Research from Water Tower Research, Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research

Research from Water Tower Research

Water Tower Research is a leading equity research firm that provides research on micro, small and mid cap companies.

Water Tower Research was founded by Wall Street veterans after witnessing a fundamental shift in the investment research industry with the result being a declining knowledge base among investors, a lack of awareness and a shrinking pool of fundamental research being conducted on companies across the small-cap and micro-cap spectrum. The same issues are now increasingly occurring in the mid-cap space. This sea change within the investment community is impacting not only the companies themselves but also current shareholders and potential investors. With significantly less active sell-side sponsorship by Wall Street, a substantial information gap has developed between companies and various constituents in the financial community. The net result is fewer channels for insight and information to flow between companies and investors.

Equity Research Firm

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>This month’s AI landscape reveals a market at an inflection point, with record infrastructure commitments colliding with growing bubble anxiety. </li><li>Meta’s staggering $600-billion US buildout plan and Anthropic’s $50-billion data center announcements underscore that the compute arms race is accelerating, not cooling.</li><li>Yet caution signals are flashing, as CoreWeave trimmed its full-year guidance despite strong 3Q results, while Nvidia, CoreWeave, and Nebius Group all saw pressure on their stocks. </li></ul>

This month’s AI landscape reveals a market at an inflection point, with record infrastructure commitments colliding with growing bubble anxiety. Meta’s staggering $600-billion US buildout plan and Anthropic’s $50-billion data center announcements underscore that the compute arms race is accelerating, not cooling.Yet caution signals are flashing, as CoreWeave trimmed its full-year guidance despite strong 3Q results, while Nvidia, CoreWeave, and Nebius Group all saw pressure on their stocks. 

AI Flow Newsletter : Monitoring The "Currents" Of AI

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Douglas Research Advisory

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>On 27 November, the Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) finally announced that it has completely abolished the restrictions on the foreigners opening integrated accounts to trade Korean stocks.</li>
<li>This amendment will start to take effect on 2 January 2026.</li>
<li><em><strong>What this means is that major global trading platforms such as IBKR will most likely be allowed to trade Korean stocks without any major restrictions sometime starting 1H 2026. </strong></em></li>
</ul>


On 27 November, the Korean Financial Services Commission (FSC) finally announced that it has completely abolished the restrictions on the foreigners opening integrated accounts to trade Korean stocks.
This amendment will start to take effect on 2 January 2026.
What this means is that major global trading platforms such as IBKR will most likely be allowed to trade Korean stocks without any major restrictions sometime starting 1H 2026. 


Foreigners Integrated Accounts Starting in January 2026: Impact on IBKR & Foreign Trading Platforms

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Sumeet Singh

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements

IPOs and Placements coverage across Asia Pacific

Aequitas Research

We cover all listing across the Asia Pacific along with follow-up placements. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%.

We combine fundamental bottom-up views with our proprietary quantitative framework to provide a holistic coverage across new listings and placements. Our coverage includes pre-IPO notes before the deal is launched, follow-up analysis once the deal is live and post-listing trading analysis as well.

Equity Capital Markets

Kioxia Holdings  / Equity Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>Bain aims to raise around US$2bn via selling around 6% of its stake in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kioxia-holdings-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29243:1" rel="noopener">Kioxia Holdings (285A JP)</a>. The IPO linked lockup on its shareholding had expired in Jun 2025.</li>
<li>Kioxia is a manufacturer and a global leader in flash memory and solid state drives for smartphones, PCs, enterprise servers and data centers.</li>
<li>In this note, we will talk about deal dynamics and run the deal through our ECM framework.</li>
</ul>


Bain aims to raise around US$2bn via selling around 6% of its stake in Kioxia Holdings (285A JP). The IPO linked lockup on its shareholding had expired in Jun 2025.
Kioxia is a manufacturer and a global leader in flash memory and solid state drives for smartphones, PCs, enterprise servers and data centers.
In this note, we will talk about deal dynamics and run the deal through our ECM framework.


Kioxia Placement - US$2bn Deal, Relatively Small, Index Upweight but the Shares Have Runup

Writing about Companies with an Unfair Advantage, Unfair Advantage

Unfair Advantage

Writing about Companies with an Unfair Advantage

I write about companies that have an unfair advantage. I might invest in them as well.

<ul><li>Much has been written these days on the bloating AI capex spends across the tech majors.</li><li>A JP Morgan report said we need to create a stratospheric revenue number of $650B to justify a 10% IRR, given current AI capex levels.</li><li>Yet everyone agrees AI is a fundamental shift that is redefining business models across industries.</li></ul>

Much has been written these days on the bloating AI capex spends across the tech majors.A JP Morgan report said we need to create a stratospheric revenue number of $650B to justify a 10% IRR, given current AI capex levels.Yet everyone agrees AI is a fundamental shift that is redefining business models across industries.

New Zealand Professional Investment Services Firm, Forsyth Barr

Forsyth Barr

New Zealand Professional Investment Services Firm

We are proud to be a New Zealand owned firm, with 21 offices throughout the country and over 300 employees. We assist personal, institutional and corporate clients providing a full range of investment services.

Forsyth Barr is a foundation New Zealand Exchange firm (NZX) and accredited market participant. We have been confirmed by the Financial Markets Authority as a Qualifying Financial Entity (QFE).

Research is the cornerstone of our advice. We have one of New Zealand's leading teams of analysts. Our global affiliations ensure comprehensive research coverage of all major investment markets.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>PaySauce’s (PYS) largely pre-released 1H26 showed progress on the controllables, but slowing NZ growth ahead of its pending launch into Australia.</li><li>The mix of revenues shifted toward processing fees as interest income continued to decline, reflecting ongoing OCR cuts.</li><li>The Australian commercial launch in February 2026 will be of key interest at FY26.</li></ul>

PaySauce’s (PYS) largely pre-released 1H26 showed progress on the controllables, but slowing NZ growth ahead of its pending launch into Australia.The mix of revenues shifted toward processing fees as interest income continued to decline, reflecting ongoing OCR cuts.The Australian commercial launch in February 2026 will be of key interest at FY26.

PaySauce Fees Feed the Sauce—Rates Not So Tasty

United States

Microsoft Corporation operates as a software company. The Company offers applications, extra cloud storage, and advanced security solutions. Microsoft serves customers worldwide.

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Microsoft Corp (MSFT US)

Foreigners Integrated Accounts Starting in January 2026: Impact on IBKR & Foreign Trading Platforms

FSC abolished restrictions on foreigners opening integrated accounts to trade Korean stocks, effective January 2, 2026. IBKR/others are expected to...

Douglas Kim

Kioxia Placement - US$2bn Deal, Relatively Small, Index Upweight but the Shares Have Runup

Bain aims to raise around US$2bn via selling around 6% of its stake in Kioxia Holdings (285A JP). The IPO linked lockup on its shareholding had...

Sumeet Singh

Investor's guide to AI Capex

Much has been written these days on the bloating AI capex spends across the tech majors. A JP Morgan report said we need to create a stratospheric...

Unfair Advantage

PaySauce Fees Feed the Sauce—Rates Not So Tasty

PaySauce’s (PYS) largely pre-released 1H26 showed progress on the controllables, but slowing NZ growth ahead of its pending launch into...

Forsyth Barr

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