Insight Provider, CrossASEAN Research

Nicolas Van Broekhoven

Insight Provider

CrossASEAN Research

At CrossASEAN Research we strive to produce unbiased and differentiated on the ground insights on companies across South East Asia. Our Research is produced for the most part after face to face meetings and conversations with company management to dig deep into the long term vision and strategy of the companies we cover. We seek to deliver investable and actionable themes on sectors and markets across SE Asia, often in collaboration with other Insight Providers across the region, pooling the vast experience of the analysts within the Smartkarma Ecosystem. We also offer bespoke work and tailor made trips for our clients. 

Insights across South East Asia

Equity Bottom-Up

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aem-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11019:1" rel="noopener">AEM (AEM SP)</a> reported weak results last week but subsequently announced a 103 million SGD investment by Temasek. </p><p>The Temasek investment comes ahead of an expected strong 2H21 and 2022 but more importantly right ahead of probable new major customer wins. As well documented AEM is highly dependent on <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/intel-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16764:1" rel="noopener">Intel Corp (INTC US)</a> for 80% of its revenues and needs new customers to diversify. Management has quietly been forming new relationships and is in various trial phases with some of the largest semiconductor companies other than Intel. During 1Q21's conf call we first heard of management's growing optimism and this was again reiterated in 2Q21.</p><p>On the 3Q20 call AEM's Chairman Loke Wai San was asked if he would consider a Nasdaq listing. His answer at the time was <em>"once we get to a billion USD market cap we can consider it".</em> The combination of the Temasek investment and the anticipated major new customer wins will likely get us there. In this regard <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/sgx-and-nasdaq-extend-partnership-to-help-firms-access-capital" target="_blank" rel="noopener">please recall</a> that in July 2020 SGX and Nasdaq agreed to make "dual-listings" between both exchanges easier. What better company to kick-off this agreement than AEM?</p><p><strong>Fair Value increases to 8 SGD (20x P/E on 0.40 SGD FY22 EPS)</strong>. Recall, AEM already earned 0.35 SGD EPS in 2020, so assuming new customer wins materialize 0.40 SGD is not a stretch.</p>

AEM (AEM SP) reported weak results last week but subsequently announced a 103 million SGD investment by Temasek. The Temasek investment comes ahead of an expected strong 2H21 and 2022 but more importantly right ahead of probable new major customer wins. As well documented AEM is highly dependent on Intel Corp (INTC US) for 80% of its revenues and needs new customers to diversify. Management has quietly been forming new relationships and is in various trial phases with some of the largest semiconductor companies other than Intel. During 1Q21's conf call we first heard of management's growing optimism and this was again reiterated in 2Q21.On the 3Q20 call AEM's Chairman Loke Wai San was asked if he would consider a Nasdaq listing. His answer at the time was "once we get to a billion USD market cap we can consider it". The combination of the Temasek investment and the anticipated major new customer wins will likely get us there. In this regard please recall that in July 2020 SGX and Nasdaq agreed to make "dual-listings" between both exchanges easier. What better company to kick-off this agreement than AEM?Fair Value increases to 8 SGD (20x P/E on 0.40 SGD FY22 EPS). Recall, AEM already earned 0.35 SGD EPS in 2020, so assuming new customer wins materialize 0.40 SGD is not a stretch.

AEM: Temasek Investment + New Customers = Pre-Cursor to Nasdaq Listing? Fair Value to 8 SGD

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aem-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11019:1" rel="noopener">AEM (AEM SP)</a> posted 1Q21 results which were relatively soft YoY. Management noted that 1Q21 was still much stronger than 1Q19 and 1Q20 was an anomaly. AEM also shared annual guidance between 460-520M SGD for 2021. This was the first time management shared guidance for the year. Given AEM's history we believe this guidance is conservative.</p><p>During the call the CEO and CFO were confident that growth would significantly pick up from 3Q21 as its largest customer <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/intel-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16764:1" rel="noopener">Intel Corp (INTC US)</a> ramps up requirement for its latest test handlers. Longer term the company is hopeful to announce multiple new significant customer wins by 2022. This has been a multi-year process which could now bear fruits next year and would be an important catalyst for the company. We remain convinced AEM also becomes an M&amp;A target at some point which provides downside support to the stock.</p><p>Nothing in 1Q21 results changes the long-term bull thesis on AEM. Fair Value remains unchanged 5 SGD (40% upside). </p>

AEM (AEM SP) posted 1Q21 results which were relatively soft YoY. Management noted that 1Q21 was still much stronger than 1Q19 and 1Q20 was an anomaly. AEM also shared annual guidance between 460-520M SGD for 2021. This was the first time management shared guidance for the year. Given AEM's history we believe this guidance is conservative.During the call the CEO and CFO were confident that growth would significantly pick up from 3Q21 as its largest customer Intel Corp (INTC US) ramps up requirement for its latest test handlers. Longer term the company is hopeful to announce multiple new significant customer wins by 2022. This has been a multi-year process which could now bear fruits next year and would be an important catalyst for the company. We remain convinced AEM also becomes an M&amp;A target at some point which provides downside support to the stock.Nothing in 1Q21 results changes the long-term bull thesis on AEM. Fair Value remains unchanged 5 SGD (40% upside). 

AEM: Temporary Weakness Creates Buying Opportunity Going into New Product Cycle as of 3Q21

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

<p>Our bullish outlook, intact since early November, has been based on the fact that virtually all signals from the market have been consistent with risk-on behavior that we would expect to see in bull markets. Now, the picture is less clear; we are still bullish, just <em>slightly</em> less so than we have been over the past 2-3 months. In today’s report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, Manufacturing, and Technology.</p>

Our bullish outlook, intact since early November, has been based on the fact that virtually all signals from the market have been consistent with risk-on behavior that we would expect to see in bull markets. Now, the picture is less clear; we are still bullish, just slightly less so than we have been over the past 2-3 months. In today’s report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, Manufacturing, and Technology.

U.S. Equity Strategy: Downgrading Manufacturing & Transports

Senior Technology Analyst, Japanese Equities, LightStream Research

Scott Foster

Senior Technology Analyst, Japanese Equities

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.

<p>Advantest enters the new year with its share price back to its pre-Lehman Shock high, but lagging Tokyo Electron and other high-flying Japanese semiconductor production equipment (SPE) stocks.</p><p>But orders, sales and profits turned up in 2Q of FY Mar-21 and the medium-to-long-term outlook for both memory and system-on-chip (SoC) test requirements is favorable.</p><p>5G is likely to add about 10% to SoC test demand over the next 2-3 years. Smart-phone complexity, high-performance computing, data traffic, memory and storage requirements, and industrial applications are the underlying drivers of test system demand.</p><div><p>Sales should rise by about 25% and operating profit by nearly 40% in the two and a half years to Mar-23, in our estimation, with operating and net profits regaining and then exceeding the peaks recorded in FY Mar-19 despite substantial investments in new technology.</p></div><p>Valuations have risen, but not radically so, and Japan Analytics calculations indicate that the shares are nowhere near being oversold. SPE comparables suggest potential upside of 30% to ¥10,000-plus. </p><p>The primary threats to Advantest's prospects are macro-economic and political, in our opinion. Risk to the important China market should decline with the departure of Donald Trump. </p><div><div><div><div></div></div></div></div><div><div></div></div>

Advantest enters the new year with its share price back to its pre-Lehman Shock high, but lagging Tokyo Electron and other high-flying Japanese semiconductor production equipment (SPE) stocks.But orders, sales and profits turned up in 2Q of FY Mar-21 and the medium-to-long-term outlook for both memory and system-on-chip (SoC) test requirements is favorable.5G is likely to add about 10% to SoC test demand over the next 2-3 years. Smart-phone complexity, high-performance computing, data traffic, memory and storage requirements, and industrial applications are the underlying drivers of test system demand.Sales should rise by about 25% and operating profit by nearly 40% in the two and a half years to Mar-23, in our estimation, with operating and net profits regaining and then exceeding the peaks recorded in FY Mar-19 despite substantial investments in new technology.Valuations have risen, but not radically so, and Japan Analytics calculations indicate that the shares are nowhere near being oversold. SPE comparables suggest potential upside of 30% to ¥10,000-plus. The primary threats to Advantest's prospects are macro-economic and political, in our opinion. Risk to the important China market should decline with the departure of Donald Trump. 

Advantest (6857 JP): 5G Keeps the Ball Rolling

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aem-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11019:1" rel="noopener">AEM Holdings (AEM SP)</a> published great 9M20 results. Management will give FY21 guidance in January but sounded upbeat on its prospects going into FY21.</p><p>AEM has hired an entire new CEO/CFO/CTO suite over the past 18 months. We believe this highly qualified new C-suit would not have joined AEM if they did not see a clear path of making AEM into a 1 billion USD company going forward. </p><p>YTD the share price of AEM is up by 75% but has come off its earlier highs. Given FY21 guidance uncertainty and muted consensus expectations (2% revenue growth in FY21 and -1% growth in FY22) we like the risk/reward set-up. The downside is protected by <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aem-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11019:1" rel="noopener">AEM Holdings (AEM SP)</a> becoming a takeover target itself at some point but not before the maximum value has been extracted by the current management team.</p><p>Fair Value of 5 SGD remains (this is based on 10x 2020 EV/EBITDA or 14.7x 2020 P/E). Peers trade at an average of 26.1x 2020 P/E and 16.9x 2020 EV/EBITDA.</p>

AEM Holdings (AEM SP) published great 9M20 results. Management will give FY21 guidance in January but sounded upbeat on its prospects going into FY21.AEM has hired an entire new CEO/CFO/CTO suite over the past 18 months. We believe this highly qualified new C-suit would not have joined AEM if they did not see a clear path of making AEM into a 1 billion USD company going forward. YTD the share price of AEM is up by 75% but has come off its earlier highs. Given FY21 guidance uncertainty and muted consensus expectations (2% revenue growth in FY21 and -1% growth in FY22) we like the risk/reward set-up. The downside is protected by AEM Holdings (AEM SP) becoming a takeover target itself at some point but not before the maximum value has been extracted by the current management team.Fair Value of 5 SGD remains (this is based on 10x 2020 EV/EBITDA or 14.7x 2020 P/E). Peers trade at an average of 26.1x 2020 P/E and 16.9x 2020 EV/EBITDA.

AEM Holdings: Optimistic on FY21; Fair Value Remains at 5 SGD (41% Upside)

United States

Teradyne, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and supports semiconductor test products and services on a world wide basis. The Company's test equipment products and services include: semiconductor test systems, military/aerospace test instrumentation and systems, circuit-board test and inspection systems and automotive diagnostic and test systems.

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Teradyne Inc (TER US)

AEM: Temasek Investment + New Customers = Pre-Cursor to Nasdaq Listing? Fair Value to 8 SGD

AEM remains a top pick as it digests the Temasek investment and gets ready to list on Nasdaq in 2022. Major new customer wins are likely as...

Nicolas Van Broekhoven

AEM: Temporary Weakness Creates Buying Opportunity Going into New Product Cycle as of 3Q21

AEM had a weaker quarter but it is very confident that a new growth cycle will start in 3Q21 well into 2022. New customer wins in 2022 could start...

Nicolas Van Broekhoven

U.S. Equity Strategy: Downgrading Manufacturing & Transports

In today’s report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, Manufacturing, and Technology

Vermilion Research

Advantest (6857 JP): 5G Keeps the Ball Rolling

Orders, sales and profits turned up in 2Q of FY Mar-21 and the outlook is positive as smartphone complexity, 5G and other factors drive IC test...

Scott Foster

AEM Holdings: Optimistic on FY21; Fair Value Remains at 5 SGD (41% Upside)

AEM beat consensus for the 7th quarter in a row. An entirely new C-suite can now take the company to its next milestone: 1 billion USD market cap...

Nicolas Van Broekhoven

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