Member Info for bumpylane

As far we we know the problem here has been caused by the local regulator's office taking the JQW site offline because one of the sites 1000's advertiser was promoting a pyramid-selling scheme. The problem hasn't necessarily been caused by the company being corrupt. JQW may have made an error, or this may be some kind of local feud. We don't know. All I'm saying is there's no reason at this stage to believe that the company is fraudulent, or a 'con from the start' as I think you wrote.

The company isn't choosing to de-list here. They are being obliged to de-list because the Nomad has resigned. I agree that the insider selling from the seed investors was always very strange. But there's no evidence that this was 'a con from day one'. Quite the opposite. The website was there to see, with external verification of figures from Alexa.com and others. JQW was a successful media company in a booming sector. JQWmall.com was always a distraction. The JQW brand only means anything in China.

That's definitely possible. But since the Chairman's family has such a big shareholding (about two thirds, I think) they do have quite a big incentive to pay out any cash balance to shareholders, rather tan to 'varnish' the cash to suppliers. I will be very surprised if the stated cash balance turns out to be a fraud. A cash balance is the single easiest thing for the auditor to check.

I didn't ask the Nomad why they had resigned. All Nomads of Chinese companies on AIM are under a lot of pressure, which isn't surprising given recent scandals like Naibu, Camkids. etc.. Cairn may have been looking for any reasonable excuse to resign. JQW has been offline since mid-September, and has probably reassured Cairn several times that they are 'just about' to resolve issues with the AIC. Cairn's patience has worn a bit thin, I reckon, and so they've decided to resign. Not a whole lot JQW could do to stop them if this scenario is correct. I think it's very unlikely that the company will re-list. The best hope is a wind-up and a cash distribution. The Jersey company may provide some protection to minority shareholders. Ms Wang, the Chairman's Canadian niece, owns about 48% through BVI companies. She might want the cash paid out. But it's probably the Chairman who's really puling the levers. Interesting why you say about the current situation with the site. I don't what the explanation is for that.

I emailed the Nomad, who confirms that the Jersey Holding company is the senior holding company of JQW shares. I don't know if this gives investors a lot of protection, as the cash is in China, but it's definitely better than the senior holding company being in Jiangsu. Apparently the company is still hoping to resolve the AIC issue and resume its operations. No talk of a cash wind-up at the moment.

I don't think there's any chance of getting a new Nomad. The only chance here is that the existing Nomad can be convinced within 30 days that normal trading conditions exist. That means getting a definite green light from the AIC office, etc. Not impossible, but it looks unlikely as we've already been kept offline since mid-Sept. There's no evidence of financial fraud so far. I know the corporate structure here is very complicated. But is the senior holding company not in Jersey? If the company was to wind up and do a cash distribution to shareholders (possible as the biggest shareholder is Canadian and may not want the cash in China), perhaps all shareholders could get something here. But this may be clutching at straws.

It was definitely risky investing in a small Chinese company, but I think there has been a lot of bad luck here. Nobody could have predicted that the local AIC office would take the site offline because one of its thousands of advertisers was putting up an advert that was considered illegal.

Am sorry to hear that the site is down again. I checked a couple of times last week and it seemed to be working fine, and as hubster says, it's an advertising/hyperlink site that's all it needs to do. That's depressing that it again offline. The AIC are being very tough. I guess that the company will have to RNS this week, whatever the situation with AIC.

We could definitely do with some. A larger shareholder has clearly decided to throw in the towel. Perhaps not surprising since we've heard noting from the company since November 9th.. But the website seems to up and working, which is encouraging. We need an update that tells us that they have clearance from the AIC and there's still £40m in the bank (or something like that). All very frustrating as Chinese e-commerce is flying.

Still no update. But maybe that's better than an update that says 'we still haven't managed to resolve things with the AIC'. Is the site up?

That's good news. The original suspension was 2 months ago now. Does anyone have the inside story of what has caused this and why it has taken so long to sort out? From the company's point of view the next RNS really has to say 'we have the green light from the AIC and are back online'. Then they need to give an estimate of the cost of the suspension.

For more information it might be worth emailing Abchurch, the PR . It's all very puzzling why this has happened. It's the local office of the AIC that has imposed this very severe sanction against JQW, and won't lift it. That could mean that this is some kind of local score being settled. But who knows?

You have to feel sorry for the company at this point. The AIC are giving them a very hard time indeed, and there doesn't seem to be much the company can do about it.

A bit of a deafening silence from the company. I suppose they don't want to put out an RNS until they get the a definitive all clear from the AIC. At least this site is online in the meantime. Only when they get the 'all clear' can they update us on the costs of this nasty and completely unexpected event.

That was very clever to sell at breakeven on the temporary suspension RNS on October 19th? But didn't JQW hit an all time low that day?

If your that gloomy about JQW's prospects then I suggest sell all your shares now and think about something else.

Oh dear. Another fortnight offline. But I can't see that JQW have much option but to put a brave face on things. The officials from the local AIC have all the power here.

Disappointing not to see an RNS this morning saying 'we are back online'. But re-reading the RNS of 19/9 they do warn that the site can only go back online when they have satisfied the local office of the AIC, which has imposed this draconian punishment. Hopefully that will happen soon, as every day offline costs JQW a lot of money.

I've always understood the closest competitor to JQW is youboy.com. Similar in lots of ways. B2B. All domestic Chinese, etc. Unlike JD.com which is huge and international. Alexa has youboy.com at 69th in China, 496th in the world. Sounds about right. Similarweb has youboy.com at 3476 in China and 72754 in the world. Pretty daft. So my view is that similarweb is great for websites with a western presence, but highly inaccurate for domestic Chinese websites. Doubtless you will disagree with me, but it seems pretty clear.

Alexa works by agregating page visits over 3 months. I guess that's why you see the fairly gradual decline slope from mid-Sept. when JQW.com was taken offline. Alexa was putting it at 80-something most visited site in China at the time. It's now down to 187, having lost 30 days offline. I don't know similarweb.com. It's putting JQW.com at 187,000 in the rankings! Seems a bit crazy. I just assume that it's a more US-based system that doesn't register Chinese internet use as accurately as Alexa. It's difficult to know where JQW.com will stabilise. It's probably important for it to say in the top 500 Chinese websites. Being in the top 100 was amazing but never sustainable, in my opinion. JQW will keep its advertisers as long as they continue to sell product through the site. I'm hoping they will hold onto 90% of their customers.