Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

Travis Lundy

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Quiddity Advisors

Equity Bottom-Up

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/profiles/david-blennerhassett" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="accounts:840" rel="noopener">David Blennerhassett</a> has written about <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/gmo-internet-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13631:1" rel="noopener">GMO Internet (9449 JP)</a> over the years as an interesting holdco and most recently wrote about the situation as both a holdco and corporate governance situation in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/gmo-internet-listed-holdings-preferred" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:29641" rel="noopener">GMO Internet: Listed Holdings Preferred</a>. Others including <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/profiles/campbell-gunn" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="accounts:2531" rel="noopener">Campbell Gunn</a> have written about it <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/gmo-internet-inc/insights?item=27803" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
The stock has been the subject of activist interest in the past few years, and as such it has enjoyed a fair bit of press as well, though not always laudatory.
<h2>The NEW News Yesterday</h2>
The NEW News yesterday was that the company reported full-year earnings, with consolidated revenues climbing 5.9% to ¥196.2bn, OP climbing 16.0% to ¥25.3bn, and Net Income up sharply from last year's net loss to +¥8.3bn. 
The company also announced a downward-facing dividend (i.e. a slight cut in the Q4 dividend for 2019 vs 2018), and most importantly, a <a href="https://ir.gmo.jp/en/pdf/irlibrary/gmo_disclose_info20200212_3_e.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stock buyback</a>. 
It's a big one.
The company announced a buyback of up to ¥15bn or up to 9 million shares (7.95% of shares outstanding). This is an advancement on the company's Total Shareholder Returns Policy instituted in 2016, which stated that the company aimed to return 50% of parent profits to shareholders, with a dividend payout of 33% of total parent earnings, and the rest paid back in the form of share buybacks (but with flexible timing).
Given the share price of recent, assuming no change, it would be a buyback of only 6.9mm shares, which is 6.1% of shares outstanding, but it's a start.

David Blennerhassett has written about GMO Internet (9449 JP) over the years as an interesting holdco and most recently wrote about the situation as both a holdco and corporate governance situation in GMO Internet: Listed Holdings Preferred. Others including Campbell Gunn have written about it here.
The stock has been the subject of activist interest in the past few years, and as such it has enjoyed a fair bit of press as well, though not always laudatory.
The NEW News Yesterday
The NEW News yesterday was that the company reported full-year earnings, with consolidated revenues climbing 5.9% to ¥196.2bn, OP climbing 16.0% to ¥25.3bn, and Net Income up sharply from last year's net loss to +¥8.3bn. 
The company also announced a downward-facing dividend (i.e. a slight cut in the Q4 dividend for 2019 vs 2018), and most importantly, a stock buyback. 
It's a big one.
The company announced a buyback of up to ¥15bn or up to 9 million shares (7.95% of shares outstanding). This is an advancement on the company's Total Shareholder Returns Policy instituted in 2016, which stated that the company aimed to return 50% of parent profits to shareholders, with a dividend payout of 33% of total parent earnings, and the rest paid back in the form of share buybacks (but with flexible timing).
Given the share price of recent, assuming no change, it would be a buyback of only 6.9mm shares, which is 6.1% of shares outstanding, but it's a start. 

GMO Internet (9449) Buyback - Bigger Than It Looks, Smaller Than It Looks

David Blennerhassett

Event-Driven

Applying a deconsolidated book value for the unlisted operations, I see <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/gmo-internet-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13631:1" rel="noopener">GMO Internet (9449 JP)</a> at a ~30% discount to NAV, a reasonable level for an active holding company structure with eight listed subsidiaries.
It is the complexity of the holdings, both listed and unlisted, and the inability to look through into the financials of the key operating segments, that suggest the 54% gain in the past twelve months is overdone.
Gaining traction on the merits of the unlisted ops at the Holdco have proven to be fleeting, as seen with GMO-i's cryptocurrency frenzy in 2018. The division remains profitable, however, the top-line revenue in the most recent quarter of ¥1.57bn is the second-lowest since the 2018 June-end quarter peak. Shares bottomed out on the 25 December 2018 at ¥1,325 - its lowest level since Aug 2017 and down 56% from its June 2018 high - the same day GMO-i announced a cryptocurrency-related impairment of  <a href="https://ir.gmo.jp/en/pdf/irlibrary/gmo_disclose_info20181225_e.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">¥35.5bn</a>.
Returns from the incubation segment are lumpy with limited visibility; the internet advertising segment recently recorded its second-lowest quarterly operating profit in the last thirteen years; leaving the core competitiveness and inaugural internet infrastructure businesses, which continue to eke out new highs, and the internet finance business. 
Given current levels, the opaqueness within the Holdco structure, and perhaps ambitious thinking value can be unlocked via ongoing activism; the recommendation is to be directly invested with the listed subsidiaries in place of the parent.

Applying a deconsolidated book value for the unlisted operations, I see GMO Internet (9449 JP) at a ~30% discount to NAV, a reasonable level for an active holding company structure with eight listed subsidiaries.
It is the complexity of the holdings, both listed and unlisted, and the inability to look through into the financials of the key operating segments, that suggest the 54% gain in the past twelve months is overdone.
Gaining traction on the merits of the unlisted ops at the Holdco have proven to be fleeting, as seen with GMO-i's cryptocurrency frenzy in 2018. The division remains profitable, however, the top-line revenue in the most recent quarter of ¥1.57bn is the second-lowest since the 2018 June-end quarter peak. Shares bottomed out on the 25 December 2018 at ¥1,325 - its lowest level since Aug 2017 and down 56% from its June 2018 high - the same day GMO-i announced a cryptocurrency-related impairment of  ¥35.5bn.
Returns from the incubation segment are lumpy with limited visibility; the internet advertising segment recently recorded its second-lowest quarterly operating profit in the last thirteen years; leaving the core competitiveness and inaugural internet infrastructure businesses, which continue to eke out new highs, and the internet finance business. 
Given current levels, the opaqueness within the Holdco structure, and perhaps ambitious thinking value can be unlocked via ongoing activism; the recommendation is to be directly invested with the listed subsidiaries in place of the parent.

'Quantamental' Japan Specialist, LightStream Research

Campbell Gunn

'Quantamental' Japan Specialist

ja research

ja research is an independent research platform focused exclusively on Japanese equities. Leveraging data and graphic analysis provided by Japan Analytics, we provide insights on small and medium-sized companies that have been ignored by the sell-side as well as challenging conventional wisdom on larger companies. We also offer analyst and corporate access, the latter with translation if required. 

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<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/074/071/original/2018-12-28_11-57-31.png?1545965862" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="74071"></figure>
Source: Japan Analytics
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THE <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/13631" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13631:1">GMO INTERNET (9449 JP)</a> STORY - GMO internet (GMO-i) has attracted much attention in the last eighteen months from an unusual trinity of value, activist and ‘cryptocurrency’ equity investors.
<ul class="">
<li>
VALUE- Many traditional, but mostly foreign, value investors have seen the persistent negative difference between GMO-i’s market capitalisation and the value of the company’s holdings in its eight listed consolidated subsidiaries as an opportunity to invest in GMO-i with a considerable ‘margin of safety’.</li>
<li>
ACTIVIST - Since July 2017, the activist investor, Oasis, has waged a so-far-unsuccessful campaign with the aim of improving GMO’s corporate governance, removing takeover defences, addressing a 'secularly undervalued stock price we are not able to tolerate' (sic), and redefining the role and influence of the company’s Chairman, President, Representative Director and largest shareholder, Masatoshi Kumagai.</li>
<li>'CRYPTO!' - In December 2017, GMO-i committed to spending more than ¥35b or 10% of non-current assets. The aim was threefold: to set up a bitcoin ‘mining’ headquarters in Switzerland (with the ‘mining’ operations being carried out at an undisclosed location in Scandinavia), to develop proprietary state-of-the-art 7nm-node 'mining chips', and, in due course, to sell GMO-branded and developed ‘mining’ machines. The move was hailed in the ‘crypto’ fraternity as GMO-i became the largest non-Chinese and the first well-established Internet conglomerate to make a major investment in ‘cryptocurrency’ infrastructure.</li>
</ul>
OUTSTANDING - Following the December 2017 announcement, trading volumes spiked into ‘Overtraded’ territory - as measured by our Volume Score. Many investors saw GMO-i shares as a safer way of gaining exposure to 'cryptocurrencies', even as the price of bitcoin began to subside. By early June 2018, GMO-i’s shares had reached a closing price of ¥3,020: up 157% from the low of the prior year and outperforming TOPIX by 135%. Whatever the primary driver of this outstanding performance, each of our trio of investor groups no doubt felt vindicated in their approach to the stock.
CRYPTO CLOSURE - On December 25th 2018, GMO-i’s shares reached a new 52-week low of ¥1,325, a decline of 56% from the June high. Year to date, GMO-i shares have now declined by 31%, underperforming TOPIX by nine percentage points. On the same day, GMO-i <a href="https://ir.gmo.jp/en/pdf/irlibrary/gmo_disclose_info20181225_e.pdf" target="_blank">announced</a> that the company would post an extraordinary ¥35.5b loss for the fourth quarter, incurring an impairment loss of ¥11.5b in relation to the closure of the Swiss ‘mining’ headquarters and a loss of ¥24b to cover the closure of the ‘mining chip' and 'mining machine' development, manufacturing and sales businesses. GMO-i will continue to ‘mine’ bitcoin from its Tokyo headquarters and intends to relocate the 'mining' centre from Scandinavia to (sic) 'a region that will allow us to secure cleaner and less expensive power supply, but we have not yet decided the details’. Unlisted subsidiary GMO Coin's 'cryptocurrency' exchange will also continue to operate, and the previously-announced plans to launch a ¥-based ‘stablecoin’ in 2019 will proceed. In the two trading days following this announcement, the shares have recovered 13% to ¥1,505. 
RAIDING THE LISTCO PIGGY BANK - As we shall relate, this is the second time since listing that GMO-i has written off a significant new business venture which the company had commenced only a short time before. In both cases, the company was forced to sell stakes in its listed consolidated subsidiaries to offset the resulting losses. On this occasion, the sale of shares in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/22762" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22762:1">GMO Financial (7177 JP)</a> (GMO-F) on September 25 2018, and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/1492" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1492:1">GMO Payment Gateway (3769 JP)</a> (GMO-PG) on December 17 2018, raised a combined ¥55.6b and, after the deduction of the yet-to-be-determined tax on the realised gains, should more than offset the ‘crypto’ losses. <a href="https://ir.gmo.jp/en/pdf/irlibrary/gmo_disclose_info20181225_2e.pdf" target="_blank">According </a>to CFO Yasuda, any surplus from this exercise will be used to pay down debt. Also discussed below and in keeping with this GMO-i ‘MO’, in 2015, the company twice sold shares in its listed subsidiaries to ‘smooth out' less-than-desirable operating results.
<div class="content-highlight">
In the DETAIL section below we will cover the following topics:-
I: THE GMO-i TRACK RECORD - TOP-DOWN v. BOTTOM UP
<ul>
<li>BOTTOM LINE No. 1: NET INCOME</li>
<li>BOTTOM LINE No.2 - COMPREHENSIVE INCOME</li>
</ul>
II: THE GMO-i BUSINESS MODEL - THROWING JELLY AT THE WALL
III: THE GMO-i BALANCE SHEET - NOT SO HAPPY RETURNS
IV: THE GMO-i CASH FLOW - DEBT-FUNDED CASH PILE
V: THE GMO-i VALUATION - TWO METHODS &gt; SAME RESULT
<ul>
<li>VALUATION METHOD No.1 - THE 'LISTCO DISCOUNT'</li>
<li>VALUATION METHOD No.2 - RESIDUAL INCOME</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="content-highlight">
CONCLUSION - For those unable or unwilling to read further, we conclude that GMO-i 'rump' is a grossly-overrated business. Despite having started and spun off several valuable GMO Group entities, CEO Kumagai bears responsibility for two decades of serial and very poorly-timed ‘mal-investments’. As a result, the stock market has, except for the ‘cryptocurrency’-induced frenzy of the first six months of 2018, historically not accorded GMO-i any premium for future growth, and has correctly looked beyond the ‘siren song’ of the ‘HoldCo discount’. According to the two valuation methodologies described below, the company is, however, fairly valued at the current share price of ¥1,460. Investors looking for a return to the market-implied 3% perpetual growth rate of mid–2018 are likely to be as disappointed as those wishing for BTC to triple from here.
</div>



Source: Japan Analytics

THE GMO INTERNET (9449 JP) STORY - GMO internet (GMO-i) has attracted much attention in the last eighteen months from an unusual trinity of value, activist and ‘cryptocurrency’ equity investors.


VALUE- Many traditional, but mostly foreign, value investors have seen the persistent negative difference between GMO-i’s market capitalisation and the value of the company’s holdings in its eight listed consolidated subsidiaries as an opportunity to invest in GMO-i with a considerable ‘margin of safety’.

ACTIVIST - Since July 2017, the activist investor, Oasis, has waged a so-far-unsuccessful campaign with the aim of improving GMO’s corporate governance, removing takeover defences, addressing a 'secularly undervalued stock price we are not able to tolerate' (sic), and redefining the role and influence of the company’s Chairman, President, Representative Director and largest shareholder, Masatoshi Kumagai.
'CRYPTO!' - In December 2017, GMO-i committed to spending more than ¥35b or 10% of non-current assets. The aim was threefold: to set up a bitcoin ‘mining’ headquarters in Switzerland (with the ‘mining’ operations being carried out at an undisclosed location in Scandinavia), to develop proprietary state-of-the-art 7nm-node 'mining chips', and, in due course, to sell GMO-branded and developed ‘mining’ machines. The move was hailed in the ‘crypto’ fraternity as GMO-i became the largest non-Chinese and the first well-established Internet conglomerate to make a major investment in ‘cryptocurrency’ infrastructure.

OUTSTANDING - Following the December 2017 announcement, trading volumes spiked into ‘Overtraded’ territory - as measured by our Volume Score. Many investors saw GMO-i shares as a safer way of gaining exposure to 'cryptocurrencies', even as the price of bitcoin began to subside. By early June 2018, GMO-i’s shares had reached a closing price of ¥3,020: up 157% from the low of the prior year and outperforming TOPIX by 135%. Whatever the primary driver of this outstanding performance, each of our trio of investor groups no doubt felt vindicated in their approach to the stock.
CRYPTO CLOSURE - On December 25th 2018, GMO-i’s shares reached a new 52-week low of ¥1,325, a decline of 56% from the June high. Year to date, GMO-i shares have now declined by 31%, underperforming TOPIX by nine percentage points. On the same day, GMO-i announced that the company would post an extraordinary ¥35.5b loss for the fourth quarter, incurring an impairment loss of ¥11.5b in relation to the closure of the Swiss ‘mining’ headquarters and a loss of ¥24b to cover the closure of the ‘mining chip' and 'mining machine' development, manufacturing and sales businesses. GMO-i will continue to ‘mine’ bitcoin from its Tokyo headquarters and intends to relocate the 'mining' centre from Scandinavia to (sic) 'a region that will allow us to secure cleaner and less expensive power supply, but we have not yet decided the details’. Unlisted subsidiary GMO Coin's 'cryptocurrency' exchange will also continue to operate, and the previously-announced plans to launch a ¥-based ‘stablecoin’ in 2019 will proceed. In the two trading days following this announcement, the shares have recovered 13% to ¥1,505. 
RAIDING THE LISTCO PIGGY BANK - As we shall relate, this is the second time since listing that GMO-i has written off a significant new business venture which the company had commenced only a short time before. In both cases, the company was forced to sell stakes in its listed consolidated subsidiaries to offset the resulting losses. On this occasion, the sale of shares in GMO Financial (7177 JP) (GMO-F) on September 25 2018, and GMO Payment Gateway (3769 JP) (GMO-PG) on December 17 2018, raised a combined ¥55.6b and, after the deduction of the yet-to-be-determined tax on the realised gains, should more than offset the ‘crypto’ losses. According to CFO Yasuda, any surplus from this exercise will be used to pay down debt. Also discussed below and in keeping with this GMO-i ‘MO’, in 2015, the company twice sold shares in its listed subsidiaries to ‘smooth out' less-than-desirable operating results.

In the DETAIL section below we will cover the following topics:-
I: THE GMO-i TRACK RECORD - TOP-DOWN v. BOTTOM UP

BOTTOM LINE No. 1: NET INCOME
BOTTOM LINE No.2 - COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

II: THE GMO-i BUSINESS MODEL - THROWING JELLY AT THE WALL
III: THE GMO-i BALANCE SHEET - NOT SO HAPPY RETURNS
IV: THE GMO-i CASH FLOW - DEBT-FUNDED CASH PILE
V: THE GMO-i VALUATION - TWO METHODS &gt; SAME RESULT

VALUATION METHOD No.1 - THE 'LISTCO DISCOUNT'
VALUATION METHOD No.2 - RESIDUAL INCOME



CONCLUSION - For those unable or unwilling to read further, we conclude that GMO-i 'rump' is a grossly-overrated business. Despite having started and spun off several valuable GMO Group entities, CEO Kumagai bears responsibility for two decades of serial and very poorly-timed ‘mal-investments’. As a result, the stock market has, except for the ‘cryptocurrency’-induced frenzy of the first six months of 2018, historically not accorded GMO-i any premium for future growth, and has correctly looked beyond the ‘siren song’ of the ‘HoldCo discount’. According to the two valuation methodologies described below, the company is, however, fairly valued at the current share price of ¥1,460. Investors looking for a return to the market-implied 3% perpetual growth rate of mid–2018 are likely to be as disappointed as those wishing for BTC to triple from here.


GMO Internet (9447 JP) - Grossly or Modestly Overrated?

Japan

GMO Internet, Inc. offers marketing services. The Company offers internet advertising, mobile advertising, search engine marketing, and other services to medium sized advertising agencies. GMO Internet conducts businesses throughout Japan.

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GMO Internet (4784 JP)

GMO Internet (9449) Buyback - Bigger Than It Looks, Smaller Than It Looks

David Blennerhassett has written about GMO Internet (9449 JP) over the years as an interesting holdco and most recently wrote about the situation...

Travis Lundy

GMO Internet: Listed Holdings Preferred

Applying a deconsolidated book value for the unlisted operations, I see GMO Internet (9449 JP) at a ~30% discount to NAV, a reasonable level for an...

David Blennerhassett

GMO Internet (9447 JP) - Grossly or Modestly Overrated?

THE GMO INTERNET (9449 JP) STORY - GMO internet (GMO-i) has attracted much attention in the last eighteen months from an unusual trinity of value,...

Campbell Gunn

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