Daily Brief China: Sinopharm Group Co Ltd H, Freetech Intelligent Systems, Tencent and more

In today’s briefing:

Sinopharm Group (1099 HK): Industry Tailwind and China Reopening To Drive Growth
Chinese driverless car firm nets nearly $100m series B money
Tencent/Netease: Tencent Behind Smaller Peers in This Year Game Approval

Sinopharm Group (1099 HK): Industry Tailwind and China Reopening To Drive Growth

Sinopharm Group Co Ltd H (1099 HK) remains a beneficiary of both VBP and China reopening. Consensus expects double-digit revenue and earnings growth for the company in 2023 and 2024.
SinoPharm’s acquisition of VBP varieties constantly stood in the leading position in the industry. Through June 2022, China carried out seven batches of VBP, with 294 categories being included.
With China gradually re-opening, SinoPharm should record accelerated growth in its pharma distribution business. With subsiding COVID-19 cases in Q3, SinoPharm reported 10% YoY and 8% QoQ revenue growth.

Freetech Intelligent Systems, a China-based autonomous driving firm, has raised nearly US$100 million in its series B round, Nikkei Asia reported.
Chaos Investment led the round, with TCL Industries Holdings, BAIC Capital, and Hengxu Capital participating, among other investors.
Founded in 2016, Freetech creates a full-stack solution for autonomous vehicles, creating both software and hardware components to power cars.

China just announced game approval for December batch. The number of games approved is slightly higher than the previous three months.
Pace of China game approval stays flattish, at a much slower pace than pre-tightening.
In both December batch, as well as over the past year, we see Tencent behind its smaller peers in terms of receiving game approval.

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