Banker bashing is in fashion. After all, the excesses and collapses of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and RBS crystallised the sub-prime crisis in the United States and Britain. And blaming well-paid, banking executives for the woes of a long-suffering majority with “real jobs” is a message that resonates well with voters, especially in an election year. read
HONG KONG (Dow Jones Investment Banker) – Underwriters persistently rake in higher IPO fees in the US than in other markets. But with foreign companies increasingly shunning US listings, the American premium may be hard to sustain.
I was quoted in the Financial Times again today in an article by Robert Cookson in Hong Kong and Gregory Meyer in New York, entitled “China Eclipses US As Top IPO Venue”. read
Caixin magazine published last week an interesting survey, based on data compiled by Thomson Reuters, on IPOs by Chinese companies world-wide between January 2009 and June 2010, a 545-day period. read
The past few weeks have seen widespread announcements of share buy-backs, as companies, often with net cash balances, take advantage of a depressed market to pick up cheap stock.
HONG KONG (Dow Jones Investment Banker) – Much criticized at the time of the dot-com boom, the independence of research analysts is again in question as some say they could be compromised through interviews by independent advisers prior to IPO mandates being handed out. But as analysts’ views can on occasion differ from the sometimes rosy picture that ECM and origination bankers paint in their pitches, understanding the research take on a sector – or even on the market generally – can only help restore confidence in new issues.
I was interviewed live on 16 June on Bloomberg Television by London-based anchor Linzie Janis, on the trading debut for Samsonite, following its IPO in Hong Kong. I was separately interviewed for an article on the same subject, written by Bloomberg reporter Fox Hu, which also touched on prospects for the pricing of Prada’s IPO, also in Hong Kong. read
HONG KONG (Dow Jones Investment Banker) – The Royal Bank of Scotland’s and Citi’s announcements this week that they had joined the rather exclusive list of foreign banks trying to crack the booming market for underwriting in China merely points up the limited inroads made so far by most of the would-be entrants. If anything, the advantage tends to run increasingly in favor of domestic Chinese underwriters.
US handbags and accessories house Coach Inc. is the latest in a long list of fashion and consumer groups to seek a listing in Hong Kong. As structured, however, the proposed transaction is likely to do little beyond generating press coverage for the brand, but perhaps that’s what it’s aimed at? read
Chinese social networking site Renren is hoping to replicate the blowout success of another Chinese internet company, Qihoo 360 Technology, which sold US$176 million worth of shares in March on Nasdaq, the US technology stock market. read
