2014-08-06

So Long SouFun

Last week I wrote:
For myself, I'm looking at puts on SFUN.

The trade is getting crowded.

SouFun Holdings Target of Unusually High Options Trading
SouFun Holdings (NASDAQ:SFUN) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Investors acquired 8,543 put options on the stock, American Banking News.com reports. This is an increase of 156% compared to the typical volume of 3,343 put options.
SFUN has a bearish price pattern on its chart, so it may be shorts. Or maybe it is news driven?

SouFun No Fun? Chinese Property Agencies Boycott Online Apartment Listings
At a Tuesday press conference in Shanghai, representatives from 13 local property agencies outlined their grievances against SouFun while sitting in a row below a red banner that read: “Calling for honesty, Resist SouFun” in yellow characters.

The 13 agencies said in a press statement that SouFun is unfairly using its market power to raise prices. The property portal, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has listings covering more than 330 Chinese cities, has fostered an atmosphere of “unhealthy competition” among brokerages that disrupts the market, they said.

......In Shanghai, the impact on SouFun’s listings has been significant, with the combined listings of the 13 brokerages boycotting the site comprising around 30-40% of the portal’s local listings, the SouFun spokeswoman said.

This is a new development in the fight between property agents and SouFun. I covered it previously in: Why Shares of SouFun Are Sinking and SouFun Update.

Relevant parts from each:
On May 28, nine real estate agencies in Hangzhou pulled all their listings from SouFun's website, and this quickly spread to other cities including Beijing. A person from an agency in Beijing said firms have been in discussion with SouFun about cutting prices since the end of the year; the Hangzhou news was these negotiations breaking out into the open.

我爱我家 said it is built its own website to get around costs of ¥500-600 per user, which came to more than ¥100 million per year for the firm.

And later:
Soufun announced today it will offer 40% discount on subscription fees nationwide from June to its secondary listing customers (~25% of revs), which we believe is a major downside surprise for the market apart from e-commerce competition.

This is all housing slowdown related. Property agencies are looking to cut costs. This article reports SouFun's listings fell 30% on Tuesday as a result of the boycott: 端口费之争不妥协 搜房网房源数锐减超三成

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