Equity Long-Short, Semiconductors, Fabricated Knowledge

Douglas O'Laughlin

Equity Long-Short, Semiconductors

Fabricated Knowledge

Learn more about the world's most important manufactured product. Meaningful insight, timely analysis, and an occasional investment idea.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>This earnings season, Industrial semiconductor demand has been the biggest incremental softening in end market demand. That’s not surprising. </li><li>I have been talking about the FIFO (First-In, First-Out) cycle, and the only two remaining segments that have not had a meaningful correction are Industrial and Automotive.</li><li>We are now seeing the beginning of Industrial weakening.</li></ul>

This earnings season, Industrial semiconductor demand has been the biggest incremental softening in end market demand. That’s not surprising. I have been talking about the FIFO (First-In, First-Out) cycle, and the only two remaining segments that have not had a meaningful correction are Industrial and Automotive.We are now seeing the beginning of Industrial weakening.

Independent Research, Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down

Independent Research

Writing short articles about mis-priced boring stocks around the world.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>In this post I tracked my performance on stock mentioned in my blog, and I would like to officially close some ideas here.</li><li>I will start doing that from now on. Something I did privately but not on the blog publicly.</li><li>Either because they have worked out and upside is no more attractive, or because the facts have changed.</li></ul>

In this post I tracked my performance on stock mentioned in my blog, and I would like to officially close some ideas here.I will start doing that from now on. Something I did privately but not on the blog publicly.Either because they have worked out and upside is no more attractive, or because the facts have changed.

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Magnachip is an interesting merger arb situation with only modest downside. A Chinese firm has previously tried to acquire this for $29.</li><li>But that was shot down by US regulators. Currently stock trades just over $15.</li><li>I have been in and out of this stock twice already, and I think a lot of people are just fed up waiting for the company to sell itself so far.</li></ul>

Magnachip is an interesting merger arb situation with only modest downside. A Chinese firm has previously tried to acquire this for $29.But that was shot down by US regulators. Currently stock trades just over $15.I have been in and out of this stock twice already, and I think a lot of people are just fed up waiting for the company to sell itself so far.

AlphaSituations-Event/Catalyst Driven Research, AlphaSituations

Robert Sassoon

AlphaSituations-Event/Catalyst Driven Research

AlphaSituations

Since its establishment, AlphaSituations has delivered a track record of outperformance with a hit rate of winners of more than 70% of its portfolio of ideas generating annualized average returns of 20%. In January 2022, AlphaSituations was contracted by Water Tower Research, an investor engagement and stakeholder communication platform to provide coverage of Special Situations

Event-Driven

Among the universe of live M&amp;A deals we monitor (US M&amp;A deals of  &gt;$400MN), which we list below,  there are several deals where the prevailing spread  is above 10% offering  the potential for very  annualized returns  of &gt;50% based on their targeted closing dates.  Usually when the market is offering IRRs of that magnitude, it is indicating there is a high risk that those deals do not complete at all or, if they do,  under revised terms that are less favorable to the target company shareholders or that there is significant timing risk not originally anticipated. When it comes to spreads, Mr. Market may be right more often than not, but most definitely not always. These situations may not be that common, but it is those misunderstood situations which  provides some that we at AlphaSituations attempt to identify. <h3>The Search For Compelling Spreads</h3><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/237/378/original/image_82700697241635169253114.png?1635169255" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="237378"></figure>Source: AlphaSituations In the list above , the stand out spread remains the Wise Road Capital/ <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/magnachip-semiconductor-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28052:1" rel="noopener">MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp (MX US)</a> situation. This is one we have covered in previous insights, most recently in our June 29, 2021 publication: MergerTalk: Intriguing US Merger Spreads - Why Magnachip Semiconductor is at the top of our list. Since that Insight, CFIUS did initially block the deal on national security grounds (or at least left it to President Biden to decide), but subsequently agreed to the transactional parties request to withdraw and re-file their submission  in order to permit further discussion with CFIUS concerning potential options for permanently mitigating risks to the US national security that have been identified by CFIUS. This triggered a new CFIUS review period for the merger  commencing on September 14, 2021 which is expected to conclude no later than October 28, 2021. With that date only a few days away (although CFIUS has the option to extend this review process by undertaking a 45-day investigation), given the ~61% spread, the market is clearly dismissing the prospect that CFIUS will change its stance the second time around. Nevertheless, we  maintain that MX has a fundamental safety net at its current valuation (further supported by the strong 3Q 2021 earnings reported on October 25, 2021  and could remain a buyout target should the Wise Road transaction be ultimately  blocked. We will continue to monitor this situation.In this insight, we focus  on another more intriguing spreads - the Garnet Faith/  <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/51-job-inc-adr" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:532:1" rel="noopener">51 Job Inc Adr (JOBS US)</a>  merger transaction, which also has a China theme to it. Below, we explore the reasons for the wide spread and assess the risks. We conclude that the odds remain heavily in favor of deal consummation with the current ~24% spread offering a lucrative entry point for arbs.

Among the universe of live M&amp;A deals we monitor (US M&amp;A deals of  &gt;$400MN), which we list below,  there are several deals where the prevailing spread  is above 10% offering  the potential for very  annualized returns  of &gt;50% based on their targeted closing dates.  Usually when the market is offering IRRs of that magnitude, it is indicating there is a high risk that those deals do not complete at all or, if they do,  under revised terms that are less favorable to the target company shareholders or that there is significant timing risk not originally anticipated. When it comes to spreads, Mr. Market may be right more often than not, but most definitely not always. These situations may not be that common, but it is those misunderstood situations which  provides some that we at AlphaSituations attempt to identify. The Search For Compelling SpreadsSource: AlphaSituations In the list above , the stand out spread remains the Wise Road Capital/ MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp (MX US) situation. This is one we have covered in previous insights, most recently in our June 29, 2021 publication: MergerTalk: Intriguing US Merger Spreads - Why Magnachip Semiconductor is at the top of our list. Since that Insight, CFIUS did initially block the deal on national security grounds (or at least left it to President Biden to decide), but subsequently agreed to the transactional parties request to withdraw and re-file their submission  in order to permit further discussion with CFIUS concerning potential options for permanently mitigating risks to the US national security that have been identified by CFIUS. This triggered a new CFIUS review period for the merger  commencing on September 14, 2021 which is expected to conclude no later than October 28, 2021. With that date only a few days away (although CFIUS has the option to extend this review process by undertaking a 45-day investigation), given the ~61% spread, the market is clearly dismissing the prospect that CFIUS will change its stance the second time around. Nevertheless, we  maintain that MX has a fundamental safety net at its current valuation (further supported by the strong 3Q 2021 earnings reported on October 25, 2021  and could remain a buyout target should the Wise Road transaction be ultimately  blocked. We will continue to monitor this situation.In this insight, we focus  on another more intriguing spreads - the Garnet Faith/  51 Job Inc Adr (JOBS US)  merger transaction, which also has a China theme to it. Below, we explore the reasons for the wide spread and assess the risks. We conclude that the odds remain heavily in favor of deal consummation with the current ~24% spread offering a lucrative entry point for arbs.

MergerTalk: Intriguing US Merger Spreads-A 23% Spread, But Odds on 51job.com Privatization Completes

Founder/CEO of ROK Advisory, ROK Advisory LLC

Ken S. Kim

Founder/CEO of ROK Advisory

ROK Advisory LLC

ROK is an independent research advisory firm. We guide you to minimize the information gap between foreign and local investors in Northeast Asia with a focus in Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Independent Research Advisory Firm

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/lg-household-health-care" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:6501:1" rel="noopener">LG Household &amp; Health Care (051900 KS)</a> is down 22% from peak and has really taken a tumultuous fall to a point where it begs the question "Does the fall in share price justify its outlook or is LG being sold for the wrong reasons?"

LG Household &amp; Health Care (051900 KS) is down 22% from peak and has really taken a tumultuous fall to a point where it begs the question "Does the fall in share price justify its outlook or is LG being sold for the wrong reasons?" 

LG H&H (051900) - Systematic or Unsystematic Risks Being Priced In?

South Korea

Magnachip Semiconductor Corporation designs, develops, and manufactures mixed-signal and digital multimedia semiconductors.

MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp (MX US)

Semiconductor Cycles: Industrial and EVs

Plus my new taxonomy of cycles! Where I think each end market is in the cycle. This earnings season, Industrial semiconductor demand has been the...

Fabricated Knowledge

Closing Some Idea's

In this post I tracked my performance on stock mentioned in my blog, and I would like to officially close some ideas here. I will start doing that...

Turtles all the way down

Magnachip Merger Arb

Magnachip is an interesting merger arb situation with only modest downside. A Chinese firm has previously tried to acquire this for $29.

Turtles all the way down

MergerTalk: Intriguing US Merger Spreads-A 23% Spread, But Odds on 51job.com Privatization Completes

Precedent suggests that the odds heavily favor that this Go-Private deal will be consummated. With JOBS only 4% above its undisturbed price, the ...

Robert Sassoon

LG H&H (051900) - Systematic or Unsystematic Risks Being Priced In?

LG H&H is trading at half the valuations of its global comps. Can management right the ship or actually does it even need to?

Ken S. Kim