Weekly News Wrap: Burner phone sales surge in Hong Kong's shops; Coupang surges to $109b in US debut

And US-based Gap mulls sale of its China business.

From Reuters:

Electronics shops in Hong Kong have seen a sharp increase in demand for cheap burner phones as the Chinese-ruled city’s government eases coronavirus restrictions but pushes the use of a contact-tracing app which has raised privacy concerns.

The former British colony saw anti-government and anti-China protests erupt in 2019 and a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 in response, along with the arrest of most of its prominent pro-democracy activists.

The swift authoritarian turn taken by the government, which denies curbing the rights and freedoms of the special administrative region’s 7.5 million residents, has resulted in deep-seated mistrust of public policies, including measures to curb the coronavirus.

Health Secretary Sophia Chan said the app poses no privacy risks as it only stores data on users’ phones and no third party collects it. The app notifies users if they had been in the same place with a person confirmed with COVID-19.

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From Reuters:

Coupang was valued at around $109b in its market debut on 11 March after the company raised around $4.6b in the biggest US initial public offering this year.

Its stock soared 81% to open at $63.50. The company had priced 130 million shares sold in the IPO at $35 per share, higher than the marketing range $32-$34 per share, giving it a market value of $60b.

Founded in 2010 by Korean-American billionaire Bom Suk Kim, Coupang rose to prominence after launching its guaranteed same-day or next-day delivery service in the East Asian country. SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund owns 35.1% of Coupang.

Coupang’s spectacular debut further bolsters the recent fortunes of the Vision Fund, which is bouncing back from an annual loss last March.

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From Bloomberg:

American clothing retailer Gap is weighing options including a potential sale for its China business, according to people with knowledge of the matter, as it looks to revamp its operations in the country.

The company is working with Morgan Stanley to study options and has reached out to prospective suitors to gauge interest for the business, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private.

The firm entered China in 2010. Apart from its brick-and-mortar stores, Gap’s products are also available on Alibaba’s Tmall online shopping platform. Shares of Gap were up 1.7% to $29.36 at 12:13 PM on 9 March in New York, trailing the 1.9% gain in the benchmark S&P 500 Index.

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