Tim Cook has spent the last week traveling to China first and the last 4 days visiting Mumbai, Kanpur, Hyderabad and New Delhi In India.
In China, Tim Cook met with the hugely important Ministry of Industry and Information Technology chief, Miao Wei, early last week in addition to meeting with local startups. There was not much in the form of news that came out of that meeting except the Ministry released a statement that it hopes that Apple will continue to expand its footprint in China via continued investments in its Chinese business, supply chain and R&D in order to give the Chinese consumer "safe and convenient" experiences. (whatever that means).
In the prior week, Apple had announced a $1 billion investment in Didi Chuxing, the biggest taxi/ride sharing service in China which is locked in a fierce global battle with Uber.
In India, Tim Cook visited one of Mumbai's most sacred temples, Siddhi Vinayak Temple, partied with Bollywood stars, took a meeting Chanda Kochar, CEO of India's largest private sector banks, ICICI Bank, watched a cricket match in Kanpur, announced an accelerator facility in Bangalore that would focus on local startup and apps, inaugurated a Map Development Center in Hyderabad, met with Sunil Mittal, CEO of Airtel, one of India's largest cellular company and ended the trip with a sit-down with Indian PM, Narendra Modi.
Man, I am tired from just writing that out.
However, the question is, "How will this whirlwind tour of two vitally critical markets for Apple, now and in the future, impact the price of the shares going forward?"
In China, the government should be pleased that he invested $1 billion in one of their biggest homegrown unicorns and that relatively small investment by Apple should reap large rewards down the road.
In India, the trip was much bigger than even the China trip given that Apple sales in India are relatively tiny compared to China but have the potential to become very large in a few years. Indian PM Modi, summed it up well when he said, "in India seeing is believing" and the fact that Tim Cook visited India should go a long way in helping Apple accomplish the goal of setting up both manufacturing operations and direct retail stores in India, which is the world's fastest growing smartphone market. It will not happen overnight but happen it will.
Tim Cook's visit to China and India should go a long way in further paving the way for Apple in the two countries and shareholders should be pretty stoked about what he has managed to accomplish in less than a week. Just don't expect fireworks though.
(Long aapl shares, long and short options)
You can follow my trades at www.jaysomaney.com
