Investors are showing signs of losing interest in Chinese stocks, just as investment banks are preparing a long list of Chinese initial public offerings. That combination could make it hard to sell all the shares coming to market and could slow China's efforts to privatize its state-owned industries.
Delays in Chinese initial public offerings could also set back big banks like Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS. China has become the world's second-largest generator of investment-banking fees for such offerings, ahead of Europe but behind the US. All these banks have been successful lately in winning the right to sponsor such offerings, most of them done in Hong Kong.
The world's largest initial public offering so far this year, the China Shenhua Energy Co (
Earlier Tuesday, the China Minsheng Banking Corp (中國民生銀行), the largest bank in China organized by private investors, unexpectedly canceled meetings in Hong Kong to promote its US$800 million offering to investors. The stock sale was previously planned for early next month.
Even money managers at funds specializing in China stocks are expressing worry about a glut of offerings.
"I really think it's too much, particularly given that the market is not performing that well," said Romeo Dator, the portfolio manager of the US Global China Region Opportunity Fund in San Antonio. "We're not planning to participate in any of these."
Some money managers see a broad decline in enthusiasm for China. Wary of trade disputes with the US and of possible Chinese-interest rate increases, and weary of stagnant prices in Hong Kong and eight-year lows on the Shanghai stock market, investors are steering more money toward India and other emerging markets.
"By and large, the fascination with China has waned" in the last several months, said Choo Yoon-lai, the portfolio manager of the Comgest Growth Greater China Fund.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS