Vipshop CFO To Depart Amid Stock Plunge
U.S.-listed and Guangzhou-based Vipshop, an e-commerce platform specializing in online discount sales, announced the departure of its CFO, Yang Donghao, and indicated it is searching for a new candidate. The news coincided with the company's unaudited Q2 financial report and a share price plunge of nearly 20%, closing at $19.26 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
The announcement said that Yang had been serving as CFO since 2011. He will step down in November for personal reasons and will be retained as a non-executive board member with the company.
Though Vipshop's revenue rose 6% to RMB24.1 billion ($3.4 billion) in the second quarter, higher than the market estimation of RMB23.784 billion and the 31st consecutive profitable quarter, many investors were expecting greater earnings acceleration during the pandemic, according to its fiscal report during this period.
The company also has a non-positive projection for revenues in the third quarter as it faces a slack season for the garment and e-commerce industry. The report estimated it will make RMB20.6 billion to RMB21.6 billion in revenue during this period.
Listed on New York Stock Exchange in March 2012, Vipshop faces competition from domestic giants Tmall and JD.com and is the sixth-largest B2C e-commerce retailer in China , according to data provider eMarketer.
Chip Industry Sets New Goal For Self-Sufficiency
China aims to increase its self-sufficiency rate in integrated circuit chips to 70% by the year 2025, according to statistics released by the State Council.
Customs statistics show that China was only 30% self-sufficient and imported IC chips worth $304 billion in 2019, a figure which exceeded imports of crude oil. The 2019 IC chip import tab still came in $8 billion less than the 2018 total.
The State Council recently began offering incentives to bolster the development of domestic integrated circuit and software industries.
According to the latest notice released by the council early this month, integrated circuit producers developing cutting-edge technologies can avail themselves of enterprise income tax exemptions. Qualified integrated circuit and software enterprises are also encouraged to list on financial markets and raise money both domestically and abroad.
As of July, the chip index in China – a measurement of IC chip companies on China's stock exchanges – had gained 49.46% on the year. The domestic growth is reflected in companies like Shanghai-headquartered Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, whose market valuation has surpassed RMB200 billion ($28.9 billion). Additionally, the market valuations of tech firms including Willsemi and Wingtech have passed RMB100 billion, according to data provider Wind.
Analysts noted that, with sales of RMB756.2 billion in the IC sector in 2019, sales in 2020 are likely to reach RMB900 billion.
Huawei Teams Up With Fujian Province To Enhance Water Conservation
Huawei plans to provide Fujian province technology support, including a cloud platform, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence applications to digitize local water conservation projects, China Economic Net reported.
Fujian Water Investment Group and Huawei Technologies signed an agreement on Wednesday at a summit for innovative and digital infrastructure, agreeing to explore innovative solutions in water conservation projects and to enhance the level of intelligent management within the field.
The collaboration is intended to further improve the digital infrastructure in Fujian province based on its previous efforts on digital management of flood prevention.
Huawei has built a video-command system for Fujian's flooding prevention that covers over 10,000 flood-prevention monitoring locations across the province. It can concurrently hold video conferences, show meteorological data and monitor video of flood areas. The system will speed up the reporting and command process of flood prevention, according to the report.
Three Gorges Dam Slammed By Record Flooding
The massive Three Gorges Dam, one of China's biggest fortifications, is experiencing the most severe flooding since its construction, with a peak flow releasing 75,000 cubic meters per second as of Thursday morning. By Wednesday, more than 60 rivers and lakes along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River had been above flood-warning levels, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.
The flooding came in the aftermath of Typhoon Higos, which made landfall in Zhuhai, in Guangdong province, on Wednesday and moved on to Guangxi, Guizhou, bringing heavy rainfall and flooding.
The wave of flooding predicted to hit in the coming two days will be the most critical flooding in the Yangtze River basin since 1981, the ministry said on Wednesday.
An unprecedented amount of water will reach the dam in the next few days as devastating recent rainfall has overwhelmed flood controls and swelled the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and its tributaries.
63.46 million people have been affected by flooding so far this year, and direct economic losses due to flooding has reached RMB178.96 billion ($25.78 billion), an increase of between 12.7% to 15.5% compared with average losses in previous years. So far about four million people have been relocated across the country, according to a statement released by State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters last Thursday.
Domestic Box-Office Hits RMB1 billion
One month after resuming limited operations, cinemas across China are seeing renewed patronage, with box office receipts totaling over RMB1 billion ($144.46 million) with over 33 million audience members by Thursday's tally, according to statistics released by China Move Data Information Network.
About 83% of cinemas across China have resumed business in the past month. A total of 47 new movies were released during this period, while 49 movies were re-released.
The top three box-office movies so far are "The Eight Hundred," the first Chinese film fully shot with IMAX, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," in a 4K 3D restoration, and "Interstellar," which have taken in RMB170 million, RMB126 million and RMB116 million, respectively.
Cinemas have had to cope with restrictive regulations for COVID-19 control and prevention efforts in the early stage of resuming business. Only movies shorter than two hours have been allowed screenings, and extended intervals between showings are required, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) said last month.
Since last Friday SARFT has allowed first- and second-tier cities to screen movies longer than two hours and increased the occupancy rates in cinemas to 50% from 30%. Analysts said that many domestic movies were set for screening schedules around the middle of August, which led to adjustment of the regulations.
