Japan/Asia Long-Short, LightStream Research

Mio Kato

Japan/Asia Long-Short

Long-Short Analysis on Japan, Asia and the World

LightStream Research

LightStream conducts quantitatively rigorous and data-driven analysis with a focus on Japan and Asia.

We consistently cover the Tech, Consumer and Industrial sectors, and provide ECM and Events coverage more broadly.

We supplement traditional qualitative insights from company relationships with a robust quantitative foundation that examines as much historical data as is available.
We further refine the accuracy of our insights and calls through the use of alternative data to flesh out current trends, and through a valuation framework that emphasises non-superficial peer group selection and a proper attempt to understand the metrics and changes that have driven security valuations in the past.

Equity Bottom-Up

<p>We said a couple of weeks ago that the restrictions on the gaming sector imposed by China were far more severe than the market reaction indicated. However, our view was mostly a call on the long-term impact of the gaming time restrictions on minors. The latest updates suggest that even the short-term outlook could get dire fast.</p>

We said a couple of weeks ago that the restrictions on the gaming sector imposed by China were far more severe than the market reaction indicated. However, our view was mostly a call on the long-term impact of the gaming time restrictions on minors. The latest updates suggest that even the short-term outlook could get dire fast.

China Gaming Restrictions Redux – Market Seems to Be in Denial

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

<div>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sea-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8509:1" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd (SE US) plans </a>to raise around US$3.5bn via an equity offering, along with another US$2.5bn via a convertible offering. The company last raised US$2.5bn in Dec 2020, which we covered in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/sea-ltd-placement-new-business-needs-new-money" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SEA Ltd Placement - New Business Needs New Money</a>.</p>
<p>While the stock’s momentum and earnings growth is very strong, the last deal didn’t do particularly well in the near term.</p>
<p>In this note, we will talk about the deal dynamics and run the deal through our ECM framework.</p>
</div><div><p>Links to our prior SEA coverage:</p></div><div><ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/sea-ltd-trade-idea-time-to-shine-market-discounting-e-commerce-to-almost-zero" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd Trade Idea - Time to Shine - Market Discounting E-Commerce to Almost Zero</a></li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/sea-ltd-placement-capitalizing-on-momentum" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:28366" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd Placement - Capitalizing on Momentum</a> </li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/sea-ltd-ipo-review-e-commerce-constitutes-64-of-sotp-valuation" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:14375" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd IPO Review - E-Commerce Constitutes 64% of SOTP Valuation</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/sea-ltd-ipo-review-a-pure-exposure-to-se-asia-s-e-commerce-gaming-despite-stiff-competition" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:13958" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd IPO Review - A Pure Exposure to SE Asia's E-Commerce &amp; Gaming Despite Stiff Competition</a></li>
</ul></div>


Sea Ltd (SE US) plans to raise around US$3.5bn via an equity offering, along with another US$2.5bn via a convertible offering. The company last raised US$2.5bn in Dec 2020, which we covered in SEA Ltd Placement - New Business Needs New Money.
While the stock’s momentum and earnings growth is very strong, the last deal didn’t do particularly well in the near term.
In this note, we will talk about the deal dynamics and run the deal through our ECM framework.
Links to our prior SEA coverage:
Sea Ltd Trade Idea - Time to Shine - Market Discounting E-Commerce to Almost Zero

Sea Ltd Placement - Capitalizing on Momentum 

Sea Ltd IPO Review - E-Commerce Constitutes 64% of SOTP Valuation 
Sea Ltd IPO Review - A Pure Exposure to SE Asia's E-Commerce &amp; Gaming Despite Stiff Competition


SEA Ltd Placement -Momentum Is Very Strong but Last Deal Didn’t Do Well and It Doesn’t Need the Cash

<div><p>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.</p></div><div><p>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.</p></div><div><p>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. </p></div><div><p>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.</p></div><div>
<p>We have covered most aspects of the deal in our earlier notes, <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>and  <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/kakao-pay-ipo-peer-comparison-local-and-international" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kakao Pay IPO - Peer comparison - local and international</a>.</p>
<p>In this note we will talk about valuations and the latest announcement by the regulators.</p>
</div>

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 notes, Kakao Pay IPO - Guided by Ant Financial to be a mini Ant and  Kakao Pay IPO - Peer comparison - local and international.
In this note we will talk about valuations and the latest announcement by the regulators.


Kakao Pay IPO - Valuation and Likely Impact of Latest Announcement

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One, Periscope Analytics

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One

Index Rebalance

<p>The Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited (HSIL) should announce the results of the December 2021 review of the Hang Seng Family of Indexes on 12 November. The constituent changes will be effective after the close of trading on 3 December.</p><p>The review period for the December rebalance ends on 30 September and stocks that have at least 3 month of trading history by the review cut-off date are eligible for inclusion in the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hang-seng-china-enterprises-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22900:1" rel="noopener">Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI INDEX)</a>.</p><p>At the December review, we see a high probability of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/xinyi-solar-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:318:1" rel="noopener">Xinyi Solar Holdings (968 HK)</a> being included in the index and of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-evergrande-group" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:479:1" rel="noopener">Evergrande Real Estate Group (3333 HK)</a> being deleted.</p><p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/innovent-biologics-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27452:1" rel="noopener">Innovent Biologics Inc (1801 HK)</a> is a close add for now and its inclusion would put <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-pacific-insurance-group" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:6177:1" rel="noopener">China Pacific Insurance (2601 HK)</a> at risk of deletion from the index.</p><p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/xpeng-inc-4cc65854-d10c-4d20-bf7e-ca0e016715ff" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:33772:1" rel="noopener">XPeng (9868 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/li-auto-inc-3dbe6187-544f-40dd-b9f9-72fba9c0110e" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:33811:1" rel="noopener">Li Auto (2015 HK)</a> are unlikely to be included in the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hang-seng-china-enterprises-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22900:1" rel="noopener">Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI INDEX)</a> at the December rebalance since they have failed the velocity test in August.</p><p>With the one change, estimated one-way index turnover is 1.26% and will result in one-way turnover of HK$995m. This number will change over the next couple of months as stocks move around and the turnover increases due to capping changes on <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/alibaba-group" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28434:1" rel="noopener">Alibaba Group (9988 HK)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tencent-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1" rel="noopener">Tencent (700 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/meituan-dianping" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26970:1" rel="noopener">Meituan (3690 HK)</a>.</p>

The Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited (HSIL) should announce the results of the December 2021 review of the Hang Seng Family of Indexes on 12 November. The constituent changes will be effective after the close of trading on 3 December.The review period for the December rebalance ends on 30 September and stocks that have at least 3 month of trading history by the review cut-off date are eligible for inclusion in the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI INDEX).At the December review, we see a high probability of Xinyi Solar Holdings (968 HK) being included in the index and of Evergrande Real Estate Group (3333 HK) being deleted.Innovent Biologics Inc (1801 HK) is a close add for now and its inclusion would put China Pacific Insurance (2601 HK) at risk of deletion from the index.XPeng (9868 HK) and Li Auto (2015 HK) are unlikely to be included in the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI INDEX) at the December rebalance since they have failed the velocity test in August.With the one change, estimated one-way index turnover is 1.26% and will result in one-way turnover of HK$995m. This number will change over the next couple of months as stocks move around and the turnover increases due to capping changes on Alibaba Group (9988 HK), Tencent (700 HK) and Meituan (3690 HK).

HSCEI Index Rebalance Preview: Xinyi Solar Should Replace China Evergrande

Silver Point

Thomas J. Monaco

Silver Point is a boutique research firm that focuses on the broader financial services sector, with a particular focus on troubled institutions globally. 

Asia Ex Japan

<p><em><strong>*Why Do They Always Do This?:</strong></em> At a competitor conference, management ridiculously diminished government allegations. Tencent Holdings (700.HK) [Tencent] should simply answer “yes, we made mistakes and pushed the envelope but we are actively rectifying these issues. Its going to be painful for investors as we address the government's numerous over the near-term”;  </p>
<p><strong><em>*Elephant In The Room: </em></strong>Mainland China's crackdown on capital markets activities has rapidly expanded under the broad narrative of "financial stability". There remains no doubt, in our view, that Tencent will follow Alibaba Group (BABA.US) [Alibaba] in the formation of a financial holding company. It’s pretty surprising that Tencent refuses to discuss this matter when financial services are the largest component of earnings and growth; and    </p>
<p><strong>*<em>Results Have Also Deteriorated As Distractions Mount:</em><em> </em></strong>Tencent’s 2Q21 GAAP net income declined CNY 5.2 bn (10.8%) linked quarter – and were of poor quality. Results were challenged by: cost of revenue increase; operating expense increase; losses in associates; higher impairment charges; and weaker online games. Were it not for the artificially lower tax rate, results would have been even more challenged.       </p>

*Why Do They Always Do This?: At a competitor conference, management ridiculously diminished government allegations. Tencent Holdings (700.HK) [Tencent] should simply answer “yes, we made mistakes and pushed the envelope but we are actively rectifying these issues. Its going to be painful for investors as we address the government's numerous over the near-term”;  
*Elephant In The Room: Mainland China's crackdown on capital markets activities has rapidly expanded under the broad narrative of "financial stability". There remains no doubt, in our view, that Tencent will follow Alibaba Group (BABA.US) [Alibaba] in the formation of a financial holding company. It’s pretty surprising that Tencent refuses to discuss this matter when financial services are the largest component of earnings and growth; and    
*Results Have Also Deteriorated As Distractions Mount: Tencent’s 2Q21 GAAP net income declined CNY 5.2 bn (10.8%) linked quarter – and were of poor quality. Results were challenged by: cost of revenue increase; operating expense increase; losses in associates; higher impairment charges; and weaker online games. Were it not for the artificially lower tax rate, results would have been even more challenged.       

Tencent Holdings – Incredulous Management

China

Tencent Holdings Limited operates as an investment holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides Internet and mobile value-added services (VAS), online advertising, and e-commerce transactions. Tencent Holdings offers services to users worldwide.

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Tencent Holdings (ADR) (TCEHY US)

China Gaming Restrictions Redux – Market Seems to Be in Denial

While we felt the market overlooked the long-term implications of previous gaming restrictions the latest updates on China's crackdown suggest that...

Mio Kato

SEA Ltd Placement -Momentum Is Very Strong but Last Deal Didn’t Do Well and It Doesn’t Need the Cash

Sea Ltd (SE US) plans to raise around US$3.5bn via an equity offering, along with another US$2.5bn via a convertible offering. The company last...

Sumeet Singh

Kakao Pay IPO - Valuation and Likely Impact of Latest Announcement

Kakao Pay, 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%...

Sumeet Singh

HSCEI Index Rebalance Preview: Xinyi Solar Should Replace China Evergrande

Xinyi Solar could replace China Evergrande at the HSCEI December rebalance. Over 20% of Xinyi Solar is held by passive investors and the stock...

Brian Freitas

Tencent Holdings – Incredulous Management

TENCENT: At a competitor virtual conference, Tencent discussed the impact of regulatory changes but didn’t discuss its targeted financial services...

Thomas J. Monaco

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