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.

Equity Capital Markets

Kakao Pay (KP), one of South Korea’s largest payment and financial services apps, aims to raise up to US$1.3bn in its South Korean IPO. Kakao held a 55% stake prior to listing, with Ant Financial holding the balance 45% stake.As of 1H21, KP had a total of 36m users and around 20m monthly active users (MAU). It processed a total GMV of KRW66.9tn in 2020 and it had already generated KRW47.9tn GMV in 1H21 itself. As of the end of 1H21, it had dealings with more than 610,000 affiliated stores and 100 financial institutions.Since spinning out from Kakao in 2017, the number of MAUs have grown 14x from 2Q17 to 2Q21, while the quarterly transaction amount grew 61x from KRW0.4tn in 2Q17 to KRW24.5tn in 2Q21. Over the past few years the company has been expanding its offering beyond payment processing to include other financial products. On the back of this, its revenue has been growing faster than its GMV.We have covered most aspects of the deal in our earlier note, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/kakao-pay-ipo-guided-by-ant-financial-to-be-a-mini-ant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kakao Pay IPO - Guided by Ant Financial to be a mini Ant</a>.In this note we will undertake a peer comparison.

Kakao Pay (KP), one of South Korea’s largest payment and financial services apps, aims to raise up to US$1.3bn in its South Korean IPO. Kakao held a 55% stake prior to listing, with Ant Financial holding the balance 45% stake.As of 1H21, KP had a total of 36m users and around 20m monthly active users (MAU). It processed a total GMV of KRW66.9tn in 2020 and it had already generated KRW47.9tn GMV in 1H21 itself. As of the end of 1H21, it had dealings with more than 610,000 affiliated stores and 100 financial institutions.Since spinning out from Kakao in 2017, the number of MAUs have grown 14x from 2Q17 to 2Q21, while the quarterly transaction amount grew 61x from KRW0.4tn in 2Q17 to KRW24.5tn in 2Q21. Over the past few years the company has been expanding its offering beyond payment processing to include other financial products. On the back of this, its revenue has been growing faster than its GMV.We have covered most aspects of the deal in our earlier note, Kakao Pay IPO - Guided by Ant Financial to be a mini Ant.In this note we will undertake a peer comparison.

Kakao Pay IPO - Peer Comparison - Local and International

Korea / Special Situations, Clepsydra Capital

Sanghyun Park

Korea / Special Situations

Quantitative Analysis

What are the local institutions buying in KOSPI? Below is the top 20 list of the most purchased stocks (in terms of net bought value as a % of market cap) in KOSPI last week (March 30 to April 3). I screened out those whose market cap is less than ₩100bil. Cosmax tops the list, followed by HDC-OP and Cheil Worldwide.<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/126/582/original/1.png?1586135983" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="126582"></figure>On the other hand, below are the 20 most sold KOSPI stocks of last week by the local institutions (again in terms of net sold value as % of market cap). Hotel Shilla sits in the first place, followed by Shinsegae and Doosan Corp.<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/126/583/original/2.png?1586135995" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="126583"></figure>

What are the local institutions buying in KOSPI? Below is the top 20 list of the most purchased stocks (in terms of net bought value as a % of market cap) in KOSPI last week (March 30 to April 3). I screened out those whose market cap is less than ₩100bil. Cosmax tops the list, followed by HDC-OP and Cheil Worldwide.On the other hand, below are the 20 most sold KOSPI stocks of last week by the local institutions (again in terms of net sold value as % of market cap). Hotel Shilla sits in the first place, followed by Shinsegae and Doosan Corp.

What Local Institutions Buy in KOSPI: Screening Low Capital Risk & High Div Stocks

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Equity Bottom-Up

This report is about the fate of the cryptocurrency exchange market in Korea in 2018. There has been a dramatic change in the South Korean government's stance on the cryptocurrency market in Korea in the past two months (see below).<h2>Recent Time-Line of Major Events/Announcements Impacting the Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Korea</h2><ol><li>
January 11, 2018: South Korea's justice minister Park Sang-Ki stated that the government is preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading on domestic exchanges. This caused…</li></ol>

This report is about the fate of the cryptocurrency exchange market in Korea in 2018. There has been a dramatic change in the South Korean government's stance on the cryptocurrency market in Korea in the past two months (see below).Recent Time-Line of Major Events/Announcements Impacting the Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Korea
January 11, 2018: South Korea's justice minister Park Sang-Ki stated that the government is preparing a bill to ban cryptocurrency trading on domestic exchanges. This caused…

Fate of the Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Korea

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/8452" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8452:1">Nhn Entertainment Corp (181710 KS)</a> is primarily a PC online/mobile game company, but its Payco mobile payment service has played a key role in turning around the company and its share price. NHN Entertainment was split off from NHN (now called <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/16029" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16029:1">Naver Corp (035420 KS)</a>) in August 2013.<h2>Payco is Driving NHN Entertaintment's Turnaround Story</h2>Payco has been the most aggressive mobile payment service in Korea in the past six months. Launched in August 2015 by <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/8452" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8452:1">Nhn Entertainment Corp (181710 KS)</a>, Payco can…

Nhn Entertainment Corp (181710 KS) is primarily a PC online/mobile game company, but its Payco mobile payment service has played a key role in turning around the company and its share price. NHN Entertainment was split off from NHN (now called Naver Corp (035420 KS)) in August 2013.Payco is Driving NHN Entertaintment's Turnaround StoryPayco has been the most aggressive mobile payment service in Korea in the past six months. Launched in August 2015 by Nhn Entertainment Corp (181710 KS), Payco can…

NHN Entertainment: A Turnaround Story Driven by Payco Mobile Payment Service (Part 1)

Event-Driven

Alipay's Ant Financial and KakaoPay (to be split off in this April as one of Kakao Corp's affiliate) join hands to allow cross-use of their systems by their subscribers. Ant Financial made an investment of US$200mil (₩230bil) for an undisclosed stake % in KakaoPay, but KakaoPay said that Ant Financial will become its second largest shareholder only behind Kakao Corp. As a result of this investment news, Kakao Corp's stock price was strong today, up 4.25%.Now, let's do some fact-checking:<ol><li>In fact…</li></ol>

Alipay's Ant Financial and KakaoPay (to be split off in this April as one of Kakao Corp's affiliate) join hands to allow cross-use of their systems by their subscribers. Ant Financial made an investment of US$200mil (₩230bil) for an undisclosed stake % in KakaoPay, but KakaoPay said that Ant Financial will become its second largest shareholder only behind Kakao Corp. As a result of this investment news, Kakao Corp's stock price was strong today, up 4.25%.Now, let's do some fact-checking:In fact…

AliPay's US$200mil Investment in KakaoPay - Reality Check

South Korea

NHN Corp. provides the variety of online and mobile games. The company offers web board, MMORPG, FPS, sports, casual, and other games.

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NHN Corp (181710 KS)

Kakao Pay IPO - Peer Comparison - Local and International

Kakao Pay, one of South Korea’s largest payment apps, aims to raise up to US$1.3bn in its South Korean IPO. Kakao held a 55% stake prior to...

Sumeet Singh

What Local Institutions Buy in KOSPI: Screening Low Capital Risk & High Div Stocks

What are the local institutions buying in KOSPI? Below is the top 20 list of the most purchased stocks (in terms of net bought value as a % of...

Sanghyun Park

Fate of the Cryptocurrency Exchanges in Korea

This report is about the fate of the cryptocurrency exchange market in Korea in 2018. There has been a dramatic change in the South Korean...

Douglas Kim

NHN Entertainment: A Turnaround Story Driven by Payco Mobile Payment Service (Part 1)

Nhn Entertainment Corp (181710 KS) is primarily a PC online/mobile game company, but its Payco mobile payment service has played a key role in...

Douglas Kim

AliPay's US$200mil Investment in KakaoPay - Reality Check

Alipay's Ant Financial and KakaoPay (to be split off in this April as one of Kakao Corp's affiliate) join hands to allow cross-use of their systems...

Sanghyun Park

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