Japanese Turnaround Situations, Short-Ideas, Azabu Research

Michael Allen

Japanese Turnaround Situations, Short-Ideas

Azabu Research

Azabu Research is a publishing and consulting firm focused on distressed equities in the Japanese market. We specialize in turnaround strategies, corporate combinations, divestitures, and restructuring.

Publisher of the Tokyo Turnaround Letter, which conducts the most thorough research possible of publicly available information, including forensic tests for fraudulent overstatement of assets and understatement of liabilities, as well as rigorous market and industry analysis to assess the underlying strengths of the company’s products or services, the appropriateness of the company’s turnaround strategy, and the skill of its current management team. The average length of a report exceeds 25 pages of text and tables, excluding any disclosures or executive summaries.

We have more than 30 years of experience in applying this process to distressed equities in Japan. Additionally, subscribers have free access to detailed, yet easily navigated earnings models for the target company as well as the top five comparable companies, and unlimited access to the analyst for follow-up questions.

Azabu Research also conducts be-spoke research on a project basis, and provides consulting services to companies looking to restructure, divest, make acquisitions, go public, or improve investor sentiment toward their stock.

Independent Research and Consulting Firm

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>The market is pricing Ricoh as a terminal print asset, but the company has demonstrated an ability to harvest this asset and grow its cash flows.</li>
<li>Bears confuse managed IT's commodity perimeter with Ricoh's real core. Japanese enterprise document workflows are contractually and culturally sticky, resisting platform automation.</li>
<li>Activist Investors own shares of Ricoh equal to 57 days ADV, and they've increased their position as the stock under-performed. They were too early, but the consensus is late.</li>
</ul>


The market is pricing Ricoh as a terminal print asset, but the company has demonstrated an ability to harvest this asset and grow its cash flows.
Bears confuse managed IT's commodity perimeter with Ricoh's real core. Japanese enterprise document workflows are contractually and culturally sticky, resisting platform automation.
Activist Investors own shares of Ricoh equal to 57 days ADV, and they've increased their position as the stock under-performed. They were too early, but the consensus is late.


Ricoh (7752):  Activists Were Early, the Consensus Is Late

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

In last week's Int'l Compass (Sept. 2), we highlighted emerging markets (EEM-US, Shanghai Comp) and Japan (TOPIX, TOPIX Small) as areas of bullish interest, with short-term bullish inflections suggesting the tide was turning in favor of these markets. This remains the focus in today's report, and especially on Japan; bullish price inflections and breakouts have started to proliferate, which suggests this could be the start of a broad-based rally for Japan in the weeks and months ahead.

In last week's Int'l Compass (Sept. 2), we highlighted emerging markets (EEM-US, Shanghai Comp) and Japan (TOPIX, TOPIX Small) as areas of bullish interest, with short-term bullish inflections suggesting the tide was turning in favor of these markets. This remains the focus in today's report, and especially on Japan; bullish price inflections and breakouts have started to proliferate, which suggests this could be the start of a broad-based rally for Japan in the weeks and months ahead.

Buy Japan On This Breakout ; TOPIX Breaking Out To 21-Year Highs; Actionable Theme: Growth Sectors

Wisdomtree Japan Hedged Eq / Technical Analysis

Market dynamics continue to send mixed signals, but the bottom line is that not one MSCI ACWI Sector is breaking down, and important price support levels are holding in the US, Europe, and Japan. Additionally, the MSCI ACWI, ACWI ex-US, and EAFE indexes all remain above critical support levels. Until supports start to break we cannot be bearish. It is also worth noting that various indicators could be making a turn for the better, including early signs of interest rates bottoming in the US and Germany, a potential false breakdown in crude oil, and high yield spreads leveling-out.

Market dynamics continue to send mixed signals, but the bottom line is that not one MSCI ACWI Sector is breaking down, and important price support levels are holding in the US, Europe, and Japan. Additionally, the MSCI ACWI, ACWI ex-US, and EAFE indexes all remain above critical support levels. Until supports start to break we cannot be bearish. It is also worth noting that various indicators could be making a turn for the better, including early signs of interest rates bottoming in the US and Germany, a potential false breakdown in crude oil, and high yield spreads leveling-out.

Critical Supports Holding in the US, Europe, & Japan; Buying Health Care, Utilities, Materials, Tech

Doing bespoke work since 2002....., Custom Products Group

Patrick Hansen

Doing bespoke work since 2002.....

Custom Products Group

Custom Products was started 14 years ago at Lehman Brothers by current co-founder Patrick Hansen, CFA. After 3 years at Lehman, Patrick moved the team to Macquarie Securities where Simon Rigney (co-founder) joined. 3 years ago we took Custom Products independent. 

Our core strength can be summed up three words. 1- Customization - we have very little off the shelf products and most work is done on a one on one bespoke basis. 2- Speed - We pride ourselves in our ability to get requests back to the client very quickly. 3- Confidentiality - We do not redistribute. There is no grace period where we wait a week and then mass blast. Any request stops with that client.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

We looked back over the last 16 years and found that names that are down in the first 11 months tend to outperform in December. To calculate the information coefficient (IC) we only used names that were down in the first 11 months. That way we eliminate names that were up in the first 11 month and went down in December. We did not want those names to affect the IC calculations for this exercise.  When we compared the first 11 month performance to December performance we got an average IC of…

We looked back over the last 16 years and found that names that are down in the first 11 months tend to outperform in December. To calculate the information coefficient (IC) we only used names that were down in the first 11 months. That way we eliminate names that were up in the first 11 month and went down in December. We did not want those names to affect the IC calculations for this exercise.  When we compared the first 11 month performance to December performance we got an average IC of…

Names Down in the First 11 Months Tend to Go up in Japan.....

Global Head of Research, Smartkarma

Mark Artherton

Global Head of Research

LR Research

<div class="content-highlight">1.  US Tax reform plans propose taxing corporate cash held overseas at 12% and assets purchased from overseas retained earnings at 5%.  Just a House proposal but applies even if the cash is not repatriated.  It would rapidly solve the issue on overseas earnings, but still, leaves longer-term issues.  These tax proposals have a long way to go before becoming law.</div><div class="content-highlight">2.  <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/787" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:787:1">Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA US)</a> saw revenues grow 61% in the second quarter to end September.  AliCloud saw an almost doubling…</div>

1.  US Tax reform plans propose taxing corporate cash held overseas at 12% and assets purchased from overseas retained earnings at 5%.  Just a House proposal but applies even if the cash is not repatriated.  It would rapidly solve the issue on overseas earnings, but still, leaves longer-term issues.  These tax proposals have a long way to go before becoming law.2.  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA US) saw revenues grow 61% in the second quarter to end September.  AliCloud saw an almost doubling…

Japan

Seiko Epson Corporation manufactures communications equipment, electronic devices, and precision products.  The Company's products include printers, scanners, Liquid Crystal Projectors, semiconductors, quartz devices, and watches.

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Seiko Epson (6724 JP)

Ricoh (7752): Activists Were Early, the Consensus Is Late

Market undervaluing Ricoh as print asset, but company showing ability to grow cash flows. Bears misunderstanding core business. Activist investors...

Michael Allen

Buy Japan On This Breakout ; TOPIX Breaking Out To 21-Year Highs; Actionable Theme: Growth Sectors

Japan (TOPIX, TOPIX Small) was a big focus for us last week, and it remains the focus in today's report; this could be the start of a broad-based...

Vermilion Research

Critical Supports Holding in the US, Europe, & Japan; Buying Health Care, Utilities, Materials, Tech

Various indicators are making a turn for the better, including early signs of interest rates bottoming in the US and Germany, a false breakdown in...

Vermilion Research

Names Down in the First 11 Months Tend to Go up in Japan.....

We looked back over the last 16 years and found that names that are down in the first 11 months tend to outperform in December. To calculate the...

Custom Products Group

21 Things Worth Knowing (#7)

1. US Tax reform plans propose taxing corporate cash held overseas at 12% and assets purchased from overseas retained earnings at 5%. Just a...

Mark Artherton

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Ricoh (7752): Activists Were Early, the Consensus Is Late

​Market undervaluing Ricoh as print asset, but company showing ability to grow cash flows. Bears misunderstanding core business. Activist investors...

Michael Allen

Buy Japan On This Breakout ; TOPIX Breaking Out To 21-Year Highs; Actionable Theme: Growth Sectors

Japan (TOPIX, TOPIX Small) was a big focus for us last week, and it remains the focus in today's report; this could be the start of a broad-based...

Vermilion Research

Critical Supports Holding in the US, Europe, & Japan; Buying Health Care, Utilities, Materials, Tech

Various indicators are making a turn for the better, including early signs of interest rates bottoming in the US and Germany, a false breakdown in...

Vermilion Research

Names Down in the First 11 Months Tend to Go up in Japan.....

We looked back over the last 16 years and found that names that are down in the first 11 months tend to outperform in December. To calculate the...

Custom Products Group

21 Things Worth Knowing (#7)

1. US Tax reform plans propose taxing corporate cash held overseas at 12% and assets purchased from overseas retained earnings at 5%. Just a...

Mark Artherton

Market undervaluing Ricoh as print asset, but company showing ability to grow cash flows. Bears misunderstanding core business. Activist investors...