While the news that Gap (NYSE: GPS ) is planning on taking its Old Navy brand to China wasn't surprising, investors might not have foreseen the strength the company has in its convictions. On a call with investors yesterday, Gap's management said, "We see [the opportunity for global growth] particularly in some countries where in our category, you're talking about double-digit growth just to keep up with the market." That means China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia, just to name a few.
The start of the push will come from franchise Old Navy locations in China, but with Gap's impressive array of brands, it's not going to be long before others come along.
The new opportunity
Gap is looking at Old Navy to be the first big push into new Asian markets. At first, stores will be franchise locations, with up to 85 open before the end of the year, with 10 of those being outlets. One of the biggest strengths that the company boasts is its impressive underlying operations. On yesterday's call, the company bragged that the structure now in place was buried in the P&L from 2008 to 2012, and now the cost to enter new locations is minimal.
5 Best China Stocks To Own Right Now: SmartHeat Inc.(HEAT)
SmartHeat Inc. manufactures, sells, and services plate heat exchangers (PHE) in the People?s Republic of China. It offers PHE units, which combine PHEs with various pumps, temperature sensors, and valves and automated control systems; heat meters for use in commercial and residential buildings; and spiral and tube heat exchangers. The company?s products are used in various applications that include energy conversion for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; and industrial use in petroleum refining, petrochemicals, metallurgy, food and beverage, and chemical processing. SmartHeat sells PHE units under the brand name of Taiyu; and PHEs under the brand names of Taiyu and Sondex. It sells its products through sales force and a network of national distributors. The company is headquartered in Shenyang, the People?s Republic of China.
5 Best China Stocks To Own Right Now: Perfect World Co. Ltd.(PWRD)
Perfect World Co., Ltd., through its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, operation, and licensing of online games primarily in the People?s Republic of China, the United States, and the Rest of Asia. It develops online games based on its game engines and game development platforms. The company?s 3D massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) include Perfect World, an adventure and fantasy game with traditional Chinese settings; Legend of Martial Arts, an adventure story of Chinese swordsmen set in an ancient kingdom; and Perfect World II, which is set in a similar content and graphic background as Perfect World. It also offers Zhu Xian that is based on martial arts focused adventure set in a fantasy world; Chi Bi, a war story developed based on ancient Chinese history known as the Three Kingdoms; Hot Dance Party, a 3D online casual game; Pocketpet Journey West, a 3D MMORPG based on the classical novel of Chinese literature, Journey to the West ; Battle of the Immortals, a mysterious adventure, which enables game players to travel between eastern and western cultures, and adventures in historic sites and turf wars; and Fantasy Zhu Xian, a 2D turn-based MMORPG based on the Internet fantasy novel Zhu Xian. It also involves in the production and distribution of films, as well as television advertising activities. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Eric Volkman]
Perfect World's (NASDAQ: PWRD ) fortunes might just be improved with a freshly announced new title. The company has revealed that its latest game, Fortuna, will be available starting on July 18. Set in Europe during the Age of Discovery, the browser-based title is a strategy/war game in which players vie to develop modest settlements into global empires. Fortuna features the usual cutthroat conventions of the strategy and combat genres, including the ability to throw armies into battle, and to form opportunistic alliances with other players.
- [By Lauren Pollock]
Perfect World Co.'s(PWRD) third-quarter profit rose 40% due largely to a revenue boost from the Chinese company’s core online-games business. American depositary shares of Perfect World were up 6% at $20 premarket as the company’s results for the period beat expectations.
Top 5 Oil Stocks To Watch Right Now: Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc(HMPR)
Hampton Roads Bankshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Bank of Hampton Roads (BOHR) and Shore Bank that provide community and commercial banking services primarily to individuals and small to medium-sized businesses. It offers traditional loan and deposit banking services, as well as telephone banking, Internet banking, remote deposit capture, and debit cards. The company also accepts commercial and consumer deposits that consist of various forms of demand and time accounts, including checking accounts, interest checking, money market accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and IRA accounts. In addition, it provides a range of commercial, real estate, and consumer lending products and services; commercial and industrial loans; construction loans; real estate-commercial mortgage; real estate-residential mortgage; and installment loans to individuals. Further, the company offers travelers? checks, coin counters, wire services, and safe deposit b ox services. Additionally, it provides letters of credit and standby letters of credit, and cash management products to commercial customers. The company also offers insurance products to businesses and individuals; securities, brokerage, and investment advisory services; and non-deposit investment products, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and insurance products, as well as engages in originating and processing mortgage loans. As of June 2, 2011, the company operates 48 banking offices in Virginia and North Carolina; and 8 banking offices in the eastern shore of Maryland and Virginia. It operates a network of sixty-seven ATM machines. The company was founded in 1961 and is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia.
5 Best China Stocks To Own Right Now: Baidu Inc.(BIDU)
Baidu, Inc. provides Chinese and Japanese language Internet search services. Its search services enable users to find relevant information online, including Web pages, news, images, multimedia files, and blogs through the links provided on its Websites. The company also offers online community-based products and entertainment platforms; an instant messaging service; and a consumer-oriented e-commerce platform. In addition, it designs and delivers online marketing services and auction-based P4P services that enable its customers to reach users who search for information related to their products or services. The company serves online marketing customers consisting of small and medium sized enterprises, large domestic corporations, and Chinese divisions or subsidiaries of multinational corporations primarily operating in the medical, machinery, education, franchising, electronic products, e-commerce, ticketing, tourism, information technology, consumer products, real estate, entertainment, and financial services industries. It sells its online marketing services directly, as well as through its distribution network. The company was formerly known as Baidu.com, Inc. and changed its name to Baidu, Inc. in December 2008. Baidu, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People?s Republic of China.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Daniel Sparks]
Up about 50% over the past six months, Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU ) has rapidly recovered from the Street's pessimism that seemed to drown the stock from its previous highs. The stock was certainly a buy six months ago, but is it still a buy today? Fool contributor Daniel Sparks thinks so. In the following video, he highlights three reasons why.
- [By Kevin Chen]
Analyzing�IBM� (NYSE: IBM ) , Baidu� (NASDAQ: BIDU ) , Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) ,�Google� (NASDAQ: GOOG ) , and Nokia (NYSE: NOK ) , Kevin calculates the return on research capital, or RORC. You can calculate this number yourself by taking this year's gross profit and dividing it by last year's R&D expenditures.
- [By Andrew Tonner]
Search has long been one of the most profitable businesses in all of tech. This has been fantastic for Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU ) shareholders who have watched the company effectively dominate the search market in China for some time now. However, all that changed last year as rival Internet power Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU ) decided it wanted its own piece of this booming market. In fact, Qihoo recently raised the stakes by snapping up another rival in hopes of unseating Baidu from its top spot in this growth market. So how great a threat is this for Baidu? In this video, Fool contributor Andrew Tonner discusses how investors should interpret this very real threat.
- [By James Brumley]
Investors were a little more alert when Chinese search engine Baidu�(BIDU) went public in 2005. But buy and large, they still missed the boat on spotting the “next Google” before the underlying stock took off.
5 Best China Stocks To Own Right Now: Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc.(HMIN)
Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc. develops, leases, operates, franchises, and manages a chain of economy hotels in the People?s Republic of China. The company operates its hotels under the Home Inn brand name. As of April 28, 2011, it had approximately 800 Home Inns in operation and 1,000 Home Inns sealed in franchise agreements. The company was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People?s Republic of China.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Seth Jayson]
Home Inns & Hotels Management (Nasdaq: HMIN ) reported earnings on May 13. Here are the numbers you need to know.
The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), Home Inns & Hotels Management missed estimates on revenues and beat expectations on earnings per share.
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