After Didi Global: Are Chinese Stocks Investable?

The Razor’s Edge

The Didi Global IPO feels like a fiasco - company goes public one week, gets booted from the app store by Chinese regulators the next. With RLX Technology undergoing a similar crackdown earlier this year, and with Ant Financial still being kept off the market, and with concerns around Jack Ma's well-being in light of his criticism of the government, it's not a huge surprise most big-name Chinese stocks on the U.S. markets are trading poorly.

A lot of questions arise, but the most basic one - can you invest in these stocks? In this week's episode we talk about Didi and what the various parties' motivation might be, what might make the picture clearer, and whether you can really invest in Alibaba, as well as whether that matters.

Topics Covered

• 3:15 minute mark – What to make of the Didi crackdown
• 8:30 – Are China ADRs investible?
• 14:15 – What does an ADR actually get you?
• 22:15 – Considering the Chinese government’s calculus
• 25:15 – The difficulty of establishing an edge in these names
• 33:15 – Norms and flows, betting vs investing
• 39:15 – How much the right price can matter
• 47:15 – Revisiting the “Amazon of China” idea
• 52:45 – The Sina example
• 57:15 – U.S. Sino accords and balances of power
• 1:06:15 – Investing in China-based companies