Houlihan Smith Touts ChinaMed Group

Houlihan Smith is letting the world know that it picked up the ChinaMed Group Account. They will now attempt to raise equity financing for the firm. Ok so what’s wrong with that? Company needs equity. Wheeler dealer types agree to find equity for probably a big fat fee. Press release strokes the executive ego and so on.

Read the press release carefully. ChinaMed has not come to the market as yet with a prospectus or any offering document. SEC has not yet seen anything so we are not in the regulatory zone.

But

Houlihan Smith is already saying things about the investment which will lead investors to qualitative judgements about the investment such as
1. The management group is established and dynamic. But no information is provided about the management group.
2. ChinaMed Group plans to buy 10 to 15 hospitals in main land China. Therefore it would sound like they have nothing right now. But the growth rate will be spectacular. Therefore the investor looking for hot stocks should pay attention. Hmm
3. Doctors typically stay with one hospital and are paid on seniority. Inputed message is that this is better than US hospitals. Whatever happened to containing costs.
4. Chinese hospitals do not need to provide the same level of non-reimbursable services as in the USA. China will manage its healthcare system as it sees fit. They still have a lot of communists over there.

So when would the promotion begin?

PepsiAmericas - Lehman Brothers Back-to-School Conference – Why Bother?

PepsiAmericas (PAS) Investor Relations and Media Machine announced that Robert C. Pohlad, PepsiAmericas’ Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, will express confidence in the Company’s outlook and reaffirm its full-year 2008 adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) guidance. The Company expects full-year adjusted EPS from continuing operations to be in the range of $1.92 to $1.96.

He will do it at the Lehman Brothers Back-to-School Consumer Conference in Boston.

So why bother going to the conference? What does PepsiAmericas and Lehman Brothers get out of it other than a PR opportunity? If there is no change why blow the trumpet? The webcast will be available on the PepsiAmericas web site.

If it’s in the nuance when does it become a Reg FD issue? If there is no nuance when does communication become promotion?

China Finance Needs More Explanation

China Finance (JRJC) which bills itself as a leading Chinese online financial information and listed company data provider, announced late last Thursday some impressive growth numbers. They point out that while the Shanghai stock market has been a very tough place to make money they seem to be resonating with Chinese investors who are hungry for investment information.

OK We all now that the Chinese market is huge. We all know that the stock market attracts attention from the Chinese entrepreneurs and business people. The numbers indicate that they are growing.

But

There is no discussion about which product area’s are doing well or show promise. The entire press release is exciting to read because its all going up up up. But in the cold light of dawn what is the value proposition for the end user? Why is the end user staying with it? What happens when the big boy’s like Bloomberg, Reuters all decide to provide competing products? Will they care to buy this entity to create a foothold? Or will they build their own green field program and advance monolithically.

In any event China Finance needs to stake out where they stand and why they are relevant.