The lesson of ENC, Two options for CDC

Compare ENC to CDC, both are Chinese companys.

ENC (Telco)    CDC (Diary)
Listed in 2015 Listed in 2016   
Both are Chess Depositary (Nothing in Australia, CDIs issued through agents)
No.1 individual holder 46% No.1 tax a*e company 53% (ownership)
No.1+insiders 85%   No.1+insiders 79% (ownership)
Mkt cap at isp $15-20m $15-20m
Potential good, earning ok Potential good, earning ok
Dividend: No   Interim div paid twice  (in china it is final div due to different tax time)
CEO's salary 300k+    CEO's salary 45k, but also got other business to look after.
Destination: acquisition/delisted    Destination: ???

ENC confirmed that lack of locals' support is the key issue of weak sp and poor share liquidity (locals may say ENC has nothing run in Australia, why invest in?). The ENC management was under pressure hence to accept the takeover offer in Oct/2017.  Finally, the shareholders will be paid $0.44 (isp price $0.4, 10% increase, so the majority of shareholders are ok) by the bidder and ENC gets delisted off, that is the end of ENC.   That can be one option of CDC's future, if a take over is likely to happen, the key owners who dump now will lose more in the future.  At the current circumstances,  at least the management shown their confidences with the CDC's assets, so the key owners never sell any share, not enough buyers caused by the poor capital structure could be another issue.

Considering about the other options, few movements can make a big difference.  We may see the smaller player can do a better job such as AU8, which only managing few shops but is able to attract lot of eyes in.  AU8's business is all physically run in Australia, locals can see that visibly better than so-called Chess Depositary paper guaranteed from a communist region.   Additionally,  I would like to introduce the story of Ausnutria (澳优 listed in Hongkong) here.  Few years ago, I thought Ausnutria took out our opportunities, the name in Chinese gives me a feeling like "Australian qualified or Au best",  similiar or whatever.  Actually at that time their major production was managed in Dutchland, five factories there.   After the introduction of the new self-labeled products in 2017, Ausnutria performs very well among the first three quarters, gross profits reach around 2.7 billion Yuan, which increased significantly compared to that of the previous year (http://www.ausnutria.com/). What is more,  this time they really come to Australia, two factories acquired in Australia.   What Ausnutria has done can be the second option for CDC.  After full removal of the esrows in Apr/2018,  to get some factories built or find any local partners, should the sufficient funds and the strength are still in CDC's pocket.