Blue Lotus Non US Internet research, Blue Lotus Research Institute

Ying Pan

Blue Lotus Non US Internet research

China growth and global non-US Internet equities

Blue Lotus Research Institute

Blue Lotus Research is a Hong Kong Type 4 Licensed investment advisory firm focusing on Chinese growth equities and global non-US Internet equities

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>NetEase reported revenue/non-GAAP operating profit/GAAP net income inline/5.24%/16.2% vs. our estimation.</li>
<li>The bottom-line beats were primarily attributed to the operational efficiency achieved through the usage of AIGC tools, and reduced S&amp;M expenses resulting from organic traffic generated by high-quality game content.</li>
<li>We maintain our BUY rating and raised TP to $138 for future game releases, implying 19x PE, and it is currently trading at 17x PE in 2024</li>
</ul>


NetEase reported revenue/non-GAAP operating profit/GAAP net income inline/5.24%/16.2% vs. our estimation.
The bottom-line beats were primarily attributed to the operational efficiency achieved through the usage of AIGC tools, and reduced S&amp;M expenses resulting from organic traffic generated by high-quality game content.
We maintain our BUY rating and raised TP to $138 for future game releases, implying 19x PE, and it is currently trading at 17x PE in 2024


[NetEase, Inc.(NTES US,BUY,TP US$138)TP Change]: Raise TP for Upcoming and Highly Anticipated Titles

External broker reports(aggregated public sources), CMB International

CMB International

External broker reports(aggregated public sources)

Incorporated in Hong Kong, supported by the mainland and targeting in global market, CMB International Capital Corporation Limited (“CMBI”) is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank ("CMB"), by leveraging on the Group’s synergy and coordination in domestic and overseas markets, as well as CMB’s strong resources and outstanding social reputation, CMBI and its subsidiaries have been actively implementing diversified business strategies and set up an overall layout of main business segments including Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Global Markets and Structured Finance, etc. Adhering to the philosophy of “being clients oriented and increasing our own values by the way of creating value for clients”, CMBI endeavors to provide quality and integrated financial services to institutional, corporate and individual customers both domestic and overseas including Hong Kong IPO sponsorship and underwriting, share placement and rights issue for listed companies, financial advisors, bonds issuance services, asset management, direct investment, wealth management, equity sales and trading, etc.

<ul><li>NetEase announced 3Q23 financial results on 16 Nov: total revenue increased by 12% YoY to RMB27.3bn, largely in line with our/consensus estimate of RMB28.2/27.3bn; operating income grew by 59% YoY to RMB7.6bn, beating our/consensus estimate by 9/4%, mainly due to enhanced games GPM (+4.0ppt YoY) on optimized channel costs and favourable revenue mix shift.</li><li>Looking ahead, we expect total revenue growth to further accelerate in 4Q23, underpinned by the strong performance of new game titles.</li><li>NetEase’s quality game pipeline, with several highly-anticipated titles to be launched by 2Q24E, will also support its healthy revenue growth in 2024E, in our view. </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

NetEase announced 3Q23 financial results on 16 Nov: total revenue increased by 12% YoY to RMB27.3bn, largely in line with our/consensus estimate of RMB28.2/27.3bn; operating income grew by 59% YoY to RMB7.6bn, beating our/consensus estimate by 9/4%, mainly due to enhanced games GPM (+4.0ppt YoY) on optimized channel costs and favourable revenue mix shift.Looking ahead, we expect total revenue growth to further accelerate in 4Q23, underpinned by the strong performance of new game titles.NetEase’s quality game pipeline, with several highly-anticipated titles to be launched by 2Q24E, will also support its healthy revenue growth in 2024E, in our view. Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

NetEase (NTES US) – Games Revenue Growth Accelerated with Solid Margin Expansion

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.

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>PCAOB officials concluded their Hong Kong visit last month and PCAOB is due to announce its annual judgment on whether it had adequate access to US listed China companies.</li>
<li>The Hong Kong visit was on the back of the 26th Aug 2022 announcement by PCAOB and CSRC that they had entered into an agreement with US authorities for access.</li>
<li>In this note, we'll talk about the latest developments, possible outcomes and implications.</li>
</ul>


PCAOB officials concluded their Hong Kong visit last month and PCAOB is due to announce its annual judgment on whether it had adequate access to US listed China companies.
The Hong Kong visit was on the back of the 26th Aug 2022 announcement by PCAOB and CSRC that they had entered into an agreement with US authorities for access.
In this note, we'll talk about the latest developments, possible outcomes and implications.


China ADRs Delisting - Friday Could Be Judgment Day for over US$800bn Mcap of Stocks

Forensic Analyst

Jason Yap, CFA

The Epic Apple duel has recently concluded its first inning. The latest US ruling disrupts Apple's stranglehold over the App Store and consequently its cut of developer revenues but fell short of confirming that Apple operated as an illegal monopoly.  An Epic appeal is underway.  While a certain segment of the US population gushed with anger over Apple's 30% cut of revenue charged to developers, elsewhere in China the situation is starkly different.
China app developers typically aim to secure all available distribution channels at all costs, which means simultaneous pre-launch conversations with multiple app store vendors.  The most popular apps often gain the most traction through push adverts on these app stores, or so the developers rationalise to themselves as they fork up to 50% commission fees to app stores and mobile carriers. By this measure, Apple seems almost benevolent!  But, why?
This article explores the App Store dynamic in China, which is dominated by Android smartphone manufacturers, and discusses whether an Epic Apple esque duel might unravel in China.

The Epic Apple duel has recently concluded its first inning. The latest US ruling disrupts Apple's stranglehold over the App Store and consequently its cut of developer revenues but fell short of confirming that Apple operated as an illegal monopoly.  An Epic appeal is underway.  While a certain segment of the US population gushed with anger over Apple's 30% cut of revenue charged to developers, elsewhere in China the situation is starkly different.
China app developers typically aim to secure all available distribution channels at all costs, which means simultaneous pre-launch conversations with multiple app store vendors.  The most popular apps often gain the most traction through push adverts on these app stores, or so the developers rationalise to themselves as they fork up to 50% commission fees to app stores and mobile carriers. By this measure, Apple seems almost benevolent!  But, why?
This article explores the App Store dynamic in China, which is dominated by Android smartphone manufacturers, and discusses whether an Epic Apple esque duel might unravel in China. 

Forensic Accounting

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tencent-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1" rel="noopener">Tencent (700 HK)</a>'s share price retreated 3.2% overnight on news that China would restrict playing time for minors to 3 hours a week - that is, 8pm to 9pm time slots on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with an extra hour on public holidays.  The share price erased these losses and recorded an intra-day gain of 3.3% by Tuesday's market close, suggesting that regulatory concerns were assuaged by Tencent's affirmation of low single-digit revenue contribution of minors. 
Insight Provider Mio Kato wrote a unique but sensible piece about how the market may have misunderstood the significance of the restrictions, with the implications for the long-term growth of the industry more severe and an appreciation of the relevant issues would come sooner.  A key thrust of the argument is that habit-formation of gaming at an early age would be disrupted to an extent that gaming habits and user time spent do not carry over into adulthood. 
Tencent's gaming revenue is derived primarily from the sales of in-game virtual items and the provision of adjacent services.  In this article, we expand on the above argument by highlighting how the habit-formation disruption not only affects user time spent but also have a knock-on impact with respect to in-game virtual item spending, subscription, and IP consumption. 
Further, Tencent's revenue recognition on the provision of online games heavily depends on management's assumptions of the gamer's usage profile, which was in turn determined based on past gaming habits. This was historically raised as a Key Audit Matter in Tencent's Audit Opinions. Accordingly, we also discuss in this article how the underlying management assumptions might change as a result of the regulations and consequent impact on Tencent's gaming revenues.

Tencent (700 HK)'s share price retreated 3.2% overnight on news that China would restrict playing time for minors to 3 hours a week - that is, 8pm to 9pm time slots on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with an extra hour on public holidays.  The share price erased these losses and recorded an intra-day gain of 3.3% by Tuesday's market close, suggesting that regulatory concerns were assuaged by Tencent's affirmation of low single-digit revenue contribution of minors. 
Insight Provider Mio Kato wrote a unique but sensible piece about how the market may have misunderstood the significance of the restrictions, with the implications for the long-term growth of the industry more severe and an appreciation of the relevant issues would come sooner.  A key thrust of the argument is that habit-formation of gaming at an early age would be disrupted to an extent that gaming habits and user time spent do not carry over into adulthood. 
Tencent's gaming revenue is derived primarily from the sales of in-game virtual items and the provision of adjacent services.  In this article, we expand on the above argument by highlighting how the habit-formation disruption not only affects user time spent but also have a knock-on impact with respect to in-game virtual item spending, subscription, and IP consumption. 
Further, Tencent's revenue recognition on the provision of online games heavily depends on management's assumptions of the gamer's usage profile, which was in turn determined based on past gaming habits. This was historically raised as a Key Audit Matter in Tencent's Audit Opinions. Accordingly, we also discuss in this article how the underlying management assumptions might change as a result of the regulations and consequent impact on Tencent's gaming revenues. 

Tencent - An Analytical Framework For "Tomorrow's" Gaming Minors

China

NetEase, Inc. is an Internet technology company that develops applications, services and other Internet technologies in China. The Company's core businesses consist of email service, web portal and online entertainment, including online gaming services. NetEase also offers online advertising, search, mobile applications and e-commerce.

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NetEase Inc (NTES US)