Shares of Qihoo 360 Technology (NYSE: QIHU), the Chinese maker of mobile security software, are up 7.5% Wednesday after the company received a buyout offer from a group CEO Hongyi Zhou.
Zhou’s offer values his company at $77 per American depositary receipt, or $10.6 billion. Qihoo shares currently trade around $71 with a market value of $8.85 billion, indicating there could be more upside Qihoo, the latest in a long line of U.S.-listed Chinese companies that have considered going private.
The takeover offer for Qihoo, which has surged 46% over the past three months, is propping some tech-heavy China exchange traded funds. For example, the KraneShares CSI China Internet Fund (NasdaqGM: KWEB) is up 1.7% today, making it one of the best percentage gainers among non-leveraged ETFs.
The $166.4 million KWEB has been stout in its own right, soaring nearly 36% over the past 90 days. KWEB entered Wednesday with an almost 4.2% weight to Qihoo, making the stock the ETF’s sixth-largest holding. [China Internet ETF Staves Off Alibaba Slump]
“China’s internet and ecommerce sector has picked up momentum in recent weeks. The uptick in performance by China internet companies began on March 13th and has continued through today, adding 34.42%1 over this time period. We believe the recent strong performance in China’s internet sector is supported by the wealth effect from favorable returns in the onshore bull market,” according to a KraneShares note.
The Powershares Golden Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio (NYSEArca: PGJ) is also enjoying news of Qihoo potentially going private. Though PGJ is not a dedicated Internet or tech ETF, it is pretty darn close with a combined weight of 78.6% to the technology and consumer discretionary sectors.
Eight of PGJ’s top 10 holdings, a group that combines for about 54% of the ETF’s weight, are Chinese Internet names. That includes Qihoo in the sixth spot with a weight of 4.6%. PGJ tracks the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index. In arguably quiet fashion, the ETF is up 27.5% over the past three months and with the benefit of today’s gain, PGJ is heading toward its highest close since the fourth quarter of 2007. [China Internet ETFs Look to Bounce Back]
The Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (NYSEArca: EMQQ) is up 1.1% today and trading just pennies below its all-time high. EMQQ, which debuted in November, tries to reflect the performance of the EMQQ Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce Index.
EMQQ is not a dedicated China ETF, but 28 of its 42 holdings are Chinese companies, including an almost 2.7% weight to Qihoo. EMQQ has climbed 17.7% this year.
Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF
