The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-03)

B2| Thursday, December 3, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

INDEX TO BUSINESSES

These indexes cite notable references to most parent companies and businesspeople
in today’s edition. Articles on regional page inserts aren’t cited in these indexes.

A

Abercrombie & Fitch..A9
Actifio..........................B3
Alibaba.............A3,B1,B2
Alphabet..............B3,B11
Altimar Acquisition....B1
Amazon.com...A9,B1,B11
Apple...........................B4
Aptiv..........................B11
AstraZeneca................A8
AT&T............................B4
Aurora Innovation.....B11
B
Bank of America.........B2
Beko Electrical
Appliances................B1
BioNTech.....................A1
BlackRock....................B2
C

Carnival.......................B3
CVS Health.................A8
D

Daimler Trucks..........B11
Discovery.....................B3
DoorDash.............B4,B11
Dyal Capital Partners.B1
F
FedEx...........................A1
Ford Motor................B11
G-H
Gap..............................A1
General Motors.........B11
Genesis Healthcare....A8
Grubhub.....................B11

Haitong International Securities..................B2 Hillhouse Capital Management.............B2 Honda........................B11 Hot Topic.....................A1 HPS Investment Partners....................B1 Hyundai.....................B11 I iHeartMedia................B4 J JD.com.........................B2 K Kind.............................B3 L LG Electronics.............B1 L.L. Bean.....................A1 Lyft..............................B3 M Macy's.........................A1 Mars............................A1 Moderna......................A8 N Nature’s Bakery..........B3 Neuberger Berman.....B1 New Egg......................A1 New York Times.........B1 Nike.............................A1 Norwegian Cruise Line .....................................B3 O Owl Rock Capital Partners....................B1

P Pfizer................A1,A8,B2 R Royal Caribbean..........B3 S Samsung Electronics..B1 SoftBank..............B4,B11 Spotify Technology.....B1 T Tesla..........................B11 Tiger Global Singapore .....................................B2 U Uber Technologies....B11 UBS..............................B2 United Parcel Service.A1 V Verizon Communications .....................................B3 Vision Fund.................B4 Volkswagen...............B11 W Walgreens Boots Alliance.....................A8 Walmart......................A9 Walt Disney................B4 Whirlpool.....................B1 X Xiaomi.........................B2 XPO Logistics..............B4 Y-Z Yum China...................B2 Zoox...........................B11

INDEX TO PEOPLE

BUSINESS & FINANCE

vexing virus-prevention ef-
forts, two-thirds of global re-
spondents polled in recent
months prioritized staying
home over leading a normal
life, according to Gallup sur-
vey results released in mid-
November.
Months spent isolating in
southern Spain prompted
Jaime Gómez Moreno to look
for a top-of-the-line upgrade
to keep his four-bedroom
home clean. In April, Mr.
Gómez Moreno, a 31-year-old
entrepreneur in the city of
Cádiz, splurged on a roughly
$600 robot vacuum cleaner
made by China’s Xiaomi Corp.
It not only swept away dust
but also scrubbed his floors,
he said.
“I spent more money be-
cause it was the latest model,”
Mr. Gómez Moreno said. “Cer-
tainly we went a little crazy to
have the cleanest and, above
all, sanitized house, without
fingerprints, without viruses.”
All the extra attention on
the domestic front has also
breathed new life into existing
offerings.
There are monthslong
backlogs for refrigerators and
dryers in the U.S. Nationwide
sales of kitchen appliances
such as air fryers and slow
cookers shot up 40% from
spring to the end of August,
said the NPD Group, a market
tracking firm.
“There’s a new set of needs
being created as we speak,”
said Joe Derochowski, a home-
industry analyst for NPD.
Growth is most dramatic
for products used in the
kitchen and for cleaning. From
mid-March to the end of Au-
gust, sales of vacuum clean-
ers, fans, humidifiers and wa-
ter filters grew 32% from the

Continued from page B1

B
Briggs, John.........B2,B10
C
Calder, Brad.................B3
Choe, Mark..................B1
D
Derochowski, Joe........B2
H
Halpenny, Derek........B10
Herzog, Norbert..........B2
Hui Yik-bun, Edmond..B2
I
Iyeki, Marc..................B2

J Jacobs, Brad................B4 Jie, Lu..........................B2 K Konstantinos, Chris..B10 L Lansing, Chris.............B3 Lipschultz, Mark.........B2 Liu, Richard.................B2 Lynch, John...............B10 M-O Martin, Juan...............B3 Masayoshi, Son..........B4

Olney, Martha...........B11 Ostrover, Doug............B2 P Pacitti, Aaron............B11 Packer, Craig...............B2 R Rabois, Keith..............B4 Roach, Jonathan.......B10 S Simons, Thomas..B2,B10 Song, Dae-hyun..........B1 Z Zaslav, David..............B3

year-earlier period, NPD said. Demand for washing machines with purifying steam functions grew 46% during the May-to-August period, while sales of air-treatment appliances surged 23%, according from GfK SE, a market re- searcher. Industry analysts forecast that the breakneck pace may slow somewhat next year as vaccine breakthroughs herald a potential end to the pandemic, though GfK forecasts demand for major home appliances will still grow by 5% in the first half of 2021. “The pandemic has changed how consumers think about being at home,” said Norbert Herzog, an expert on major home appliances at GfK. For Samsung, Latin Ameri- can vacuum-cleaner sales have more than tripled in the first half of the year from a year earlier. In its home country of South Korea, demand for a clothes steamer—about the size of a phone booth —has doubled, with advertisements now prominently pitching its disinfecting features. Haier Smart HomeCo., the Chinese company that bought General Electric Co.’s appli- ance unit, tapped influencers to hawk products on live streams to juice online sales as the pandemic forced many physical stores to close. Domestic sales of its air conditioners rose 27% in the third quarter, while dish- washer use in Europe soared by 24%. In its most-recent quarter, Haier reported a 58% rise in overseas operating profit. Amid the rising demand for hygiene appliances, LG is guaranteeing that some of its cleaning products with steam functions “kill over 99.9%” of viruses” when sanitizing items like face masks. It is also starting to sell what it calls a new “wearable” air purifier. Worn over the face and made of plastic, the gadget has tiny motors that direct air through a pair of HEPA filters.

Appliances

Get Covid

Makeover

turned to investors over a spe- cific period. Because of that, they pro- duce a fairly steady stream of fees, which could help the combined company appeal to public investors. Dyal has previously floated the idea of an IPO of one or more of its funds as a possible way to allow its investors the option of monetizing their holdings, The Wall Street Jour- nal has reported. The transaction being dis- cussed, however, is an IPO of the management company and wouldn’t alter the liquidity op- portunities for fund investors. Owl Rock was founded in 2016 by Doug Ostrover, who

co-founded GSO Capital Part- ners and sold it to Blackstone Group Inc.; former KKR & Co. partner Marc Lipschultz and former Goldman Sachs Group

Inc. banker Craig Packer. It has shot up to $23.7 billion in assets, which it man- ages primarily through business-development companies.

Based in New York, the firm focuses on a fast-growing area of the market known as direct lending, in which nonbanks make loans to midsize companies, many of them private-equity backed, and hold them on their books. Such lenders have been on the rise since the aftermath of the financial crisis when banks shed many of their riskier businesses. Years of low interest rates have led institutional investors such as pension funds to pour billions of dollars into direct- lending strategies in hopes of reaping higher returns than traditional fixed-income securities would offer.

and is already working on rais-
ing a new fund, according to
people familiar with the mat-
ter.
Unlike typical private-equity
funds, which tend to wind
down after a decade or so,
Dyal’s funds consist of perma-
nent capital, meaning the
money doesn’t have to be re-

Continued from page B1

Asset

Managers

Talk Deal

operating in China. Kicking Chinese companies off U.S. exchanges would lead to huge movements of capital and end an era in which fast- growing Chinese firms flocked to New York to go public. More than 250 companies based in China or Hong Kong are listed on U.S. exchanges, with a combined market capitalization of more than $2 trillion, according to S&P Global Market Intelli- gence. The legislation could give Washington more leverage in negotiating with Beijing to resolve the standoff over audit inspections, and may ultimately hasten a deal to allow Chinese firms to maintain their U.S. listings, said Marc Iyeki, the former head of Asia-Pacific listings at the New York Stock Exchange. “Three years is a lot of time,” Mr. Iyeki said. “You have two interlocked economies and financial markets, and it would be difficult to untangle them completely. There is a good

Continued from page B1

market capitalization of roughly $76 billion. The robust fundraising is solidifying Hong Kong’s status as a major capital raising hub for Chinese companies amid strained relations between China and the U.S., and as American policy makers have sought to step up scrutiny of New York-listed Chinese firms. So far,Alibaba Group Hold- ingLtd.,Yum China Holdings Inc. and JD.com have been among 10 U.S.-listed companies that have added secondary listings in Hong Kong over the past 13 months. Robeco’s Mr. Lu said an in- creasing number of U.S.-traded companies returning to Hong Kong or the mainland for secondary listings would help them hedge any risk of U.S. re- strictions on Chinese companies. JD Health fixed its IPO price

Some investors had been concerned about Hong Kong’s status as a major global financial center during recent geo- political tensions in the city, but Beijing wouldn’t want to close “this important window for international investors to access China,” he said. Technology firms that listed in recent years have also been able to sell more stock. On Wednesday, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. raised $4 billion via a share placement and sale of convertible bonds, about a week after the company reported a jump in global smartphone sales for the three months to September. Xiaomi’s shares fell 7.1% Wednesday after the new shares were sold at a dis- counted price. The stock has more than doubled in the year to date, giving the company a

at 70.58 Hong Kong dollars, or the equivalent of US$9.10, per share, and is scheduled to start trading on Dec. 8, according to a term sheet seen by The Wall Street Journal. The company plans to use the funds raised to make investments and ex- pand its business. Its listing will likely also result in a handsome payday for JD.com’s billionaire founder Richard Liu. This week, the company stopped collecting orders from institutional buyers a day ahead of schedule, after the deal was multiple times over- subscribed, according to a per- son familiar with the situation. The buyers include investment funds that typically hold stocks for long periods.Black- RockInc.,Tiger Global Singa- porePte. andHillhouse Capi- tal Management Ltd. were among so-called cornerstone investors that committed to buy up to $1.35 billion in stock in the IPO. Demand from individual investors was also strong, according to Bright Smart Secu- rities Chief Executive Edmond Hui Yik-bun, who said many investors took out margin loans to purchase JD Health stock. The offering was led by units of Bank of America Corp.,Haitong International Securities Group Ltd. and UBS GroupAG.

The telemedicine arm of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.comInc. raised $3.5 billion in Hong Kong’s largest initial public offering this year, tak- ing proceeds from new listings in the city to a 10-year high. JD Health International Inc., which operates China’s largest online retail pharmacy and provides other health-care services, priced its stock offering at the top end of an indica- tive range, after strong demand for its shares from investors. The IPO, which could raise up to $4 billion if underwriting banks exercise an option to buy additional stock after it starts trading, gives the Bei- jing-based company a valua- tion of $28.5 billion. More than 120 companies have raised $44.6 billion through IPOs and secondary listings in Hong Kong this year, the highest since 2010 when the city logged nearly $68 billion from new listings, according to Dealogic. Companies from China have dominated the rankings, and make up the majority of Hong Kong’s more than $5 trillion stock-market capitalization. Jie Lu, head of investments for China at Robeco, said Hong Kong remains an important financial hub for Chinese companies to raise capital.

JD.Com Arm Raises $3.5 Billion

BYJOANNECHIU

JD Health operates China’s largest online retail pharmacy and provides other health services.

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Source: Dealogic

*Could raise up to $4 billion if an over-allotment option is exercised after the shares start trading.

$3.5 BILLION

2.1

1.8

1.3

1.2

JDHealth*

ChinaBohaiBank

EvergrandePropertyServices

ShimaoServicesHoldings

NongfuSpring

Hong Kong’s five largest IPOs this year, by funds raised

benefit to both sides to have a resolution that both sides can live with.” In the U.S., audit supervision is handled by a special watch- dog, the Public Company Ac- counting Oversight Board, which was set up after the ac- counting scandals that took down Enron Corp. and others nearly 20 years ago. The SEC oversees the PCAOB and ap- points its board members. If the bill eventually results in an exodus of Chinese companies, it would deal a blow to the NYSE andNasdaq, which collect listing fees from such firms and benefit from their trading volumes. Executives from both exchanges have criti- cized the legislation, saying there are less drastic ways to resolve the dispute. “The NYSE has consistently advocated for investor protec- tions balanced with investor choice, and we are hopeful this legislation’s time horizon will allow for a resolution that sup- ports both of these fundamental needs,” said a spokesperson for the NYSE, which is owned by Intercontinental ExchangeInc. Some larger Chinese companies listed on the NYSE and Nasdaq have recently floated shares in Hong Kong, giving them a place to go if they are kicked off U.S. exchanges. Ali- baba last year established a secondary listing on the Hong

Kong stock exchange, and its ri- val,JD.comInc., and online- gaming groupNetEaseInc. fol- lowed suit this year. Other Chinese companies could respond to the threat of a U.S. trading ban by going private. That concerns some investors who worry that management teams could take their companies private at a lower share price, benefiting insiders who would buy out public shareholders. In June, Aber-

deen Standard Investments warned that a wave of going- private transactions by Chinese companies could result in bad deals for investors. “We believe that these transactions may be at prices that do not reflect the full value of the companies in- volved, with the transactions representing a transfer of value from minority investors to ac- quirers,” the U.K. asset man- ager said in a letter to the SEC.

Stage Set

For China

Delistings

Neuberger would retain a meaningful stakeinthe combined company.

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The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-03)

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