STLPlace - Seeking Alpha 'STLPlace' Tag RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/stlplace Portfolio Management - Wise to Keep Some Cash http://seekingalpha.com/article/157788-portfolio-management-wise-to-keep-some-cash?source=feed 157788 This is the second piece of the Portfolio Management series. I started this series mostly to record what I have learned in last few years since I wrote Stock Lessons (as a beginner). The stock market since last year is humbling, but I also learned quite a bit in the process, with some real results. For instance: my stock portfolio is up about 51% YTD (year to date), vs. Dow’s +6.21% YTD, and S&P 500 +11.16%. Note I only use cash account and only long stocks in my account.

One thing I learned more recently is always keep some cash at hand, I can think of two reasons:
1) This one is easy, if I have some cash at hand, when some good stocks really go on sale (like at March 5 market lows), I can pick up them and feel good about it.

]]> Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:48:44 -0400 STLPlace This is the second piece of the Portfolio Management series. I started this series mostly to record what I have learned in last few years since I wrote Stock Lessons (as a beginner). The stock market since last year is humbling, but I also learned quite a bit in the process, with some real results. For instance: my stock portfolio is up about 51% YTD (year to date), vs. Dow’s +6.21% YTD, and S&P 500 +11.16%. Note I only use cash account and only long stocks in my account.

One thing I learned more recently is always keep some cash at hand, I can think of two reasons:
1) This one is easy, if I have some cash at hand, when some good stocks really go on sale (like at March 5 market lows), I can pick up them and feel good about it.


Complete Story »]]> STLPlace Mead Johnson Nutrition IPOs Today http://seekingalpha.com/article/119651-mead-johnson-nutrition-ipos-today?source=feed 119651 Originally written on 2/6/09.

I remember reading this last year and this morning I read it from Yahoo Finance. Here is the prospectus at the SEC, and here is a glimpse at IPOHome. It looks like Mead Johnson (MJN) are going to IPO on Feb 10. (from the roadshow, again from IPOHome).

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:07:48 -0500 STLPlace Originally written on 2/6/09.

I remember reading this last year and this morning I read it from Yahoo Finance. Here is the prospectus at the SEC, and here is a glimpse at IPOHome. It looks like Mead Johnson (MJN) are going to IPO on Feb 10. (from the roadshow, again from IPOHome).


Complete Story »]]> BMY MJN STLPlace Tough Times in Store for China Mobile http://seekingalpha.com/article/113355-tough-times-in-store-for-china-mobile?source=feed 113355 The issue of the 3G license (news here), the immature domestic standard being assigned to CHL, and no cool handset, combined with the slowdown of the Chinese economy, is creating a headwind for China Mobile's (CHL) near term growth.

China Telecom (CHA) recently acquired the CDMA business from China Unicom and is ramping up the new CDMA + WiFi strategy, the sky wing (tian yi) plan (English:labbrand; Chinese: Hu Langlang Sina blog); I also saw the sky wing 189 promotion when I was in China. Servicewise, CHA is giving customers both broadband internet and mobile service in one package. The price is quite competitive.

]]> Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:41:40 -0500 STLPlace The issue of the 3G license (news here), the immature domestic standard being assigned to CHL, and no cool handset, combined with the slowdown of the Chinese economy, is creating a headwind for China Mobile's (CHL) near term growth.

China Telecom (CHA) recently acquired the CDMA business from China Unicom and is ramping up the new CDMA + WiFi strategy, the sky wing (tian yi) plan (English:labbrand; Chinese: Hu Langlang Sina blog); I also saw the sky wing 189 promotion when I was in China. Servicewise, CHA is giving customers both broadband internet and mobile service in one package. The price is quite competitive.


Complete Story »]]> CHA CHL STLPlace Chinese Government Gives China Mobile Revenues to China Telecom http://seekingalpha.com/article/98396-chinese-government-gives-china-mobile-revenues-to-china-telecom?source=feed 98396 According to Chinese news, China Mobile’s ultimate parent, the China State Asset Management Co. [CSAM], took 50 billion Chinese Yuan (about 7.30 billion USD) from China Mobile Group (the parent of China Mobile Limited) (CHL), and gave it to China Telecom (CHA).

For CSAM, this is merely moving money from the left pocket to the right pocket, because both China Mobile and China Telecom are majority owned by CSAM. But for CHL shareholders like me, this is merely another example of highway robbery, orchestrated in the name of “balance of power in the China telecom industry”.

]]> Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:51:11 -0400 STLPlace According to Chinese news, China Mobile’s ultimate parent, the China State Asset Management Co. [CSAM], took 50 billion Chinese Yuan (about 7.30 billion USD) from China Mobile Group (the parent of China Mobile Limited) (CHL), and gave it to China Telecom (CHA).

For CSAM, this is merely moving money from the left pocket to the right pocket, because both China Mobile and China Telecom are majority owned by CSAM. But for CHL shareholders like me, this is merely another example of highway robbery, orchestrated in the name of “balance of power in the China telecom industry”.


Complete Story »]]> CHA CHL STLPlace China Mobile's Moat: Worth a Swim? http://seekingalpha.com/article/71975-china-mobile-s-moat-worth-a-swim?source=feed 71975 There has been some big news in the US wireless arena lately. Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) won the auction of some new wireless spectrum, Google (GOOG) did not win the spectrum (see the details in the following NY Times article). Do you know how much Verizon paid for the new spectrum? $9.6 billion. Imagine a similar scenario in China: how much does the 3G license cost in China? As far as China Mobile (CHL) (and China Unicom and Telecom) is concerned, it's null, zero, no cost.

What? You must think this is crazy. How come the government gives away the license for free? Well, the No. 1 reason is the government is the biggest shareholder of all those big wireless/telecom companies. If they charge a big fee, essentially they are switching money from their left pocket to their right pocket, so why bother.

]]> Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:38:01 -0400 STLPlace There has been some big news in the US wireless arena lately. Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) won the auction of some new wireless spectrum, Google (GOOG) did not win the spectrum (see the details in the following NY Times article). Do you know how much Verizon paid for the new spectrum? $9.6 billion. Imagine a similar scenario in China: how much does the 3G license cost in China? As far as China Mobile (CHL) (and China Unicom and Telecom) is concerned, it's null, zero, no cost.

What? You must think this is crazy. How come the government gives away the license for free? Well, the No. 1 reason is the government is the biggest shareholder of all those big wireless/telecom companies. If they charge a big fee, essentially they are switching money from their left pocket to their right pocket, so why bother.


Complete Story »]]> CHL STLPlace China Mobile to Benefit from Telecom Sector Re-org http://seekingalpha.com/article/71338-china-mobile-to-benefit-from-telecom-sector-re-org?source=feed 71338 All the big China telecom players - China Mobile (CHL), China Netcom (CN), China Telecom (CHA) and China Unicom (CHU) - are majority owned by the state. In the widely anticipated re-org plan, the government will try to create more competition in the wireless arena (right now CHL is much bigger than CHU), and save the fixed line operators, such as CHA and CN, which are losing landline subscription to mobile phones. China Unicom, currently the smaller rival of China Mobile, will sell its CDMA network to China Telecom, and CHU (with its GSM network) will merge with China Netcom.

This means China Mobile will have a new competitor, China Telecom (which ironically, is its former parent), and a more focused/strengthened older rival (Unicom). But the math is not the deciding factor here.

]]> Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:42:27 -0400 STLPlace All the big China telecom players - China Mobile (CHL), China Netcom (CN), China Telecom (CHA) and China Unicom (CHU) - are majority owned by the state. In the widely anticipated re-org plan, the government will try to create more competition in the wireless arena (right now CHL is much bigger than CHU), and save the fixed line operators, such as CHA and CN, which are losing landline subscription to mobile phones. China Unicom, currently the smaller rival of China Mobile, will sell its CDMA network to China Telecom, and CHU (with its GSM network) will merge with China Netcom.

This means China Mobile will have a new competitor, China Telecom (which ironically, is its former parent), and a more focused/strengthened older rival (Unicom). But the math is not the deciding factor here.


Complete Story »]]> CHA CHL CHU CN STLPlace Mindray Medical Buys into U.S Market with DataScope Acquisition http://seekingalpha.com/article/68179-mindray-medical-buys-into-u-s-market-with-datascope-acquisition?source=feed 68179 Mindray (NYSE:MR) continued its U.S market expansion yesterday, as it agreed to buy the Patient Monitoring business of DataScope (Nasdaq: DSCP) for $202 m (see this Reuters news). My gut feeling is that this is a fair deal. Mindray paid about 1.25 times sales revenue for the unit. Accoding to Reuters:

The (DataScope) unit had total revenues of $161.3 million in calendar year 2007, approximately the same as those generated from Mindray’s home China market.

]]> Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:32:36 -0400 STLPlace Mindray (NYSE:MR) continued its U.S market expansion yesterday, as it agreed to buy the Patient Monitoring business of DataScope (Nasdaq: DSCP) for $202 m (see this Reuters news). My gut feeling is that this is a fair deal. Mindray paid about 1.25 times sales revenue for the unit. Accoding to Reuters:

The (DataScope) unit had total revenues of $161.3 million in calendar year 2007, approximately the same as those generated from Mindray’s home China market.


Complete Story »]]> DSCP MR STLPlace NetSuite: An Open IPO Worth Investigating http://seekingalpha.com/article/56921-netsuite-an-open-ipo-worth-investigating?source=feed 56921 WR Hambrecht sent me an email about an Open IPO, and lead me to read its prospectus. NetSuite is a new kind of software company co-founded by Larry Ellison, the founder and chairman of Oracle (ORCL). By new, I mean that it provides “software as service,” in contrast to the traditional software companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), where a consumer buys a product, installs it, does some customization, and (possibly) runs updates, among other things. The following is a quote from its prospectus:

NetSuite is a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management application suites for small and medium-sized businesses. We provide a comprehensive suite of enterprise resource planning, or ERP, customer relationship management, or CRM, and e-commerce capabilities that enables customers to manage their critical back-office, front-office and web operations in a single application… We deliver our suite over the Internet as a subscription service using the software-as-a-service or on-demand model. Our revenue has grown from $17.7 million in 2004 to $67.2 million in 2006. For the nine months ended September 30, 2007, we had revenue of $76.8 million. As of September 30, 2007, we had over 5,400 active customers…

]]> Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:35:47 -0500 STLPlace WR Hambrecht sent me an email about an Open IPO, and lead me to read its prospectus. NetSuite is a new kind of software company co-founded by Larry Ellison, the founder and chairman of Oracle (ORCL). By new, I mean that it provides “software as service,” in contrast to the traditional software companies such as Microsoft (MSFT), where a consumer buys a product, installs it, does some customization, and (possibly) runs updates, among other things. The following is a quote from its prospectus:

NetSuite is a leading vendor of on-demand, integrated business management application suites for small and medium-sized businesses. We provide a comprehensive suite of enterprise resource planning, or ERP, customer relationship management, or CRM, and e-commerce capabilities that enables customers to manage their critical back-office, front-office and web operations in a single application… We deliver our suite over the Internet as a subscription service using the software-as-a-service or on-demand model. Our revenue has grown from $17.7 million in 2004 to $67.2 million in 2006. For the nine months ended September 30, 2007, we had revenue of $76.8 million. As of September 30, 2007, we had over 5,400 active customers…


Complete Story »]]> N STLPlace Home Inns: Trading Short Term Profit for Long Term Growth http://seekingalpha.com/article/36416-home-inns-trading-short-term-profit-for-long-term-growth?source=feed 36416 results. I listened to Home Inns Q1 conference call (see the transcript here).

Some of the positives:

]]> Thu, 24 May 2007 03:55:52 -0400 STLPlace results. I listened to Home Inns Q1 conference call (see the transcript here).

Some of the positives:


Complete Story »]]> HMIN STLPlace Xinhua Finance Media's Less Than Impressive IPO http://seekingalpha.com/article/29401-xinhua-finance-media-s-less-than-impressive-ipo?source=feed 29401 XFML) did not turn out to be another Home Inns (HMIN) or New Oriental (EDU) at its IPO debut last Friday. Besides the difference of market sentiment then and now, I think the fundamental reason lies within the company and the business itself.

First, Xinhua Finance is in the media and advertising business. Note that the media industry is still heavily regulated in China; this is very different from Home Inns’ economy hotel business, which is pretty much a free market (as long as they can secure the building).

]]> Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:15:22 -0400 STLPlace XFML) did not turn out to be another Home Inns (HMIN) or New Oriental (EDU) at its IPO debut last Friday. Besides the difference of market sentiment then and now, I think the fundamental reason lies within the company and the business itself.

First, Xinhua Finance is in the media and advertising business. Note that the media industry is still heavily regulated in China; this is very different from Home Inns’ economy hotel business, which is pretty much a free market (as long as they can secure the building).


Complete Story »]]> XFML STLPlace