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SINGAPORE, March 7 (Reuters) - Inspired by lofty prices of U.S. Internet stocks,
"dot-com fever" is spreading in Asia, with Internet-related companies eyeing stock
listings after Singapore firm Pacific Internet's PCNTF successful debut on Nasdaq.
"Basically, everyone has been bitten by this bug," Ramin Marzbani, principal of
Sydney-based Internet research and consulting group www.consult, told Reuters. "We
are going to see a lot more IPOs (initial public offerings) coming on board."
Hanson Cheah, executive director of Hong Kong-based venture capitalist firm
AsiaTech Venture, said many Asian companies that want to go public were carefully
watching Nasdaq.
The U.S. technology-laden trading system is home to some of the best-known Internet
stocks, such as Yahoo! YHOO , Amazon.com AMZN and Netscape
Communications Corp NSCP .
"Nasdaq is where all the money is right now," Cheah said.
Marzbani said, "There will be a lot of deals sort of around the S$20-50 million
($11.6-28.9 million) valuations coming up in the next six months."
Asked what kind of stocks these were, he said: "Any and all. It does not matter.
Anything with dot-com. Seriously."
Pacific Internet, an Internet service provider, surged as high as US$88 on February 5
when it listed, compared with the IPO price of $17. On Friday, the stock closed at
$30.375 and some analysts consider it overvalued. (See table below)
China's SINA and Internet Technologies China (ITC), which own popular
Chinese-language portals, are believed to be keen on listing their shares in the United
States.
A SINA company spokeswoman told Reuters it planned to apply for a listing in the
United States before the end of this year.
When asked about listing plans, ITC's chief executive officer Charles Zhang said, "We
need another year of growth and are looking at the year 2000 or even after" for an
IPO which may be spread between Nasdaq and the new technology bourse in Hong
Kong.
Some industry experts say Internet stock investors are less interested in earnings, the
traditional valuation guide, than with good business models backed by market share,
page views and unique visitors.
"Profitability is not as important as management capability," Marzbani said, adding
"most of the Asian companies are extremely weak in managing capabilities."
Technology research firm International Data Corp estimated there were 12.2 million
Internet users at the end of 1998 in Asia, excluding Japan, and said it expected the
number to increase to 35.3 million by the end of 2002.
AsiaTech, which invests in Asian high technology companies, said the first batch of
Internet stocks typified by Pacific Internet were focused on providing basic services
more than cutting-edge technology.
"The first batch of companies... What they are doing -- portals, aggregation of content
-- I do not think is fundamentally solid yet," Cheah said.
He said Chinese companies SINA and ITC both fell into the same category as Pacific
Internet.
Asia may see a second wave of stronger stock offerings from technology-driven
companies, he said.
"The second batch is coming up. Except the second batch will take a longer time...for
the simple reason that it takes a longer time to produce the technology," Cheah said.
"I see AMO (Asia Manufacturing Online) as a second batch where they have a
technology and a very clear business model," he said.
Singapore-based Asia Manufacturing Online, which recently changed its name to
Advanced Manufacturing Online, is an electronic commerce firm which links suppliers
with manufacturers.
Both AsiaTech and British venture capital and investment firm 3i Group invested in the
business-to-business network provider which plans to list on Nasdaq in the next year
or two.
Internet-related stocks in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan:
Mar 5 1999 intra-
close day high
Pacific Internet <PCNTF.O> Singapore US$30.375 88.00
OzEmail <OZM.AX> Australia A$3.47 3.65
LibertyOne <LIB.AX> Australia A$4.58 5.35
E*Trade Australia <ETR.AX> Australia A$2.08 3.40
Hansol CSN Co Ltd <09180.KS> S Korea 26,600 won 38,050
Goldbank Communications Co Ltd
<33880.KQ> S Korea 33,900 won 33,900
Source: Reuters Graphics.
($1=S$1.7275)
REUTERS |
