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「News of the Week」China Q3 GDP Growth Rate: 6.0%

WSJ – China’s economy grew 6% in the third quarter, landing right on the central government’s full-year baseline target for gross domestic product

国家统计局 National Bureau of Statistics of China  – 2019年三季度国内生产总值（GDP）初步核算结果

The percentage growth decrease is high anticipated. The expected value was at 6.1%.

Dots to connect:

  • IMF’s other forecasts
    • cut China’s growth forecast to 6.1% from 6.2% for 2019, and 5.8% for 2020
    • cut India’s growth forecast to 6.1% from 7% for 2019, and 7% in 2020
    • Forecasts for the U.S. were cut by 0.2 percentage point to 2.4% annual growth in 2019; euro-area forecasts were cut 0.1 point to 1.2%
    • Global
      • July version: Global growth remains subdued. Global growth is forecast at 3.2 percent in 2019, picking up to 3.5 percent in 2020
      • October version: Global growth is expected to slow to 3 percent this year, picking up to 3.4 percent in 2020 (a 0.2 percentage point downward revision compared with April)
  • China’s monetary policies and debt levels.

Most Valuable Casino In Vegas Sold – 2019 Largest Real Estate Single Asset Transaction

MGM Resorts International  is putting the Bellagio into a joint venture controlled by a Blackstone Group Inc real-estate investment trust. MGM is to hold a 5% stake in the venture and $4.2 billion cash and will continue to operate the hotel and casino, which it will rent from the venture for $245 million a year. The transaction values Bellagio at $4.25 billion, the company said. [WSJ]

MGM said it is separately selling another Strip casino, Circus Circus, to an associate of Phil Ruffin, who owns Treasure Island in Las Vegas, for $825 million.

Capital needed for expansion in Japan

Japan’s move last year to legalize gambling opened the way for global casino operators to pursue licenses there.

MGM Resorts has adopted what it calls its “Osaka-first” strategy, pouring its efforts into securing a license in that city.

Asset light

MGM could also look to wring some value from its 50 percent interest in mixed-use complex CityCenter, as well its 68 percent stake in MGM Growth Properties (NYSE:MGP). [casino.org]

The company stated its intention to reduce domestic net debt/EBITDA (on a restricted group basis) to about 1.0x – Moody’s

Who Owns Tech/Venture Capital Medias

Crunchbase News

Crunchbase News, first published on March 13, 2017, is part of Crunchbase.

Verizon retains an ownership stake in the company. [Crunchbase News – About]

  • (Before AOL was part of Oath, a Verizon subsidiary, AOL owned Crunchbase. Later, after Verizon bought AOL, but before it combined the Internet brand with Yahoo to form Oath, Crunchbase was spun out as its own entity.)
  • Update: Oath will be rebranded as the “Verizon Media Group” starting January 1, 2019. Also, Verizon hates it.
  • (Further disclosure: Verizon is the former employer of our editor in chief, who worked for TechCrunch, then owned by AOL, before and after Verizon bought the smaller firm.)

Investors in Crunchbase also include:

  • Emergence Capital Partners
  • Salesforce Ventures
  • Mayfield Fund
  • etc.

The company raised $18 million of Series B venture funding from lead investor Mayfield on April 6, 2017, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $52 million.

PitchBook

Acquired by Morningstar (NASDAQ: MORN) for $225 million on December 1, 2016. Deal announced in October.

Morningstar was an early investor in PitchBook and owned approximately 20 percent of the company before acquisition.

At that time, PitchBook had $31.1 million in revenue for the trailing 12 months ended June 30, 2016. The company has more than 300 employees located in Seattle, New York, and London.

CB Insights

Raised $10 million of Series A venture funding from Pilot Growth Equity on November 9, 2015, putting the company’s pre-money valuation at $40 million.

China’s Long-term Apartment Rentals Startups

After WeWork’s unsuccessful IPO, several long-term apartment rentals startups in China are preparing to list on Nasdaq. Q&K (青客公寓) will likely be the first, planning to raise $100 million, according to the SEC filing.

Firms like Q&K will lease apartments from individual landlords, renovate the space with uniform styles, and then sublease fully-furnished rooms to tenants, who are mainly young urbanites looking for affordable housing. Q&K reported a net revenue of USD 129.6 million in the fiscal year 2018, up 70.3% year-on-year. Net losses however doubled to USD 72.8 million in the same period. [kr-asia]

I do believe they are similar to WeWork in many aspects.

Q&K is more like a test for investors’ current appetite (especially needed after WeWork), with two other bigger players waiting in line. Not surprisingly, those are backed by Alibaba and Tencent respectively.

Ant Financial-backed Danke (蛋壳公寓) and Tencent-backed Ziroom (自如) both are also looking for an IPO to raise $500 million – $1 billion.

Danke raised $500 million in February 2019.

Ziroom raised $500 million in June 2019.

 

Corporate Acquisitions in Cybersecurity Space

Cyber-security has been a hot space for investments and acquisitions. With Thoma Bravo buying Sophos Group for $3.8 billion this week, here is a roundup of selected corporate M&As happened since 2018.

Corporate acquisitions

cloud services infrastructure protection – Palo Alto Networks to acquire Evident for $300 million (2018.3)

Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) – Palo Alto Networks to Acquire Secdo for $100 million (2018.4)

unified access security and multi-factor authentication – Cisco to acquire Duo System for $2.35 billion (2018.8)

Cloud Security – Check Point to Acquire Dome9 for $175 million (2018.10)

Operational Technology (OT) network security – Forescout to acquire SecurityMatters for $113 million (2018.11)

AI based endpoint cybersecurity – Blackberry to acquire Cylance for $1.4 billion (2018.11)

network and endpoints protections – Carbonite to acquire Webroot for $618.5 million (2019.2)

security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) – Palo Alto Networks to acquire Demisto for $560 million (2019.2)

enterprise security –  Broadcom to acquire Symantec’s enterprise business for $10.7 billion (2019.8)

「What’s News In China」

Paypal (NASDAQ: PYPL) is becoming the first foreign payment platform to provide online payment services in China. The license is obtained by acquiring 70% of GoPay (国付宝). The transaction is approved by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on September 30. // Crunchbase ｜ GoPay PR

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) launched self-driving service Apollo Robotaxi for the general public in Changsha China on September 27. The initial fleet has 45 autonomous cars. // cnet | SCMP

Source: SCMP

Shake Shack (NYSE: SHAK) opened its 2nd store at Kerry Center (嘉里中心) in Shanghai on September 26. Its first store in mainland China launched in January 2019 in Shanghai Xintiandi (新天地). // PR Newswire Asia | Jiemian

Source: prnasia

Xiaomi (HKSE: 1810) is entering the smart fridge segment (pricing starts at RMB 999) and completing its major appliance offerings comprised of TV, A/C, washing machines and fridges. Users can modify the temperature and mode of the cabin via voice control. Xiaomi has been trying to diversify from its smart phone business with smart home/IoT products. // gizmochina | 36kr