Friday, April 27, 2012

China: People's Daily Online Portal Comes Public, Jumps 74%

From the April 9 post, "Deng Xiaoping Smiles: Peoples Daily Online is Doing an IPO":
Peoples Daily Online is the website of the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China.
Deng Xiaoping helped lift 1,000,000,000 Chinese out of subsistence poverty* with his pragmatic market reforms: ...

"Do not care if the cat is black or white, what matters is it catches mice"
From Reuters:  
China state news portal jumps on debut after $219 million IPO
China's People.cn Co Ltd finished 74 percent higher on its first day of trading in Shanghai after a $219 million IPO as investors flocked to the state-backed news portal, giving it a bigger market value than the New York Times.

Demand for People.cn shares were so high that the stock was suspended for most of the afternoon, after triggering multiple stock exchange circuit breakers.

"Investors are scrambling for People.cn due to its scarcity. As long as you're a Chinese person, you would know the company," said Liu Guanwu, a media IPO analyst with Beijing-based consultancy Analysys International.

At its Friday closing price of 34.72 yuan, 73.6 percent higher than the initial public offering price of 20 yuan, People.cn was worth 9.6 billion yuan ($1.5 billion), more than New York Times, which has a market capitalization of $951 million....MORE