Tencent To Acquire Baidu Rival
Sogou Inc., a leading Chinese web search technology company, will be bought by its single biggest shareholder, Tencent Holdings Ltd., for an estimated US$9 per share.
The Sogou board received on Monday a non-binding proposal from Tencent, presenting its intention to buy Sogou ADS's shares at a premium. CEO Wang Xiaochuan and the board have not yet made their decision public, Sina Finance reported.
Sogou's shares climbed to US$8.51 at the end of Monday's trading.
As the biggest investor in Sogou, in 2013, Tencent had invested a total of US$448 million into the company and merged its own search service SouSou. Tencent holds a 36.5% stake in Sogou, which continues to operate as the subsidiary firm of Beijing-based Sohu, Inc., an online media, search and game service company.
Sogou was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017, at an initial offering of US$13. Sogou's revenue reached RMB1.79 billion (US$255.57 million) in the first quarter, an increase of 5%, according to Sogou's unaudited fiscal report, higher than Bloombergs's estimation of US$251 million.
Chinese Families Take Second In Global Wealth
Chinese families now prefer purchasing funds to investing in stocks, and now more families have begun to invest in financial markets rather than the previous favorite of real estate investment, according to Shanghai Finance Institute.
The China Household Finance Survey and Research Center at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE) recently collaborated with ANT Group Financial Research Center to release a report of Chinese families' wealth index in the second quarter. The report showed the Chinese demand to conduct financial investment transactions had increased substantially, with more families looking toward funds than stocks.
As of first half of the year, Chinese families' intention index to purchase stocks was 90, while the intention index to purchase funds was 96. For families with financial assets of over RMB100,000, the intention index for stocks was 97.16, while for funds it was 103.91. The intention index report also shows that Chinese families are more likely to hold middle- and long-term funds.
More than 50% of the fund buyers are under 30 years old, according to the report.
As of 2019, Chinese families' wealth totaled US$63.8 trillion, up from US$3.7 trillion in 2000, ranking second after the U.S., according to the financial information consulting firm Wind.
China used to be a country of savings. But Chinese families' Deposit Intention Index fell to 102.7 in Q2 from 111.1 in Q1, according to the report.
Domestic Airlines Add More International Flights
Starting in August, there will be more international flights by major domestic airlines, such as Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern airline, as the incentive policies instituted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) covering no-coronavirus flights take effect.
AirChina will restore service for 24 international flight routes, including 19 flights from Beijing, three flights from Shanghai and two flights from Chengdu. Additionally, international round-trip flights to Hangzhou, Tokyo and Seoul will resume, according to Air China.
China Southern Airlines will provide a total of 17 flights to international regions. China Southern Airlines cancelled its flights from Guangzhou to Kathmandu, but a single flight from Guangzhou to Manila will become a round-trip flight. Additionally, flights will be increased to two international flights per week for roundtrips between Amsterdam, Vancouver, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Yangon, Myanmar.
China Eastern airline will offer 22 international flights, including 18 flights to Shanghai, two to Kunming, one to Hangzhou and one to Xi'an, from August 1 to August 31.
China Eastern airline cancelled its flight between Kunming and Dhaka. Roundtrip flights from Kunming to Vientiane will increased to two per week.
Slap Of Reality For ZTO Express
ZTO Express, one of the major express brands across China, is facing a PR crisis in the middle of a national increase in express delivery demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A ZTO deliveryman allegedly slapped a female customer in Shenzhen when he refused to send one single return package for two clothing items from an online shopping outlet. It started with her and the deliveryman quarreling, with the deliveryman insisting that she must pay for two separate packages and then, according to a viral video recorded by a passerby, he hit her with the packing box.
It was another hard slap to the company's image after it had received public complaints earlier this month that it had used a mannequin, instead of a real person, to ensure security at a checkpoint in one ZTO location in Henan province.
A ZTO Express spokesperson said it had referred the slapping case to the police. The company has also been accused of charging unreasonable extra fees due to outsourced delivery services.
Established in 2005, ZTO Express has 17,324 staff working across China, covering networks from first-tier to fourth-tier cities. In the first quarter, ZTO delivered a total of 2.37 billion packages while reaching RMB635 million (US$90.72 million) in adjusted net revenue, while gross profit decreased 35.3% to RMB819 million. Its market share rose slightly from the previous year to reach 18.9%, according to the company's first-quarter financial report.
Chongqing and Chengdu Lead Economic Boom In Central China
Even as China's import and export sectors have been significantly affected by the global pandemic, the cities of Chongqing and Chengdu are leading an economic boom in China's midwestern regions.
The city of Chongqing's GDP reached RMB1.1209 trillion (US$160 billion) in the first half of the year, a historical high that exceeded the coastal and foreign-trading city of Guangzhou.
Chongqing's economic growth mainly came from increses in its import and export sectors and an enhanced industrial structure. Sectors including high-tech, manufacturing, finance and logistics also experienced apparent recoveries. Auto manufacturing, in particular, showed fast growth, as the middle- and high-end auto sales helped power the industry's recovery, said Yi Xiaoguang, the dean of the Chongqing Comprehensive Economic Research Academy.
Chongqing Statistics Bureau reported that the area's eight major industries – auto and motorcycle making, equipment manufacturing, natural gas and petrochemical processing, materials industry, electronics and information technology, labour intensive industry and energy industry – all showed solid recoveries in the first half of the year. The report indicated that electronics, medical, materials and consumption rose 8.6%, 2.1%, 1.3% and 0.9% respectively. The auto and electronics industries have risen by 25% and 12%, according to the report.
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, situated 400 kilometers west of Chongqing, reported unprecedented import-and-export revenues of RMB323 billion, a rise of 23.5% year-on-year. The Shuangliu airport had passenger throughput of 3.237 million people in the first half of the year, the highest in the nation.
Statistics showed that Chengdu's trading revenue with "One Belt, One Road" countries increased by 45.4%, while its trading revenue with European Union rose by 42.1%.
