Wuxi-pharma, WX

China IPO

Alibaba debut in HK

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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

China IPO

Longtop Financial Tech IPO

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I didn’t pay much attention to Chinese IPOs listed in US lately. This spring (March) I got into XFML, which is a big mess. Recently I traded WX (Wuxi Pharma Tech), which I think is the best Chinese IPO this year so far. But I am not a biotech/pharma guy, and I felt WX valuation was not cheap shortly after IPO, so I decided to sell it.

Today I happened to read that Longtop Financial Tech (LFT, 东南融通), an IT and software provider for financial services in Xiameng, China, will be listed in NYSE this week. You can read its prospectus here and listen to its roadshow at IPOHome. I have not got into the financial details, but from my preliminary analysis, this is a solid company in a fast growth industry (financial services in China).

From IPOHome, it will be priced between $14 to 16, and will debut this week. Note Goldman Sachs (Asia) will be the underwriter.

(Customers line up for ATM machines, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai, 2007)

Tags financial-services, IT-services, longtop, software-provider

IPO Web

Will VMware be the next Google?

Post author By stlplace
Post date July 13, 2007
7 Comments on Will VMware be the next Google?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

These days “Virtualization” and virtualization software maker VMware are hot in both IT world and the Wallstreet. Jim Cramer pumped it as next Google on his “Mad Money” show on CNBC; guys at “Fast Money” (also CNBC) touted it as the next big thing. Both of them encouraging people buy the EMC (parent co. of VMware) stocks. My take is: whenever someone touted something as the next big thing, be very careful.

So what is virtulization exactly? In simple English, it let a computer to simulate many computers for testing new software, configuration, before formal deployment. This will cut the cost of buying all the servers, setting up a big testing lab etc. I read about the software from a book talking about “how to set up software small business”. This is relevant to small business because their budget is more tight compared to big IT giants like IBM.

Tags DIVX, EMC, RACK, RVBD, Virtuliaztion, VMware-IPO

IPO

Interactive Brokers IPO update

Post author By stlplace
Post date April 28, 2007
No Comments on Interactive Brokers IPO update

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After I read its prospectus, I decide not to pursue its open IPO. Another reason is I just bought some HMIN and MR: I want to limit the number of stocks I hold.

IB is a great business. I heard its name first from a friend who recommend it for its low cost and high speed in stock (options) trading. Later on I found it’s very popular among active traders. I read its prospectus (old) last Nov and was impressed by its technology; I also learned “what is market maker” from the reading. But I do have some concern: the valuation and the control share holder. It does have impressive growth though: from market making and brokerage.

Tags IBKR, interactive-brokers

IPO

Hedge Fund Fortress IPO

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This is probablly the hottest IPO this year (so far). It went up 89% on its debut. But I did not jump into it because: 1) I don’t have much cash; 2) Hedge fund is the business I don’t know too much about.

I am not against shorting stocks, trading options and other exotic stuff; but these are the areas I don’t feel comfortable (math, lots of math) and don’t plan to learn it at this time. I am just an old fashioned guy, and my role model is the guy in Omaha. One of his rule is “buy the business you can understand; and the business that generates lots of cash and does not change too much over the years, e.g., Coca Cola and Gillette”.

Interestly, Mr. Duan Yongping, the legendary figure in China electronics industry, is also learning Buffett’s philosophy these days.

Tags Duan-Yongping, Fortress, Warren-Buffett