Starbucks Q2 earing report

I read its earning report this morning (Shanghai is 12 hrs ahead of US EDT). They reported an inline quarter. In the past that could send the stock tank. Not this time, because the stock has been down 27% since Jan 1. The expectation is already very low. With a PE about 33, and revenue growth of 20%, and a superior brand, I believe its future in the long term.

Let me talk things beyond the earnings. In the Cloud 9 (shopping mall and office building, where I work these days) there are 2 Starbucks stores. Around Zhongshan park I’m aware of 4 stores total.

According to “Shanghai Metro” newspaper yesterday, Coca cola is the No. 1 brand in the world, it brand is est. valued at $65 b (I believe its market cap is more than $100 b). Starbucks is not on the top 10, but could it fetch $ 6.5 b? Note SBUX has a market cap of about $20 b lately.

E-House China: the brand

From the F1 Prospectus:

“…Mr. Zhou has over 14 years of experience in China’s real estate industry. Mr. Zhou has been the chairman and president of Shanghai Real Estate Consultant & Sales (Group) Co., Ltd. since 2003. From 1997 to 2003, he served as a director and the general manager of Shanghai Real Estate Exchange Co., Ltd., and as the deputy general manager of Shanghai Jinfeng Investments Co., Ltd., a company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange…”

What is Jinfeng Investment Co. exactly? Well, it’s the owner of Jinfeng Yiju (easy housing), here is its web site www.ehousee.com. While it’s not as popular as the leading China real estate web site soufun.com, Jinfeng Yiju (its web site and stores) are quite popular in Shanghai and a few neighbouring cities. I have looked for houses using their web site, and they give decent results. They have retail stores (offices) too.

On the other hand, the E-House China has only a corp web site at www.ehousechina.com. So much for the “e”. But I did see their offices in a few places. They have a big listings in the Hongqiao office.

So what am I trying to get? It seems odd to me initially that two companies shares similar names or trademarks. I guess the people at Jinfeng probablly just let Mr. Zhou use their name because they are “friends”.