Hanergy Undergoes Reforms to Recover from Crisis
Since the beginning of May this year, Hanergy Group has been caught in a huge storm and faced mounting public pressure. Owed backpay has been rising, and the company has once again fallen into a deep crisis. Up to now, Hanergy has owed its nearly 10000 employees 5 to 6 months’ salary, and the total amount of arrears has reached about 1 billion yuan.
Hanergy’s business model appears to be working well, but downstream revenues are much lower than the upstream revenue which leaves the outside world skeptical about the authenticity and credibility of its revenues. At the same time, its management structure has made Hanergy unable to continue to develop. The reason that the company developed this way is inseparable from the personality of its founder Li Hejun. Li is very obsessed with the industry he is engaged in. He always runs the company in a fanatical manner and attempts to develop it into a major player in the market. The company is actively increasing market sales and is also preparing to issue corporate bonds. At the same time, Hanergy has decided to carry out unprecedented reforms.
Alibaba’s Second Try to Go Public in Hong Kong
Five years ago, Alibaba had no choice but to go public in the United States. Now it has finally come back to Hong Kong and is expected to be listed on November 26. This means that Alibaba will be the first Chinese Internet company to be listed on both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. On November 20th, Alibaba set the IPO price at HK$176 per share, which is slightly lower than the previous estimate and the closing price of the US stock on the day. In response, a Hong Kong financial expert said that the greater the discount, the greater the room for the price to rise, which is good for investors.
This listing is not only a plan for Ali, but also helps to enhance Hong Kong’s competitiveness and influence in the global capital market. Whether it is Tencent, which has dominated Hong Kong stocks for many years, or Alibaba, which is about to be listed, the increase in the supply of high-quality leading enterprises will significantly increase the trading volume of the Hong Kong stock market.
A Dialogue Between Zhu Min and Alan Greenspan
On November 12th, at the Caijing Annual Conference 2020, Zhu Min, former Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), had a wonderful dialogue with Alan Greenspan, former chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States. Their conversation covered many hot topics, such as social welfare system, Sino-US trade frictions, digital currency, and central bank independence. Mr. Greenspan reveals the essential cause of the global economic downturn.
Recently President Trump’s criticism of the Fed has become increasingly fierce. He believes that the Fed should significantly lower interest rates to provide a more accommodative monetary policy for the economy. This has led to concerns all around the world about the independence of the Fed. When Zhu Min asked whether the independence of the Fed was eroded, Greenspan said that as long as the US constitutional system has not changed dramatically, the independence of the Fed will not be greatly affected.
TikTok Accused of Charging Excessive Advertising Fees
On October 15th, 2019, a large Marketing Summit was held in Jinan, Shandong Province. At the meeting, there were lecturers who bluntly said that traditional e-commerce companies such as Taobao and jd.com have entered the bottleneck period, and in contrast video clip e-commerce is on the rise. Similar summits have been held in several cities across the country. This is one of the important steps for TikTok to enter the e-commerce industry and try to attract more merchants for future profitability.
Really good products are not uncommon on TikTok, but many of the online small business owners have told Caijing reporters that the products they sell are mostly ordinary, but they become more attractive through TikTok commercials. Even so, some merchants said that their products are priced higher but they have not made any money. The fundamental reason is that the cost of advertising on the TikTok is too high. However, many legal experts said it’s unfair, though not against the law, for the TikTok to charge merchants for excessive advertising fees which may ultimately lead to unhealthy development of the platform.
