Alibaba shares could fall another 50%: Barron’s

    SHARES of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which recently slipped below their initial offering price after having rocketed 75 percent in their first two months of trading, could lose another 50 percent of their value, Barron’s said in the cover story of its Sept. 14 issue.

    The reasons the weekly financial newspaper gave for the dour outlook: China’s struggling economy, increasing competition in e-commerce and more scrutiny of the company’s culture and governance. Alibaba spokesman Bob Christie said the article “contains factual inaccuracies and selective use of information and the conclusions the reporter draws are misleading.”

    ICBC hires five banks to handle bond offering

    INDUSTRIAL & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), the nation’s largest lender by assets, has hired five banks to handle its planned U.S. dollar-denominated Basel III-compliant Tier 2 capital bond offering, according to a mandate announcement seen yesterday.

    ICBC hired itself, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs (Asia), HSBC and UBS to handle the proposed bond sale, the document said. ICBC is rated A by Standard & Poor’s and A1 by Moody’s. Its planned Tier 2 bond is expected to be rated BBB+ by Standard & Poor’s and Baa3 by Moody’s.

    China Railway Group plans to absorb subsidiary

    CHINA Railway Group said yesterday it would absorb the assets of subsidiary China Railway Erju as part of wider efforts to streamline the government’s sprawling railway sector.

    Trading in both firms, which are controlled by State-owned holding company China Railway Engineering Corp., was halted yesterday. Based on their last share prices, China Railway Group was valued at 233.92 billion yuan (US$36.72 billion) while China Railway Erju was valued at 17.46 billion yuan.

    Brokers’ shares drop after CSRC imposes fines

    SHARES of four of China’s largest brokerages tumbled yesterday after fines and penalties were imposed by the country’s securities regulator on the companies and some of their executives for failing to conduct proper verification of clients.

    The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said Friday it would punish Founder Securities, GF Securities, Haitong Securities and Huatai Securities following an investigation of the brokers. The four were fined 178.5 million yuan (US$28.03 million).