DH Gate puts prices up front
By | November 8, 2007
I met Celina Chen when she spoke on the same panel as me at ad:tech in Beijing a couple of weeks ago. She is COO of DHGate.com of which, I’m afraid to say, I wasn’t previously aware.
This is a catch-up week and I’ve just looked. It’s a very interesting twist on the B2B sourcing model as it focuses very clearly on the small scale transaction. Prices are up front on all pages and the basic product listing leads you straight through payment and shipping options. A couple of sample clicks showed that you can go down to lots as small as 5 electronic picture frames worth $150.
It’s clearly shooting at a buyer/seller level much lower than the main target of Global Sources and is much more transaction-oriented than Alibaba. Global Sources has tried to target this segment with its Global Sources Direct service, but that doesn’t seem to be a key focus for them.
Global Sources Direct scores 36,105 on Alexa.com’s rankings. DHGate is at 6,153. Hmmm. Acquisition target for someone?
P.S. They have a very neat sourcing blog as part of the site on which DHGate executives post.
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Kenfair suspended again
By | November 7, 2007
Our favourite coal mining and trade fairs conglomerate, Kenfair, has just announced that it has suspended its shares again. Having missed the market’s 30% rise when they did the same thing in late September, pending acquisition of the coal mine (!), they now seem set to miss the ride back down.
This time they say the suspension is “pending the release of an announcement in relation to placing of new shares which is price-sensitive in nature”. You have to wonder whether there is anybody at home running the trade fair business don’t you.
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The right price?
By | November 7, 2007
Citibank has upped its price target for Global Sources to 40x 2008 projected earnings. That pushes to price target about $10 above its current position to $45.
A similar valuation would imply that, even 9% down as it is today, Alibaba is over-valued by about 3.5 times. And that's based on very optimistic projections for next year. So, look to buy only when the price drops below HK$10 if you think Citibank's advice on GSOL is of any value.
Sent via BlackBerry.
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Alibaba moves into events
By | November 6, 2007
They now, of course, have enough money to buy the whole Chinese coal-mining industry (see here if the reference isn’t clear to you). So far, however, it seems that our friends at Alibaba are going to stick to their core business and focus on providing B2B media services.
As expected, and frequently denied, the company is already moving into organising events. These may not yet be fully-fledged public trade fairs, but that is surely the logical next step. Thanks to Eddie Choi for pointing me to this link on the Alibaba site regarding a Shenzhen private buyer event for Woolworths next week. It notes “More Big Buyer sourcing events will be announced in the near future”.
Mind you, they’ll need to get an awful lot of Woolworths buyers into Shenzhen meetings with 220 suppliers to justify a market cap of (as we write) of US$23 billion. Heck, they could probably buy Woolworths, take control of the whole Australian supply chain and still have change to spare.
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Surreal
By | November 6, 2007
I just looked. The Ali-money machine just hit $37.85. This is getting quite surreal and long ago parted company with any connection to reality. Fundamentals? Shmundamentals. Mental.
Sent via BlackBerry.
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$10bn in trades by lunchtime
By | November 5, 2007
Midday saw Alibaba volume hit 336.88mn shares. That's suggests well over HK$10bn at the $30 - 32 range in which most of the morning's action has been taking place. That's US$1.3bn in old money.
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Alibaba at HK$35!
By | November 5, 2007
My colleague Mark is keeping us up-to-date by SMS on this topsy-turvy news:
Aibaba at HK$35!! Market Cap US$23 billion
Sent via BlackBerry.
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Buckley heading home
By | November 5, 2007
I had completely missed this news but, as it makes a refreshing change to magic carpet puns, I’d like to note it now. We’ll update our thoughts on the Ali-IPO later in the day as the trading unfolds.
Warren Buckley has been CEO at Suntec Singapore for the past seven years but will be returning to Canada at the end of the year to resume his previous position as CEO of PavCo (BC Pavilion Corporation), the Crown corporation responsible for the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre (VCEC) and BC Place Stadium. The VCEC is being substantially expanded in advance of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Buckley’s marketing nous (Suntec has won several international marketing awards under his leadership) will be welcomed there.
Buckley is quoted as saying: “I’ve had the chance to travel and work around the world, but there really is no place like home. Vancouver is one of the world’s most popular convention and meeting destinations, and the current expansion of the convention centre, which is scheduled to be completed in March, 2009, is certainly capturing the imagination of meeting planners at home and abroad. As a result, this is a great opportunity to come home and help take our local convention and meeting industry to the next level.”
As far as I’m aware, there’s no official word on Buckley’s successor in Singapore. I’m not a gambling man but, if I were, a small flutter on his suave #2, COO Peter Idenburg, probably wouldn’t go amiss.
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HK$ ‘peg’ secure from Ali-IPO
By | November 5, 2007
Last week we asked whether the Alibaba IPO could break the Hong Kong $:US$ peg. At the time, we didn’t think so and today Bloomberg confirms that the Ali-IPO was not the secret “open sesame” code that speculators have been seeking for so long (and with such spectacularly little success). The piece notes:
Investors needed Hong Kong dollars to order shares in the Chinese Internet company’s $1.5 billion IPO, the biggest for an Internet company since Google Inc.’s 2004 offer.
And Alibaba was just one of the 33 companies that sought a total sum of HK$69 billion ($8.9 billion) last month from overeager investors. This demand for Hong Kong stock worsened a demand-supply mismatch in the city’s currency.
I have to say, even in the grown-up world of big boys’ financial markets, that $69 billion sounds like a lot of money to me.
Anyway, it seems that the worst we can now fear is columnists and analysts playing fast with Alibaba jokes for a few more days. So, this Bloomberg piece had the “open sesame” crack. Today’s South China Morning Post had the old “and what I want to know is where are the 40 thieves” variation. I suppose we’ll have to wait ’til Europe wakes up for some saucy puns about Scheherezade.
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New BSG report released
By | November 5, 2007
There’s a press release over on our Corporate Blog with details of a new report we’ve just published on Alibaba.com. Having, along with most of the rest of Hong Kong, received a zero allocation, I shall simply be an interested bystander with my fingers in my ears tomorrow morning to prevent hearing loss caused by the loud pop.
Mind you, with the Hang Seng down 4% so far today (-1,244 points to 29,225 at the moment), I wonder how long it will stay up there?
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