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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 AUGUST 2017 11 Business Today www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way Chinese fi rm Alibaba to open a 'car vending machine' next year Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba is to open its own car "vending machine" next year in a bid to make buying a car "as easy as buying a can of Coke". The launch follows used car seller Autobahn Motors' opening of its futuristic 15-storey showroom in Singapore last year, which was billed as the "world's largest luxury car vending machine". Autobahn's vending machine displays vehicles in 60 slots, with customers on the ground floor able to choose from a touchscreen display the car they wish to see. The car arrives within two minutes thanks to an advanced system that manages vehicle retrieval. According to the Financial Times, Alibaba will follow in Autobahn's footsteps with the launch of its own car vending machine. It will allow buyers to browse cars on their smartphones and press the buy button, which then releases the car from a vertical display tower. US company Carvana also uses vending machine-like towers to sell used cars. In March, it opened an eight- floor structure that holds up to 30 cars in San Antonio, Texas. Yu Wei, general manager of the automotive division on Alibaba's e-commerce platform, told Alibaba's news service that the era of online car shopping had arrived and the new automotive retail model "will make buying cars as easy as buying a can of Coke". The vending machine reduces costs - such as storage and staff - for the firm, and taps into the growing demand for luxury goods by China's burgeoning middle classes. Alibaba plans to plug its vending machines into its online system that incorporates financing and data about a car buyer's credit rating. Buyers with a high enough credit rating from Alibaba's scoring system will be able to drive off in their car after providing a 10pc deposit, paying monthly installments thereafter. Singapore already has a car vending machine, opened by Autobahn Motors last year Disney looks for its old magic: Earnings preview Walt Disney Company has been in idle since August of 2015, declining by just over 2% since that time, versus an S&P 500 that is up over 19%. But Dis- ney is a typical consumer com- pany, with everything from theme parks, to movies, to TV assets, and as the consumer goes, so too, does Disney. But Disney's stock has stalled out as has its revenue growth, and the company will be looking to find a little bit of that old mag- ic to excite consumers once again, something the company seems to have lost over the past two years. Estimates Analysts aren't looking for much revenue growth when the company reports fiscal third quarter results on August 8 after the close of trading. The street is estimating revenues increased by only 1% in the fiscal third quarter versus last year to $14.44 billion, while EPS is expected to fall by over 4% to $1.55. To make matters worse, according to data provided by YCharts, those revenue estimates have dropped by nearly 1.5% since starting the year, around $14.65 billion. Subscriber Losses For Disney to get its stock moving again, it is going to have to show strong signs of life and get investors talking about something other than ESPN and subscriber losses. Parks and Resorts had a strong fiscal second quarter with revenue growth of nearly 9%. But that growth was still not enough to move the business segment past Media Networks which continues to be at the top of Disney's revenue food chain, with revenue of $5.946 billion versus, Parks and Resorts $4.299 billion. Chart and Options The stock has been consolidating sideways now for some time on the weekly charts and looks as though it may stay in the consolidation phase for a while longer. Investors certainly don't seem to be too excited about the upcoming results either, with very little option activity in the name. The majority of the open interest is at the $100 strike price, but in the months out to December and January, where open interest sits at roughly 19,000 and 46,000 shares, respectively. (For more, see also: Disney's $500M Avatar Theme Park Opens This Week.) The technical setup and lack of near-term option activity suggest the stock isn't expected to have too much volatility. For Disney's stock price to get moving again, it is going to need to create a narrative of the company that is once again growing, and developing ways to continue to get the consumer to spend on its services and products. It needs to change the trends at ESPN and its Cable Networks, or its needs to spark growth in another business unit to get investors believing revenue will rise, and in turn push the stock price up.