I don't sympathize too much with them or any company that openly complains about their valuation when they don't offer a dividend. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that companies that don't offer a dividend are never good investments (eh hem, CCME) but many, if not most, institutional investors look to dividend yield as a key component of their investment strategy. Too many Chinese companies don't want to pay to play and that is a big reason why the valuations are so poor. The other reason is the uncertainty of fraud, and a dividend helps address that too.
Just think about how many of us on iHub select our Chinese investments - Flood them at 3-5x earnings and ride the earnings growth, and somtimes a small increase in the earnings multiple, and celebrate a huge victory. Rarely do I see anyone that truly expects many of these Chinese small cap stocks to become fully valued above 10x earnings. Heck, we are all talking about CCME hitting the $20's like that is the Holy Grail and that would only be 9-10x 2010 earnings.
Until many of these Chinese small caps fully embrace what drives PPS in western capital markets, most will continue to peak in the 8-10x earnings range, if they ever get that high at all. Hopefully CCME will be on the front end of Chinese companies that adapt. I guess time will tell.
AI
