What’s in a name? A lot apparently, especially if you’re a property developer-turned P2P company riding the wave of China’s self-fulfilling, margin-fueled equity mania. Enter Shanghai Duolun Industry, a Shanghai-listed company which, until recently anyway, engaged in real estate development and commodity residential buildings distribution. All of that changed however, on April 29th when the company announced it was setting up a financial services business.
As it turns out, that business will one day involve peer-to-peer lending — an industry which is certainly en vogue — and, not wanting to leave any room for ambiguity, Shanghai Duolun Industry renamed itself P2P Financial Information Service Co., a move which quickly caused the company’s shares to soar.
Via FT [3]:
China's technology stock mania scaled new heights on Monday when shares in a Shanghai-listed real estate company rose by the maximum 10 per cent daily limit after it changed its name to P2P Financial Information Service Co.
The company, formerly known as Shanghai Duolun Industry, acknowledged in filings that it had not started developing a peer-to-peer lending business.
But the company estimated that an Internet domain it recently registered, www.p2p.com [4], was worth $100m.
The website currently features a few photos and a Chinese caption stating “This domain is worth $100m.”
Here are some visuals...
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And in case you were considering a yuan-denominated P2P micro loan, here's how to get in touch:
[7]
Finally, here is what happens when you rebrand your real estate company as a cutting-edge P2P lender and your shares are listed on an exchange that's in the midst of a world-beating rally driven in part by millions of newly-minted, poorly-educated day traders:
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Perhaps Shanghai Duolon P2P Financial can take advantage of China's move to liberalize [10] the country's nascent ABS market because as we recently learned in the US, when it comes to securitizing cash flows, P2P is about to be [11] all the rage.
