Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Thoughts on Global Sources

I will leave my colleagues to give BSG's subscribers a proper analysis of Global Sources Q1 results, just announced yesterday. However, I have been browsing through the transcript of the analyst conference call and a couple of things caught my eye:

  1. The company appears to be readying a B2C spin-off of its Chief Executive China title. CFO Eddie Heng was the first to mention this when he commented, "Our Elegant Living magazine and website is scheduled to launch in September". We were later told "the editorial mission of Elegant Living is to advance the quality of life for China’s affluence business executive". Presumably this is a Chinese equivalent of the FT's "How to Spend It" glossy.
  2. Suzanne Wang is clearly one of the rising stars in the Global Sources corporate firmament. She was for a while General Manager, Mergers and Acquisitions, a title which has now morphed to General Manager of Corporate Investments. What caught my eye was that she was in the conference call yesterday, a very exclusive 'hot seat' in the Global Sources world. CEO Merle Hinrichs' "spring cold" meant that she was called upon to deliver some of his presentation, a sign of great trust from a boss who, by all accounts, is not easily impressed.
  3. Merle Hinrichs' response to a question about Alibaba.com's proposed IPO is well worth a read. He is magnanimous in his initial response when he says "we’re delighted to hear that Alibaba was planning to do this IPO. It is definitely going to increase the general awareness of China B2B media business. It’s also going to establish another comparable for Global Sources investors and it certainly will give us better visibility on their financials". He then proceeds to launch a series of well-targeted Scud missiles, raising a series of questions about long-term viability of his main competitor in the China B2B online world.

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