Top Hong Kong Stock? Umbrella Maker
Posted: May 17, 2015 Filed under: Asia, China, Economics | Tags: Advent International, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, China, China Securities Regulatory Commission, Hong Kong, Hong Kong dollar, Hong Kong Economic Times, Initial public offering, New York Stock Exchange, South China Morning Post, Umbrella, Umbrella Revolution, Umbrellas 1 CommentHong Kong is having another umbrella moment.
First there was the umbrella movement last year when young people took to the streets to defy China’s plan for watered-down democracy. Now there is an umbrella maker that’s stunned the stock market.
“It is a bit crazy. The fundamentals do not justify the current stock price.”
— Hannah Li, strategist at UOB-Kay Hian
Jicheng Umbrella Holdings Ltd.1027.HK +13.29% is an unlikely title holder of Hong Kong’s best performing newly listed stock in 2015. At its initial public offering back in February, it received little interest with bankers pricing it at the low end of an indicated price range. But once it got trading it went through the roof, and at one stage last month it rose nearly 20-fold from its IPO price and is still up 14-fold as of Friday.
“It is a bit crazy,” said Hannah Li, strategist at UOB-Kay Hian. “The fundamentals do not justify the current stock price.”
The rally means the company is worth 9.1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1.17 billion), and is trading at a price-earnings ratio of 100, far higher than the 11.2 for the average of stocks in the Hang Seng index.
[Read the full text here, at WSJ – China Real Time Report]
Exactly why investors are so keen on an umbrella maker to give it a sky high valuation is puzzling, while its shareholder structure looks even more bizarre. The Securities and Futures Commission, Hong Kong’s market regulator, issued a warning Thursday to investors that just 17 shareholders hold over 99% of the company’s shares (the major shareholder owns 75% of the company). This means a buyer could easily push the stock up substantially as there’s so few owners of the shares.
Ms. Li said while Jicheng’s business is in good shape, the small number of shares held by public shareholders is a major reason for the rally. Read the rest of this entry »
Thousands take to Hong Kong’s Streets in the First Major Rally Since Occupy Central
Posted: February 1, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, China | Tags: Democracy Movement, Hong Kong, media, news, Occupy Central, SCMP, Twitter, Umbrella Revolution Leave a comment[PHOTO] Hong Kong: Merry ‘I Want Genuine Universal Suffrage’ Christmas
Posted: December 24, 2014 Filed under: Art & Culture, Asia, China, Global, Politics | Tags: Christmas, Hong Kong, Pro-Democracy Movement, Umbrella Revolution 1 Comment“I Want Genuine Universal Suffrage” at times square, causeway bay.
(source; SocRec @ 25dec14)
79 Days That Shook Hong Kong
Posted: December 15, 2014 Filed under: China, Global, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Hong Kong, Pro-Democracy Movement, protests, Umbrella Revolution, Universal suffrage 5 CommentsHong Kong’s Final Protest Site Has Been Cleared
Posted: December 15, 2014 Filed under: Asia, Breaking News, China, Global, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Hong Kong, Pro-Democracy Movement, Protest, Umbrella Revolution, Universal suffrage 1 CommentHong Kong has too many poor people to allow direct elections, leader says
Posted: October 20, 2014 Filed under: Asia, China, Global, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Election, Hong Kong, Mong Kok, Pro-Democracy, protests, Umbrella Revolution, Universal suffrage 1 CommentParis Soutient La Révolution De Parapluie
Posted: October 14, 2014 Filed under: China, Global | Tags: France, Hong Kong, Paris, Pro-Democracy, Umbrella Revolution 1 CommentHong Kong Protests Hit 2.3 Million in Tweets
Posted: October 2, 2014 Filed under: Asia, China, Mediasphere | Tags: China, Hong Kong, Pepper spray, Protest, Tear gas, Twitter, Umbrella Revolution 1 CommentMaya Pope-Chappell reports: There have been more than 2.3 million tweets related to the protests in Hong Kong since Sept. 27, according to Twitter data.
Though talk of the protests is still abuzz on the social network, the number of tweets has waned since Sunday’s crackdown by police, which saw more than 700 tweets per minute about the protests.
[More: How the protests unfolded on Twitter]
As photos of protesters using umbrellas to protect themselves against pepper spray and tear gas spread, the movement took on the name “Umbrella Revolution,” which also began appearing as a hashtag on Twitter and in Western media. Read the rest of this entry »