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Re: CCCL
I'm pretty certain that the 20-F deadline is 4 months (so 4/30). I own a bunch of companies that haven't reported yet.
Re: LIWA
Had credible hit pieces and credible rebuttals. I know some investors have visited the company in the past year and been convinced the business is real.
It's hard for me to grasp how the company makes so much money from a relatively small amount of PP&E and what seems like a simple business. $47mm of PP&E is the source of $900mm/year of revenue and over $50mm/year of net income. Can I buy some of those magic money-spewing machines?
I don't know any comps against which to benchmark performance (the useless 10K explanation is "our primary competitors are PRC domestic companies. To a lesser degree we face competition from international companies").
SCMP: Hong Kong exchange welcomes New York defectors keen to list
Hong Kong's capital market is set to embrace a new breed of Chinese issuers that have left the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange for a listing in the city, as a more favourable valuation of shares and the depth of liquidity have lured them back home.
"There are more take-private activities by [the mainland] companies previously listed in the US markets since they got disillusioned and saw less benefit from a US listing," Mark Hyde, Clifford Chance's head of finance in Asia Pacific, said in a Redefining Hong Kong panel discussion hosted by the South China Morning Post.
Marshall Nicholson, a managing director with Beijing-based investment bank CICC, pointed out that a US listing was very costly to small companies since they had to issue quarterly financial reports and faced stringent legal burdens such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
"Greed is a good thing sometimes," said Nicholson, referring to the firms' decision to relist in Hong Kong in pursuit of a higher valuation.
Nicholson added that the development of the city's capital market had allowed it to offer a more diversified range of products, including more issuance of new shares, bonds and convertible securities, gradually moving away from a reliance on initial public market offerings.
With financial aid from private equity firms, a dozen US-listed Chinese companies decided to go private through buyouts as US regulators and investors turned hostile after a few accounting scandals and short sellers' accusations over the so-called variable interest entity corporate structure. Under such a structure, Chinese firms and foreign venture capital funds set up an offshore vehicle to gain control of the Chinese firms through a complex series of deals.
Focus Media, a Shanghai-based display advertising firm, is planning to conduct a Hong Kong listing early next year.
This follows a consortium of investors including the firm's chairman, Jason Jiang, and Carlyle taking the firm private in a US$3.1 billion buyout deal in August 2012, one of the largest-ever buyouts of a Chinese firm, according to Dealogic.
"The capital market in Hong Kong today is as large as it is in New York and London," said Nicholson, who came to the city in 2002 after more than a decade of banking experience in New York.
"Much of the decision-making process by the international fund management firms has shifted to Hong Kong from their headquarters, a clear sign of the importance of the city."
Bill Stacey, chairman of the Lion Rock Institute, a Hong Kong-based free-market think tank, described the city as an international financial centre that took off after the handover in 1997 as its ample liquidity and sound legal infrastructure enabled it to directly compete with New York.
"The depth of market liquidity and timely policies are vivid examples of the city's response to the global financial crisis of 2008," Stacey said.
EDS merger vote adjournment Link
Buyer hasn't lined up the financing. Seems strange because he is paying less than the company's cash on hand. If the cash is real then what's the problem?
Re: YZC
Probably gaps because it's a blue chip with its primary listing in Hong Kong. So the real move takes place overnight. There will be an opening gap in NY to reflect that move and then it will drift for the rest of the NY session.
CCCR Offering Slideshow Link
Problem #1 is that the stock isn't very cheap. Every blue chip Chinese bank has a P/E under 5.
Problem #2 is that it's hard for the stock to rally until this offering gets placed.
Re: MCOX
On a fundamental basis it looks to me like the major Chinese internet companies have the ambition and resources to crush all the marginal players in ecommerce gaming content etc...
If Alibaba is like Amazon then MCOX may be like Bluefly. MCOX revenues down 42% last year.
Will MCOX stock rally in sympathy with the Alibaba IPO? I dunno, but if it does then I think it would set up an excellent short.
LLEN CEO Resigns
for personal reasons... and it happened a week ago
On April 1, 2014, Mr. Dickson V. Lee, Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and Chairman of the Board of Directors (“Chairman”) of L & L Energy, Inc (NASDAQ: LLEN) notified the Company’s Board of Directors that he is resigning his position as CEO and Chairman, effective immediately. Mr. Lee resigned for personal reasons and not due to any disagreement with the Company. On March 27, 2014, the United States Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought forth against him.
Re: Underperformers
A year ago just about every China small cap was a fraud or it was cheap. Since then many of the stocks have rallied and some have even become expensive, especially compared to weak YTD performance of Hong Kong listings. I think investors need to adjust their approach.
In recent months I have been balancing long holdings in oversold and undervalued names with short positions in overbought and overvalued names. Even in an up market, picking shorts has been pretty easy.
When these stocks were unloved, one could hold the "bag" with some faith that the sellers had no clue what they were doing. Now the "weeee names" have plenty of clueless buyers who will dump on the first bad news or fading momentum.
Re: CCCR
This seems like a decent company at a fairly cheap price, but serving a deeply unpopular market (high risk lending in China).
Tough thing about buying this stock is that they filed for a secondary (if I recall correctly they wanted to raise capital to start a leasing business). If the stock ever pops then the company will fill all the demand with new shares.
Re: NPD
Earned $0.02/share for the year so it's a low/no growth business trading at a P/E over 100. Unfavorable tax ruling may discourage future return of capital distributions which seem to be one of the only reasons people own the stock.
Re: CCCL
Last year the earnings announcement was delayed by an impairment test of the PP&E. Considering the low capacity utilization, that might be an issue again.
Re: PACT
ASIA PACT and CIS all gone. Would be embarrassing if ISS can't finish its deal.
Re: LLEN
Fake CFO - that's a new twist. The indictment doesn't actually say anything about the purported coal business, but if Lee was willing to lie about having a CFO then he was probably willing to lie about everything else too.
I'm short a small amount at IB. Borrow rate is now 62% - I wonder if I'll end up losing money on the position.
Re: LAS
At first glance it looks expensive compared to HK listed dealers, some of which are much larger companies:
0881
1728
1293
3669
1828
3836
1268
GSI Disastrous results Link
Negative Gross Margin
Huge Cash Outflow
Negative Shareholder Equity
Re: CXDC
They hit the earnings target for conversion of the MS preferred at $6.25/share.
YZC: ML Research Comments below (note that their price target of HK$4.60 per share is equivalent to about US$5.93 per ADS)
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FY13 results down 87% YoY; 24% below consensus
YZC reported FY13 results: Revenue fell by 3% YoY to RMB56.4bn and net profit
fell by 87% YoY to RMB777mn (EPS RMB 16cents). The company declared
dividend of RMB 2cents per share.
Coal revenue fell by 3% YoY to RMB54.4bn, mainly due to
weak coal price
Salable coal sales volume rose by 11.8% YoY to 104mt. However, ASP for the
company fell by 14.7% YoY to RMB535/t; ASP for Shanxi/Heze/Ordos fell by
19.3%/16.1%/20.6% YoY to RMB282/609/188/t, respectively. ASP for Yancoal
Australia and Yancoal International fell by 11.5% and 9.2% YoY, respectively.
Overall, ASP fell by 13.4% YoY to RMB524/t.
Cost control: a positive surprise
Total cost of sales from the coal business only increased by 1% YoY to RMB42.2bn.
Unit cost for the company declined by 16.1% to RMB264/t. Unit cost for
Shanxi/Heze/Ordos declined by 26.3%/15.4%/6.3% to RMB229/464/158/t,
respectively. Thanks to the great cost control, gross profit only fell by 15% YoY to
RMB10.7bn.
One-time item hurt the bottom line
The company recorded RMB1.7bn exchange losses (vs. FY12: 714mn gain) and
RMB2.1bn impairment loss on intangible assets (vs. FY12: 417mn loss).
Guided stable sales and Capex target for 2014
The company plans to sell 105mt coal in 2014, stable compared to that in 2013. In
2014, the company plans to spend RMB9.4bn on Capex, slightly higher than
RMB91.4bn in 2013.
Price objective basis & risk Yanzhou Coal (YZCHF)
Our price objective of HK$4.6 is based on 0.6x 2013E P/NPV, implying 52x
2013E P/E and 7.7x 2013E EV/EBITDA.
German listed Chi-scam blows up Link
Just background information for US investors...
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Ming Le Sports AG announces further reasons for resignation of the auditor
Frankfurt, March 20, 2014 - Ming Le Sports AG today was informed by the
originally envisaged auditor for the financial year 2013, Warth & Klein
Grant Thornton AG ("Grant Thornton"), about first results of the
preliminary audit proceedings and further reasons resulting thereof why
Grant Thornton is not willing to act as auditor for the financial
statements of the financial year 2013. In its letter Grant Thornton informs
Ming Le Sports AG that they had started the auditing procedures in advance
of Grant Thornton being appointed by the court as the auditor for the
financial year 2013. During the preliminary auditing proceedings Grant
Thornton had checked the existence of cash, revenues, trade receivables,
costs of sales and trade payables of Mingle (China) Co., Ltd. and Fujian
Mingle Sportswear Co., Ltd. (both entities together as "Mingle China"). In
this context also the existence of major customers and suppliers of Mingle
China were reviewed. Four of the 26 customers and two of the 44 suppliers
of Mingle China have, so Grant Thornton, had been identified, which the
business licenses had been marked as either cancelled or suspended in the
commercial register. In response to these findings, Grant Thornton checked
the respective bank accounts of the customers and suppliers concerned and
could not verify that the bank accounts were existing or operating at the
time of check. Grant Thornton further states that existing documentation
was insufficient evidence for the existence of the said revenues and trade
receivables, neither for the trade payables.
Grant Thornton has asked the Management Board of Ming Le Sports AG to
provide further proofs and allow further checks in this respect. The
Management Board and Grant Thornton could not agree on Ming Le Sports AG
allowing further checks and giving further proofs. As a consequence, Grant
Thornton terminated the mandate with Ming Le Sports AG in the Letter.
The Management Board and Supervisory Board of Ming Le Sports AG is
immediately going to start investigations on this issue and will clarify
the facts. It is going to do so together with the new auditor which is
expected to be appointed by court shortly.
CHOP Results Link
I wouldn't touch this stock in the current environment because it has provided guarantees for large debt obligations of other companies. In a credit squeeze (like now) those guarantees could get called.
ALN Convertible Note issuance Link
4.5% coupon
$1.15 conversion price
WH Merger Update
Deadline extended to 5/31/14. Closing ASAP, subject to conditions ...
US listings are hugely outperforming Chinese blue chips
Comparison of the USX China Index vs FXI (FTSE/Xinhua China 25):
Blue chips are down pretty significantly this year due to pessimism about the Chinese economy.
IMO this divergent performance has become a risk factor for the US listings. They were almost all undervalued 1-2 years ago. Now many appear overvalued.
Re: Alibaba
FENG should benefit because it has proprietary content.
OTOH, this move also demonstrates the tremendous resources that industry leaders bring to ecommerce, gaming, communications etc... Smaller competitors will be crushed.
Re: UTSI
Mostly, I don't like this. The only good part is that the company's largest shareholder (with a board seat) wants to own more stock.
But I don't see any financial benefit to the company or other shareholders. The company repurchased a significant % of its own shares through a tender offer at $3.60. Then Shah offered to buy the company for $3.20. Now the company is issuing new shares to Shah at $2.67?
ZX: QVT bought the big block that traded Thursday. Link
I see this as a positive development since they know the company well.
Re: YONG
Rejection of a deal by minority holders happens from time to time in Hong Kong and I don't think it's any kind of red flag. Most likely the minority holders reached an informed conclusion that the stock is worth more than $6.69.
Is there any catalyst for a bounce? Seems like this drop is different from a short-seller hit with claims that can be disproven. And shorts themselves are usually buying the drop, covering their positions and banking their gains while continuing to blog about fraud and "going to zero".
Now YONG is back to being a weird business earning extraordinary profits from a fertilizer product that may not even work.
CCIH - Placement at $16.34 facilitates exit by long-term shareholders. If these unidentified long-term sellers and buyers agreed that $16.34 is a fair price for their exchange then it seems odd that the stock immediately jumped to $25.
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ChinaCache Announces US$55 Million Private Placement
BEIJING, March 3, 2014 — ChinaCache International Holdings Ltd. (“ChinaCache” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: CCIH), the leading total solutions provider of Internet content and application delivery services in China, today announced that it has signed a definitive securities purchase agreement with certain Institutional Investors (the “Institutional Investors”) affiliated with one of the world’s leading institutional investment management firms.
Pursuant to this agreement, the Institutional Investors will make an aggregate investment of US$55 million in ChinaCache by subscribing for 53,855,569 newly issued ordinary shares of the Company, which are represented by 3,365,973 American Depositary Shares of the Company (“ADSs”). The purchase price is US$16.34 per ADS, or US$1.02125 per ordinary share. The transaction is expected to close in March 2014, subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The Company also agrees to give the Institutional Investors the preemptive rights to subscribe for the new shares that may be issued by the Company, in proportion to their shareholdings and certain registration rights.
Concurrently with the signing of the securities purchase agreement, the Company has signed definitive share repurchase agreements with certain existing shareholders, pursuant to which the Company agrees to repurchase a total number of 28,960,922 ordinary shares of the Company with the same price as the price Institutional Investors pay to subscribe the new shares. The Company will use the proceeds from the transaction for capital expenditures and to pay for the repurchased shares.
“We are pleased to have attracted top-tier institutional investors to strengthen our institutional ownership profile and augment our capital expenditure needs,” said Ms. Jing An, Acting CFO. “One of our top priorities is to continue to attract long term institutional investors to our company as we execute on our plans to drive shareholder value. With this financing, certain early stage and existing investors can achieve liquidity, and enable additional quality investors to establish a presence in the ChinaCache name.”
ZX - Huge 2.5mm block trade yesterday. Capital or Wellington likely sold out. And who bought? I liked the prior CFO a lot, but his replacement also appears to be very well qualified.
Schwab Research: Why New Reforms Make Chinese Stocks Attractive
"Key points
In recent years, as China's debt began to pile up and growth slowed from its once-enviable pace, investors pulled back.
But China may be on the verge of change. Recently, Chinese officials unveiled a sweeping plan to overhaul its economy, likely setting the stage for higher-quality and sustainable future growth.
Based on both the discounted valuations of Chinese stocks and the new reforms underway, we believe it's time for risk-tolerant investors to reconsider China as an attractive investment opportunity."
Re: NPD
Fair value is probably around $1. And I wouldn't buy it at fair value. The business is losing money and the cash hoard used to pay the special dividends will run out.
TRIT Director Resignations. For "personal reasons". No update on trading halt or anything else.
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BEIJING , Feb. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ – Tri-Tech Holding Inc.(TRIT) , which provides turn-key water resources management, water and waste water treatment, industrial safety and pollution control solutions, announced today Mr. John McAuliffe and Dr. Da-zhuang Guo have resigned from the Board of Directors and their positions on all committees on which they serve. Their departures were for personal reasons and not due to any disagreement with management. As both Mr. McAuliffe and Dr. Guo were independent directors, on February 19, 2014, the Nominating Committee recommended, and the Board voted to approve, the appointments of Dr. Haijun Yang and Mr. Chunyu Gao as independent directors to fill the seats vacated as a result of the resignations in order to remain in compliance with NASDAQ continued listing standards. Both Dr. Haijun Yang and Mr. Chunyu Gao will stand for election at the next shareholders' meeting as Class I directors.
Warren Zhao , Chairman of the Company commented, "We have valued Mr. John McAuliffe's and Dr. Da-zhuang Guo's contributions to the Company over the last several years and their wisdom as members of the Board. We respect their decisions to part ways, and we wish them well in their future endeavors."
Phil Fan , CEO of the Company further commented, "We embrace Dr. Haijun Yang and Mr. Chunyu Gao as the new additions to the Board. We believe their business acumen will benefit the Company and its shareholders."
Re: CCCL
Prescott was already a large shareholder. They only added about 80000.
WSJ: First of NYSE-Delisted China Stocks Launches HK IPO
First of NYSE-Delisted China Stocks Launches HK IPO
HONG KONG—Two years ago, as Chinese companies listed in the U.S. battled a perception for being weak, or were tainted with fraud, many Chinese companies were taken private by their owners. Now, 15 months after it was bought out by its founder, the former New York-listed Gushan Environmental Energy Ltd. is raising up to US$96 million in a Hong Kong initial public offering.
China Metal Resources Utilization Ltd. holds most of Gushan's operating assets. Its chairman, Yu Jiangqiu, paid US$21 million to take Gushan private in October 2012, and is seeking to list China Metal in Hong Kong on Feb. 21., which would make it the first Chinese stock delisted in the U.S. in a wave of take privates in recent years to go public. If the copper recycling firm's IPO succeeds, it could spark more deals
When it listed as Gushan in 2007 on the New York Stock Exchange, the company was a biodiesel firm, producing fuel from feedstock. Over the years, it has expanded into copper recycling. Mr. Yu controls most of China Metal, which is based in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan. The company no longer produces biodiesel and is primarily focused on recycling copper into communication cables and power cables.
In its five years as a New York-listed firm, Gushan rode the wave of excitement and disgruntlement with Chinese companies, while the biodiesel industry lost favor among investors in the wake of the global credit crunch. Shares of Gushan, which went public at US$9.60 each following an IPO that raised US$185 million, saw its shares fall to lows of 81 U.S. cents in 2012, when most of revenue was already from its copper business.
When it listed in 2007, Gushan had a valuation of US$800 million; Mr. Yu took the firm private at a valuation of US$31 million, and if China Metal prices at the high end, the firm would have a valuation of US$325 million. The assets of the firm are valued at 10 times more than their value just over a year and a half ago. Mr. Yu has no plans to sell any of his shares in the Hong Kong IPO.
"It's understandable that the owner is planning to relist somewhere he can get a better valuation for his assets,," said Matthew Kwok, chief strategist at China Yinsheng Wealth Management Ltd., which didn't invest in China Metal's IPO. " Two years ago, investors had no confidence in Chinese companies in the U.S., and so it's not surprising they exited."
China Metal is planning to raise up to US$96 million by selling 618.5 million shares in an indicative price range of 1 Hong Kong dollar (13 U.S. cents) to HK$1.20 per share. In its prospectus, the company says its net profit for the nine months to September 2013 grew 197% to 132 million yuan ($21.2 million). In its last results, Gushan's net loss for the three months ended March 2012 narrowed to 2.1 million yuan from 17.5 million yuan in the previous year.
BNP Paribas is handling China Metal's listing.
Mr. Yu, 49, founded Gushan in 2001. He received an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Hautes Études Commerciales de Paris in 2010, according to China Metal's listing prospectus.
In recent years, a growing number of U.S.-listed Chinese firms have been seeking to go private as accounting scandals weighed on the valuations of many of the firms, giving their largest shareholders, and private-equity firms, the chance to take the companies private at lower prices than they would have otherwise. While Gushan's take-private was done solo by its founder, the list of private-equity firms that went in with founders to delist companies is long.
The largest-ever leveraged buyout of a Chinese company was done in this way: Carlyle Group LP teamed up with a consortium of other private-equity firms and Focus Media Holding Ltd.'s founder to buy out the advertising firm for around US$3.7 billion. Late last year, the chairman of U.S.-listed Giant Interactive Group teamed up with Baring Private Equity Asia to buy out the Chinese online game developer, valuing the firm at US$2.8 billion.
With prices of U.S. stocks on the rise, and a few Chinese companies recording stellar gains in their U.S. IPOs, many Chinese companies, especially in the Internet space, are looking to list in the U.S. again. Shares of online retailer Vipshop Holdings Ltd. , which raised US$71.5 million in an IPO ahead of its March listing in the U.S. last year, closed at more than 17 times the IPO price Thursday, outperforming the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is up 10%.
But for non-Internet companies, Hong Kong is more alluring.
"The Hong Kong market is not seen to have a 'China discount' like in the U.S. and it is thought that investors here are more likely to understand and place a higher value on Chinese companies," said Paul Boltz, a lawyer with Ropes & Gray LLP. " The lower cost of being listed in Hong Kong and lower risk of shareholder litigation in comparison to the U.S. also contributes to interest in pursuing a Hong Kong listing."
Mr. Boltz said "there's a perception that investors in the U.S. markets don't understand or bother to fully appreciate the business models of many companies operating in China."
Lake Union reports 5.6% position in ZA Link at 12/31.
Down from 7.1% a year ago. I thought they might have been a bigger seller.
ALN - Jayhawk sold all shares per updated 13G Link
AMAP Buyout Link
Price looks like over 7 times TTM revenues