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IRG Technology, Media and Telecoms Weekly China Market Review
HONG KONG, Oct 08, 2009 - (ACN Newswire) - The following is the China excerpt from IRG's TMT Weekly Market Review Sept 28 - Oct 2. IRG is a financial advisory and investment firm focused on the core growth sectors in Asia with particular focus on the telecommunications, media and technology (TMT).
Internet
- Alibaba.com will buy an 85 percent stake in Chinese Internet services provider China Civilink (Cayman) for 435.42 million yuan (US$63.8 million) from Synnex, in a deal that will give a significant boost to the business-to-business trading site's client base. The Company has an option to buy a further 14.67 percent stake in China Civilink over the next three years for an additional 104.56 million yuan (US$15.3 million) in cash. The move by the online business platform operator was its second acquisition since August. The firm is searching for investment opportunities domestically and overseas. Its first purchase was done with an affiliate, while its second with Civilink covers its China base. China Civilink has more than 200,000 customers that mostly don't overlap with the Hong Kong-listed company's existing client base. The transaction is expected to close before the end of this year.
- Sina may spend some of its cash reserves on expanding into industries such as online gaming, social networking services (SNS) and micro-blogging services. Sina's liquid assets will receive a boost from US$580 million to US$760 million after Chao purchases 5.6 million new shares in the company for US$180 million.
Mobile/Wireless
- The acquisition contract between Chinese online media and mobile VAS company Sina and Focus Media has fallen through. Sina and Focus Media announced that they would scrap their $1.4 billion merger after months of government stonewalling over the deal. At the same time, Sina also announced that a group led by its management team would buy about 10 percent of the company for US$180 million, which could be used for future acquisitions and corporate purposes
- Baidu Mobile will open, featuring such enhancements for the Japanese market as enabling searches of pages with pictographs. Users will be able to input pictographs as search terms. Video searches have also been improved. Video viewable on mobile phones will be extracted from sites for personal computers as well as mobile phone sites. YouTube, Nico Nico Douga and FC2 will be included in video searches to broaden searches beyond what competitors offer. The feature that makes screen dimensions and page layouts compatible with mobile phones when searching PC sites has also been strengthened. Processing speed has been improved to shorten the wait time between selection of search results and the page being displayed.
- The Chinese value added services market was 39.73 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion) in the second quarter. The VAS revenues increased to 7.6 percent over the first quarter, when revenues were 36.91 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion). The quarterly climbed because of the stabilization of the economy in China and operator promotions.
Telecommunications
- China Unicom merged with the provincial government of Shandong to invest 40 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion) in the province over the next five years. Both companies will merge to speed up the construction of information industry infrastructure in the province over the next five years. China Unicom will also help the provincial government to build up its government information system. China Unicom's net profit lessened to 42.1 percent year on year to 6.62 billion yuan (US$969 million) in the first half of this year due to the company's restructuring and fierce competition. The carrier produced additional 127,000 GSM cellular service users in August, bringing the total to 807,000 at the end of last month.
- China Telecom had net addition of 2.08 million mobile service subscribers in August, adding the total to 43.81 million. The telecom operator's fixed-line service users decreased 1.52 million in August to 196.17 million, as a result of intensified market competition and China Telecom's strengthened control in sales initiatives for low-end subscribers to enhance profitable development. But the number of the carrier's broadband subscribers climbed 690,000 in the reporting period, lessened 15.85 percent on month, with the total user base topping 50.56 million.
- Huawei Technologies hired a top former BT Group executive as its chief technology officer, as it pushes to expand its global footprint. Matt Bross would support the company's efforts in delivering products for North America. Bross was chief technology officer of BT Group back then, and his appointment marks one of the most senior to date of a foreigner to Huawei, one of China's biggest success stories in terms of high-tech exports. Huawei and ZTE cut their teeth as providers of low-cost telecoms equipment, first domestically and then to developing markets and finally to the most lucrative developed markets in the United States and Europe.
- China Unicom's parent had increased its stake in the company from 60.74 percent to 61.05 percent by September. China United Telecommunications Corporation Limited bought 65.428 million shares of China Unicom in the past 12 months, a 0.31 percent of the capital stock of the company.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
- China will set up a 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) fund for domestic online media, gaming, animation, TV and film production and publishing industries. The fund will initially be 4.9 billion yuan (US$717 million), 500 million yuan (US$73.2 million) of which will be donated by the government.
Hardware
- Dell Inc. will open more retail stores and expand its sales force in China's smaller cities as it plays catch-up with Lenovo and HP in one of the world's fastest growing PC markets, said a company executive. Dell opened a flagship retail store in Shanghai, China's financial hub. The PC maker has also been beefing up its sales force in China's secondary cities. Dell wishes to grow its market share in China, where it lags behind Lenovo and HP. Dell's unit share in China stood at about 9 percent. Lenovo's share is at 29 percent and HP at 14 percent. Dell's higher-than-average sales growth will drive up its market share in China, which has already displaced the U.S. as the world's largest desktop market.
Semiconductor
- Trina Solar Ltd will build a 500MW solar power plant in Wuzhong, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China's northwest. The project is estimated to cost 12.5 billion yen (US$139 million) and be completed in four stages in 10 years.
Software
- CDC Software Corp. is expanding its R&D center in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong R&D center would develop Clouding Computing technology as part of its enterprise solutions. The technology may effectively coordinate resources in an information system, optimize structures, and simplify the installment and management of enterprise information systems. The company's other two R&D centers in Shanghai and Nanjing would serve in facilitating the innovation of technology. The company will make full use of its strategic partnership with Microsoft on the technological innovation. The new R&D center, and the support from its extensive product engineering and testing operations in China, will certify that the next generation of solutions can meet the most exacting requirements of business in the future.
- CDC Software Corp. will focus to the market in China as it is expected to reap US$50 million of annual revenue in the next three years. The company's annual sales would hit 300 million dollars in the next three years, including those from China, which should increase to 50 million dollars, making China its second largest market. The company would reach its goal through growth and acquisition. The company would still focus on the business of enterprise management solutions and move the service sector to China to increase market potential.
- CDC Software Corp. will buy a 51 percent stake in Hejia Software Technology Co. Ltd. in three steps before March 31, 2012. Both companies would merge to develop software products while Hejia Software would sell CDC Software's OEM products in China. CDC Software will assist the former advance into the global market. The acquisition of Hejia Software Technology is part of CDC Software's strategic plan to expand its geographic footprint and increase sales by acquiring rapidly growing companies. The company will continue to pursue other strategic investments in China.
Taiwan
- Chipmos Technologies had a deal with two investors holding in aggregate US$54 million of the Company's outstanding 1.75 percent convertible senior notes due 2009. The Company has entered a separate private placement transaction through which it expects to raise US$10 million. The transactions will close in October 2009. In the first transaction, an institutional investor will exchange US$45 million in outstanding 2009 notes for US$15.3 million in cash and US$15.8 million in new convertible notes of the Company due 2014. In the second transaction, ThaiLin Semiconductor Corp., a subsidiary that is 42.9 percent owned by the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Chipmos Technologies, will exchange US$9 million in outstanding 2009 notes for US$3.2 million in new convertible notes.
Source: IRG
Sectors: Media & Marketing, IT Individual, Wireless, Apps
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