A blog by a westerner who has been living in Korla, Xinjiang, in S.W. China for three years: Link to The Opposite End of China || Xinjiang & Northwest China Blog (?????? || ?? & ??????)
By the way, Korla, where I visited 22 years ago, is recently selected "the cleanest city" in China.
Sina enjoys a market cap that's about twice as much as Sohu's. Yet if you compare the two companies' earnings of last quarter and next quarter's forecast, their EPS is similar and it's easy to say Sohu's EPS growth rate is much higher than Sina's in the coming quarters. Sohu's revenue is also more diversified.
I expect that the two companies' market caps to close in the next year. A good strategy is to long SOHU and short Sina. Or go long with both.
[Earning Watch] By the way, casino companies' stocks are flying high. Following Las Vegas Sand's (LVS) report last week, Wynn Resorts (WYNN) blew away analysts' estimates, quadrupling its profits from a year ago, thanks to its Las Vegas and Marco operations. Expect very strong sector move on Tuesday. WYNN is to break its all time high!
I don't know whether or not the statements below are true, but it's nevertheless interesting to read. The author is a professor in China Science & Technology University.
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Basically he confirmed what I said six weeks ago in May. I would put the target price much higher than $33.5 though.
In a note to clients Friday, Credit Suisse analyst Wallace Cheung raised his rating on Sohu shares "Outperform" from "Neutral."
Sohu's new online massive multi-player online game, "Tian Long Ba Bu," is doing well and its success can help the company's earnings, he wrote.
Cheung thinks Sohu, which is the operator for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games' official Web site, will get Olympics video rights by way of a partnership with CCTV.com. Though he estimates these rights will cost Sohu $10 million in 2008, they would be "a key share price catalyst," he wrote.
Cheung increased his target price from the stock to $33.50 from $26.
Source: Sohu Peaks After Analyst Upgrades Stock: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Nice rooms, good service and affordable price - that sums up my first-hand experience with my stay in Home Inn (??, Nasdaq: HMIN), one of the fastest growing budget hotel chains in China. The rate in Hongzhou is RMB 202 yuan for a two-bed room with membership (219 yuan w/o). Broadband internet connection comes free. I also liked its wood-flooring instead of carpet.
Now the question is: Is it a good candidate for investing? It's tempting to put money in the company since it's growing very fast and it's doing good business. However my main concern is the competition. It seemed that similar budget hotels are popping up in major cities everywhere. The names I saw in Shanghai and Hangzhou include JinJiangZhiXing (?????, 168 Motel and Super 8. This blog (Link) at Wham
poa Financial talks about the same concern.
By the way, don't you think the logo for Home Inn looks familiar? However I looked at it, it reminds me of Best Western! Interestingly in Hangzhou, I've seem other budget hotels popping up now, with almost the same look and feel of my beloved Home Inn, probably with even cheaper price!
Home Inn definitely has a first-mover advantage, but it also has the risk of becoming the victim of its own success.
Chen Yizhou (???), CEO of Oak Pacific which operates one of the most popular web 2.0 sites (mop.com) in China, had this to say when asked about the business potential of web 2.0 related companies and whether his company will go public in the near future: [Source: Sina.com]
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... visited the following cities: Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shaoxin. Will post some pictures here in the following days.
The company has a history of issuing a bombshell in Friday evening. The latest is just as shocking: Ying Wu, the CEO of UTStarcom China, is out [even though Wu's ousting was first rumored last year]. The share price is expected to take a hit on Monday as Wu is the face of the company's China operation [Wu == UT China]. On the other hand, this may signify the end of a long-lasting in-fighting at the top. In the meantime,
Chief Executive Hong Lu will take over the China operations on an interim basis.
"We have concluded that the optimal means of enhancing shareholder value is to focus our efforts on returning the company to profitability," Chairman Thomas Toy said.
There have been many versions of the behind-the-door stories or speculations circulating on the Chinese media. The prevailing story is that Wu wanted to separate its China division from UTStarcom and stop the corporate from funding its so-far-failed globalization effort with money earned in China. The American-dominated borad was agaist the proposal and fired Wu instead.
Link to UTStarcom finishes review,plans no strategy change | Reuters.com