Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

David Blennerhassett

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/seven-i-holdings-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1041:1" rel="noopener">Seven &amp; I (3382 JP)</a>'s roadmap is a solid response to where retailing is headed, both in Japan and elsewhere; while ACT's bid is just about carrying on as now.</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/esr-group-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27983:1" rel="noopener">ESR (1821 HK)</a> is a non-binding proposal, no official terms, with a fragmented shareholder register. And this is before any opaque PRC regulatory conditions tacked on in a firm Offer.</li>
<li>Murakami-San is up to 23.5% of voting rights in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/exedy-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:6516:1" rel="noopener">Exedy Corp (7278 JP)</a>. He would probably need 30% to be able to threaten a board spill.</li>
</ul>



Seven &amp; I (3382 JP)'s roadmap is a solid response to where retailing is headed, both in Japan and elsewhere; while ACT's bid is just about carrying on as now.

ESR (1821 HK) is a non-binding proposal, no official terms, with a fragmented shareholder register. And this is before any opaque PRC regulatory conditions tacked on in a firm Offer.
Murakami-San is up to 23.5% of voting rights in Exedy Corp (7278 JP). He would probably need 30% to be able to threaten a board spill.


Last Week in Event SPACE: Seven & I, ESR, Exedy, CMCDI, Shin Kong

European Event-Driven Analyst

Jesus Rodriguez Aguilar

<ul>
<li>The Board will likely recommend the 100p/share cash offer (8.0x EV/NTM EBITDA) pending final terms. General Atlantic must make a formal offer by October 25, with potential deadline extensions.</li>
<li>Shareholders would have the option to elect for an unlisted equity alternative. This means that top two shareholders (24%) will continue invested and that chances of a sweetening seem slim.</li>
<li>Given LTG's share performance, shareholders may willing to accept a 33.5% premium. Gross spread is 6.6% (39.4% estimated annual return if settlement by January 6). Long.</li>
</ul>


The Board will likely recommend the 100p/share cash offer (8.0x EV/NTM EBITDA) pending final terms. General Atlantic must make a formal offer by October 25, with potential deadline extensions.
Shareholders would have the option to elect for an unlisted equity alternative. This means that top two shareholders (24%) will continue invested and that chances of a sweetening seem slim.
Given LTG's share performance, shareholders may willing to accept a 33.5% premium. Gross spread is 6.6% (39.4% estimated annual return if settlement by January 6). Long.


General Atlantic/Learning Technologies: Ahead of PUSU Deadline

IPOs and Catalysts/Events, Global Equity Research Ltd

Arun George

IPOs and Catalysts/Events

Uncompromised, Independent, Conflict-Free Research

Global Equity Research Ltd

Global Equity Research was started in 2017 by a group of experienced research professionals. It was founded on a passionate belief in the importance and the need for uncompromised, independent, conflict-free research. We aim to provide differentiated and actionable primary and bottom up fundamental research.

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/readytech-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29105:1" rel="noopener">ReadyTech Holdings Ltd (RDY AU)</a> confirmed that it received a conditional, non-binding indicative proposal from Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) at A$4.50 per share, a 38.9% premium to the undisturbed price.</li>
<li>PEP aims to jointly work with Pemba, the largest shareholder with a 32.01% stake, on the proposal. Microequities, the second-largest shareholder, is said to oppose the offer.</li>
<li>The offer represents an all-time price high but struck at a discount to peer multiples, suggesting room for a bump. At last close, the spread to the offer is 8.4%.</li>
</ul>



ReadyTech Holdings Ltd (RDY AU) confirmed that it received a conditional, non-binding indicative proposal from Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) at A$4.50 per share, a 38.9% premium to the undisturbed price.
PEP aims to jointly work with Pemba, the largest shareholder with a 32.01% stake, on the proposal. Microequities, the second-largest shareholder, is said to oppose the offer.
The offer represents an all-time price high but struck at a discount to peer multiples, suggesting room for a bump. At last close, the spread to the offer is 8.4%.


ReadyTech’s Indicative Offer of A$4.50 from Pacific Equity Partners Good Enough?

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.

Equity Bottom-Up

Summary: Coursera, an online education platform will see its business model decelerate faster than expected. While the TAM trajectory of online education has clearly inflected higher due to the pandemic, we think  the Coursera’s growth trajectory is being mismodeled based on 2020’s surge in signups. Coursera’s profitability is dependent on scaling its enterprise and degree customer bases. While the demand for upskilling employees is real, intense competition from LinkedIn, Pluralsight, and others may crimp growth and gross margins segment, while a lack of leverage with its content suppliers (university partners), plus edX’s open source alternative  weaken revenue sharing over time. A lack of tangible evidence of Coursera’s skills-based credentialing translating to jobs will result in underwhelming consumer growth and lack of pricing power. Downside risks around regulation and competitive incursion by tech platforms paired with an obscene valuation make a compelling short case. Base Case Valuation: $33                                  Bull Case: $57                                 Bear Case: $20<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>

Summary: Coursera, an online education platform will see its business model decelerate faster than expected. While the TAM trajectory of online education has clearly inflected higher due to the pandemic, we think  the Coursera’s growth trajectory is being mismodeled based on 2020’s surge in signups. Coursera’s profitability is dependent on scaling its enterprise and degree customer bases. While the demand for upskilling employees is real, intense competition from LinkedIn, Pluralsight, and others may crimp growth and gross margins segment, while a lack of leverage with its content suppliers (university partners), plus edX’s open source alternative  weaken revenue sharing over time. A lack of tangible evidence of Coursera’s skills-based credentialing translating to jobs will result in underwhelming consumer growth and lack of pricing power. Downside risks around regulation and competitive incursion by tech platforms paired with an obscene valuation make a compelling short case. Base Case Valuation: $33                                  Bull Case: $57                                 Bear Case: $20Obex’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.

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

Global equities (MSCI ACWI) are decisively breaking above 1-month resistance on US-China trade war optimism, incrementally improving the technical picture. While there is some room to move higher in the near-term, we are hesitant to get too excited because several major indexes have additional hurdles to jump. We highlight important technical levels across major averages including Europe/UK (STOXX 600), Hong Kong (Hang Seng), Japan (TOPIX), and several EM countries (China, Brazil, Russia, Taiwan, and India).  Finally, we highlight attractive opportunities within the Consumer Discretionary, Heath Care and Services sectors.

Global equities (MSCI ACWI) are decisively breaking above 1-month resistance on US-China trade war optimism, incrementally improving the technical picture. While there is some room to move higher in the near-term, we are hesitant to get too excited because several major indexes have additional hurdles to jump. We highlight important technical levels across major averages including Europe/UK (STOXX 600), Hong Kong (Hang Seng), Japan (TOPIX), and several EM countries (China, Brazil, Russia, Taiwan, and India).  Finally, we highlight attractive opportunities within the Consumer Discretionary, Heath Care and Services sectors.

United Kingdom

Learning Technologies Group plc provides various e-learning services and technologies to corporate and government clients in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Rest of Europe, the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company produces interactive multimedia programmes. It also engages in mobile e-learning, bespoke e-learning, and educational games businesses, as well as operates employee benefit trust. In addition, the company provides gomo learning, a software as a service, which offers clients solution for creating, hosting, updating, and tracking their multi-device learning content, as well as Rustici Software that connects learning software for organizations and vendors. Learning Technologies Group plc was founded in 1986 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

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Learning Technologies (LTG LN)

Last Week in Event SPACE: Seven & I, ESR, Exedy, CMCDI, Shin Kong

It’s Sunday! Pour yourself a coffee, grab a comfortable seat, and sift through a brief summary of insights on various events discussed during the...

David Blennerhassett

General Atlantic/Learning Technologies: Ahead of PUSU Deadline

The Board will likely recommend the 100p/share cash offer (8.0x EV/NTM EBITDA) pending final terms. General Atlantic must make a formal offer by...

Jesus Rodriguez Aguilar

ReadyTech’s Indicative Offer of A$4.50 from Pacific Equity Partners Good Enough?

The offer represents an all-time share price high but struck at a discount to peer multiples, suggesting room for a bump. At the last close, the...

Arun George

Coursera: Back to School

Coursera, an online education platform will see its business model decelerate faster than expected. Downside risks around regulation and...

Aaron Gabin

Global Equity Strategy: Guarded Optimism

Global equities (MSCI ACWI) are decisively breaking above 1-month resistance on US-China trade war optimism, incrementally improving the technical...

Vermilion Research

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