Corona Capital: Movie horror, JD.com, Services

Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co

05/10/2020 11:50

(The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists.  The
opinions expressed are their own.)
    By Breakingviews columnists
    LONDON/HONG KONG, Oct 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Corona
Capital is a column updated throughout the day by Breakingviews
columnists around the world with short, sharp pandemic-related
insights.

    LATEST
    - Movie horror
    - Health boom
    - Sputtering services

    NO TIME TO LIVE. James Bond will not save the cinema
industry. Cineworld  CINE.L  on Monday lost more than half of
its market value after it said https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/cineworldplc1/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=655&newsid=1420306
 it will close all its UK and U.S. movie theatres later this
week. The trigger for the decision was the delay of the release
of 007’s next mission, “No Time to Die”, to April next year
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2GT21G. The leaves silver screens without a blockbuster
until “Wonder Woman 1984”, a superhero movie, which is due to
arrive on Christmas Day.
    Cineworld’s move, which could lead to the loss of about
45,000 jobs, will help preserve its dwindling cash reserves.
Some 561 of its 778 sites had opened as of Sept. 24, but
Cineworld is burning $50 million to $60 million a month. Chief
Executive Mooky Greidinger needs flexibility from creditors who
were owed $4 billion at the end of June; first-half EBITDA was https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/cineworldplc1/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=655&newsid=1418344
 just $53 million. The future looks bleak. (By Karen Kwok)

    MARKET HIGHS. Web retailer JD.com’s  JD.O ,  9618.HK  online
pharmacy has filed https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2020/0927/2020092700139.pdf
 to go public in Hong Kong, taking advantage of China’s booming
healthcare sector. JD Health is betting on two trends: that the
pandemic will raise overall health awareness and related
spending, and that more patients will shift online for doctor
consultations and other services.
    The prognosis looks good so far. Revenue in the six months
to June surged by more than three-quarters year-on-year to $1.3
billion, thanks to increased over-the-counter drug sales, as
well as immunity-boosting supplements and the like.
Encouragingly, JD Health saw a near sixfold rise in online
consultations, averaging 90,000 a day in the same period. Shares
of Hong Kong-listed rivals Alibaba Health Information Technology
 0241.HK  and Ping An Healthcare and Technology  1833.HK  are up
113% and 74% respectively this year. JD Health checks all the
right boxes. (By Robyn Mak)

    THE BAD AND THE UGLY. The fortunes of the euro zone’s
service and manufacturing sectors are diverging. Purchasing
managers’ surveys on Monday showed the former shrank in France
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nZRN000O1V, Italy  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nZRN000O1S and Spain  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nZRN000O1R in
September, and barely grew in Germany  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nZRN000O1Y. As a result,
the euro zone purchasing managers’ index for services fell back
below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nZRN000O27.
    While similar soundings of euro zone manufacturing activity
were more upbeat last week, that will be of limited comfort to
governments and European Central Bank boss Christine Lagarde
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2GS1VX. Services account for about two-thirds of the
bloc’s GDP. Policymakers are trying to prevent the pandemic from
scarring economies. But rebounding Covid-19 infections mean new
restrictions; businesses in the services sector cut staffing for
a seventh month in September. Jobs were cut even in Britain,
which is outside the euro zone and where services expanded last
month  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nZRN000O2D. Fiscal policy has more heavy lifting to do.
(By Swaha Pattanaik)
        
    
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UPDATE-BREAKINGVIEWS-Corona Capital: U.S. jobs, Real estate   
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 (Editing by Peter Thal Larsen and Oliver Taslic)