Equity Analyst, LightStream Research

Supun Walpola

Equity Analyst

Long-Short Analysis on Japan, Asia and the World

LightStream Research

LightStream conducts quantitatively rigorous and data-driven analysis with a focus on Japan and Asia.

We consistently cover the Tech, Consumer and Industrial sectors, and provide ECM and Events coverage more broadly.

We supplement traditional qualitative insights from company relationships with a robust quantitative foundation that examines as much historical data as is available.
We further refine the accuracy of our insights and calls through the use of alternative data to flesh out current trends, and through a valuation framework that emphasises non-superficial peer group selection and a proper attempt to understand the metrics and changes that have driven security valuations in the past.

Equity Bottom-Up

The fact that Alibaba Cloud does not have any tangible results to show yet and the fact that AWS’s OP margin was around 15%-20% when it started having a meaningful impact on Amazon’s valuation suggests that it could be still too soon for Alibaba’s valuation multiples to rerate to reflect a potential turnaround of the Cloud business. However, given that Alibaba Cloud’s ARPU needs to increase by only around 16% for the business to break-even at the current level, we would not rule out the possibility of Alibaba Cloud turning profitable towards the end of this financial year, and would closely watch out for any early signs of this happening, such as improving marginal profitability and ARPU growth over the next few quarters.

The fact that Alibaba Cloud does not have any tangible results to show yet and the fact that AWS’s OP margin was around 15%-20% when it started having a meaningful impact on Amazon’s valuation suggests that it could be still too soon for Alibaba’s valuation multiples to rerate to reflect a potential turnaround of the Cloud business. However, given that Alibaba Cloud’s ARPU needs to increase by only around 16% for the business to break-even at the current level, we would not rule out the possibility of Alibaba Cloud turning profitable towards the end of this financial year, and would closely watch out for any early signs of this happening, such as improving marginal profitability and ARPU growth over the next few quarters.

Alibaba: Can Alibaba Cloud Turn A Profit This Year?

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>US underweight rises to highest ever level among Global investors</li>
<li>Tech and Consumer Discretionary outperformance drives underweights higher</li>
<li>Increasing underweight driven by passive inflows as large cap stocks dominate indices.</li>
<li>Active funds running larger underweight positions among top index constituents.</li>
<li>Active buying to close underweight holdings fuels the fire of the large-cap rally further still.</li>
</ul>Analysis taken from our global active manager research, covering 391 global funds with a combined AUM of $750bn


US underweight rises to highest ever level among Global investors
Tech and Consumer Discretionary outperformance drives underweights higher
Increasing underweight driven by passive inflows as large cap stocks dominate indices.
Active funds running larger underweight positions among top index constituents.
Active buying to close underweight holdings fuels the fire of the large-cap rally further still.
Analysis taken from our global active manager research, covering 391 global funds with a combined AUM of $750bn

The Anatomy of the US Underweight (And the Effect of Rising Passive ETF Flows in the US).

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

Real Insight on Japanese Consumer Markets

JapanConsuming

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports on retail sectors, seminars on key trends and telephone consulting to investors on trends and retailers.

JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

Another case of hubris in Japanese e-commerce? Shoplist operator, Crooz, made a big splash about its plans to build wa ¥100 billion fashion platform three years ago but made a thumping loss in 2018 and then sales actually fell last year, proving just how hard it is for smaller e-commerce platforms to shine in the shadow of the big three.

Another case of hubris in Japanese e-commerce? Shoplist operator, Crooz, made a big splash about its plans to build wa ¥100 billion fashion platform three years ago but made a thumping loss in 2018 and then sales actually fell last year, proving just how hard it is for smaller e-commerce platforms to shine in the shadow of the big three.

Lakshmi Iyer, CFA

Credit

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/amazon-com-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:409:1" rel="noopener">Amazon.com Inc (AMZN US)</a> has reportedly sent a legal notice to the Future Group regarding its proposed deal with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/reliance-industries-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:198:1" rel="noopener">Reliance Industries (RIL IN)</a> . In this Insight, we present our views on Amazon's likely motivation as well as implications for bondholders. <div class="content-highlight">Fundamental credit research focused on Asian high yield, including coverage of areas which are generally overlooked such as Indian finance companies and non-USD denominated credit (SGD).  Sector agnostic. Research process consists of rigorous bottom-up company analysis combined with spotting market dislocations to provide trade ideas.</div>

Amazon.com Inc (AMZN US) has reportedly sent a legal notice to the Future Group regarding its proposed deal with Reliance Industries (RIL IN) . In this Insight, we present our views on Amazon's likely motivation as well as implications for bondholders. Fundamental credit research focused on Asian high yield, including coverage of areas which are generally overlooked such as Indian finance companies and non-USD denominated credit (SGD).  Sector agnostic. Research process consists of rigorous bottom-up company analysis combined with spotting market dislocations to provide trade ideas.

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst, Obex Capital Research

Aaron Gabin

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research

Obex Capital Research

“Obex” is Latin for Barriers to Entry. Obex Capital Management’s investment philosophy is driven by an intense focus on which business model’s Barriers to Entry are able to withstand the ever increasing competitive disruption in the TMT and Consumer Sectors.

We have been longtime fans of Netflix the product and Netflix’s management team can rightfully be described as visionary. They had the vision to have the public markets fund an experiment in business models that may eventually breakeven on FCF at some point in the future. We have said for the past two quarters that Netflix is a good relative short given Deceleration in Subscriber Growth, Rising Churn, and Rising FCF burn. As we detail below, the stock tends to not work when subscriber growth decelerates. Admittedly, the rising FCF burn hasn’t played out….yet. Once production opens up post virus, we expect Netflix to resume its cash burning ways.<div class="content-highlight">Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.</div>

We have been longtime fans of Netflix the product and Netflix’s management team can rightfully be described as visionary. They had the vision to have the public markets fund an experiment in business models that may eventually breakeven on FCF at some point in the future. We have said for the past two quarters that Netflix is a good relative short given Deceleration in Subscriber Growth, Rising Churn, and Rising FCF burn. As we detail below, the stock tends to not work when subscriber growth decelerates. Admittedly, the rising FCF burn hasn’t played out….yet. Once production opens up post virus, we expect Netflix to resume its cash burning ways.Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.

United States

Amazon.com, Inc. is an online retailer that offers a wide range of products. The Company's products include books, music, videotapes, computers, electronics, home and garden, and numerous other products.  Amazon offers personalized shopping services, Web-based credit card payment, and direct shipping to customers.

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Amazon (AMZN US)

Alibaba: Can Alibaba Cloud Turn A Profit This Year?

During the Investor Day presentations last month, Alibaba claimed that its cloud business would make profits for the first time this year. In this...

Supun Walpola

The Anatomy of the US Underweight (And the Effect of Rising Passive ETF Flows in the US).

ETF inflows drive underweights in US equities to record levels. Active buying to close underweights in major index stocks fuels the rally further...

Steven Holden

Shoplist Promise Withers on the Web

Crooz promised sales of ¥100 billion within a few years and a long-term target of a ¥1 trillion capitalisation. Its early promise has withered...

Michael Causton

Future Retail - Clash of the Titans?

We present our thoughts on Amazon's legal challenge to the Future - Reliance deal. The market is pricing in a fairly low probability of the deal...

Lakshmi Iyer, CFA

Netflix 3Q20: Still Chill?

We reiterate our view that Netflix will have a hard time making subscriber #s for the next few quarters due to the massive pull-in from 1H20. When...

Aaron Gabin

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