Forensic Analyst

Jason Yap, CFA

Forensic Accounting

<p>On 5 November 2021, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/haidilao-international-holding-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27044:1" rel="noopener">Haidilao (6862 HK)</a> announced its decision to shut down or suspend the operation of 300 poor performing stores within the next 2 months, which is approximately one-fifth of total restaurants.</p><p>Haidilao opened 308 stores in 2019 and 544 in 2020, and added 299 new stores in H1 2021.  As at 30 June 2021, Haidilao had approximately 1,600 stores.  After closing 300 stores, Haidilao remains China's largest hot pot chain with around 1,300 stores. </p><p>Amidst concerns of over-expansion, Haidilao's share price has declined by 75% since its February 2021 peak, wiping out HKD333.5 billion (USD42.9 billion) of its market cap. On hindsight, Zhang Yong, founder of Haidilao, conceded that the expansion plan had been "<em><a href="https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1238261.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">too confident</a></em>". </p><p>In this Insight, we discuss whether Haidilao's store closures were <em>fait accompli</em> given the early warning signs of deteriorating performance, which becomes apparent as we examine Haidilao's performance on a store by store basis. </p><p>Apart from pandemic disruptions, this deterioration would have been compounded by increased competition and permanent changes in consumption habits that have resulted from the pandemic (such as preference for products designed for convenient home cooking). </p>

On 5 November 2021, Haidilao (6862 HK) announced its decision to shut down or suspend the operation of 300 poor performing stores within the next 2 months, which is approximately one-fifth of total restaurants.Haidilao opened 308 stores in 2019 and 544 in 2020, and added 299 new stores in H1 2021.  As at 30 June 2021, Haidilao had approximately 1,600 stores.  After closing 300 stores, Haidilao remains China's largest hot pot chain with around 1,300 stores. Amidst concerns of over-expansion, Haidilao's share price has declined by 75% since its February 2021 peak, wiping out HKD333.5 billion (USD42.9 billion) of its market cap. On hindsight, Zhang Yong, founder of Haidilao, conceded that the expansion plan had been "too confident". In this Insight, we discuss whether Haidilao's store closures were fait accompli given the early warning signs of deteriorating performance, which becomes apparent as we examine Haidilao's performance on a store by store basis. Apart from pandemic disruptions, this deterioration would have been compounded by increased competition and permanent changes in consumption habits that have resulted from the pandemic (such as preference for products designed for convenient home cooking). 

Haidilao (6862 HK)'s Store Closures - A Fait Accompli?

Asian Insight Provider - Actionable ideas, CrossASEAN Research

Henry Soediarko

Asian Insight Provider - Actionable ideas

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/yihai-int-l-holding-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22803:1" rel="noopener">Yihai Int’L Holding (1579 HK)</a> was trading at par with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/haidilao-international-holding-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27044:1" rel="noopener">Haidilao (6862 HK)</a> although the former has previously been the market’s darling due to its less capital intensive and higher-margin business. But the fall during COVID was worse for Yihai compared to Haidialo as investors rushed to cash out their unrealized profit, ignoring the fact that Yihai’s previously smaller business in providing ready-to-eat food products which is essentially what the market wanted at that time, has grown bigger, and has become the differentiator during the difficult period hence maintaining respectable earnings multiples compared to Haidilao whose earnings multiple has gone through to the roof. Only recently, post the vaccine discovery, Haidilao’s earnings multiple normalized but it is still trading at almost twice as much of Yihai (92 to 50).</p>
<p>On a YTD basis, however, both share prices have been heavily correlated although 1<strong>) Haidilao’s revenue growth slowed considerably, 2) Yihai’s diversification away from being Haidilao’s supplier have shown result and 3) the earnings multiples differences are still persistent although it has narrowed.</strong> This begs to question that shouldn’t Yihai’s share price trading higher than Haidilao?</p>
<p>Yihai's share price is currently highly correlated to Haidilao although its business has become less and less correlated to the former and has pivoted away from providing condiments to Haidilao to manufacture ready-to-eat food products hence the business nature is more similar to <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nissin-foods-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26062:1" rel="noopener">Nissin Foods (1475 HK)</a> although Yihai's share price is still massively underperforming Nissin Food Holdings'.</p>
<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/237/131/original/image_48603681281635075064982.png?1635075064" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="237131"></figure>
<div class="content-remarks">
<p>source: Reuters</p>
</div>

Yihai Int’L Holding (1579 HK) was trading at par with Haidilao (6862 HK) although the former has previously been the market’s darling due to its less capital intensive and higher-margin business. But the fall during COVID was worse for Yihai compared to Haidialo as investors rushed to cash out their unrealized profit, ignoring the fact that Yihai’s previously smaller business in providing ready-to-eat food products which is essentially what the market wanted at that time, has grown bigger, and has become the differentiator during the difficult period hence maintaining respectable earnings multiples compared to Haidilao whose earnings multiple has gone through to the roof. Only recently, post the vaccine discovery, Haidilao’s earnings multiple normalized but it is still trading at almost twice as much of Yihai (92 to 50).
On a YTD basis, however, both share prices have been heavily correlated although 1) Haidilao’s revenue growth slowed considerably, 2) Yihai’s diversification away from being Haidilao’s supplier have shown result and 3) the earnings multiples differences are still persistent although it has narrowed. This begs to question that shouldn’t Yihai’s share price trading higher than Haidilao?
Yihai's share price is currently highly correlated to Haidilao although its business has become less and less correlated to the former and has pivoted away from providing condiments to Haidilao to manufacture ready-to-eat food products hence the business nature is more similar to Nissin Foods (1475 HK) although Yihai's share price is still massively underperforming Nissin Food Holdings'.


source: Reuters


Yihai International (1579): Diversified Away from Haidilao

APAC IPOs & Placements

Zhen Zhou, Toh

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

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/helen-s-international-holding" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:34113:1" rel="noopener">Helen's International Holding (9869 HK)</a> (HIH) is looking to raise up to US$358m in its Hong Kong IPO. </p><p>Helens International Holdings (HIH) is the operator of a bar chain called “Helen’s”. The company was the largest bar chain in China in 2018 -  March 2021, in terms of the number of bars, according to Frost and Sullivan (F&amp;S).</p><p>In this note, we will look at deal dynamics, assumptions, and share our thoughts on valuation.</p><p>Our previous coverage of the IPO:</p><ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/helens-intl-pre-ipo-largest-bar-chain-targeted-at-youths" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:56817" rel="noopener">Helens Intl (海伦司国际) Pre-IPO - Largest Bar Chain Targeted at Youths</a> </li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/helens-intl-pre-ipo-peer-comparison" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:56939" rel="noopener">Helens Intl (海伦司国际) Pre-IPO - Peer Comparison</a> </li>
</ul>

Helen's International Holding (9869 HK) (HIH) is looking to raise up to US$358m in its Hong Kong IPO. Helens International Holdings (HIH) is the operator of a bar chain called “Helen’s”. The company was the largest bar chain in China in 2018 -  March 2021, in terms of the number of bars, according to Frost and Sullivan (F&amp;S).In this note, we will look at deal dynamics, assumptions, and share our thoughts on valuation.Our previous coverage of the IPO:

Helens Intl (海伦司国际) Pre-IPO - Largest Bar Chain Targeted at Youths 

Helens Intl (海伦司国际) Pre-IPO - Peer Comparison 


Helens Intl (海伦司国际) IPO - Cheap Drinks, Expensive Valuation

IPOs and Catalysts/Events, Global Equity Research Ltd

Arun George

IPOs and Catalysts/Events

Uncompromised, Independent, Conflict-Free Research

Global Equity Research Ltd

Global Equity Research was started in 2017 by a group of experienced research professionals. It was founded on a passionate belief in the importance and the need for uncompromised, independent, conflict-free research. We aim to provide differentiated and actionable primary and bottom up fundamental research.

<div>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nayuki-holdings" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:32149:1" rel="noopener">Nayuki Holdings (2150 HK)</a> is the second-largest premium teahouse chain in China accounting for 18.9% of China’s premium modern teahouse market as measured by total retail consumption value in 2020, according to CIC.</p>
<p>Nayuki will commence trading on Wednesday, 30 June. Nayuki priced its IPO at HK$19.80 and the shares <a href="https://inews.hket.com/article/2993858/%E3%80%90%E5%A5%88%E9%9B%AA%E7%9A%84%E8%8C%B6%E6%9A%97%E7%9B%A4%E3%80%91%E5%A5%88%E9%9B%AA%E7%9A%84%E8%8C%B62150%E5%A0%B4%E5%A4%96%E6%9A%97%E7%9B%A4%E5%8D%8711-%E3%80%80%E4%B8%80%E6%89%8B%E5%B8%B3%E9%9D%A2%E8%B3%BA1100%E5%85%83?mtc=40001&amp;srkw=IPO%E6%9C%80%E5%BF%AB%E6%9C%80%E9%BD%8A" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stood 11% higher</a> at HK$22.00 in the grey market.</p>
</div><div>
<p>In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/nayuki-holdings-ipo-initiation-a-new-leaf" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:48532" rel="noopener">Nayuki Holdings IPO Initiation: A New Leaf</a>, we noted that premium teahouses have rapidly gained popularity in China as they bring new tea-drinking experiences and benefit from the structural trend of consumer’s consumption upgrades driven by higher disposable income. We opined that Nayuki has the right ingredients to offer investors an attractive play on this market. In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/nayuki-holdings-ipo-drinking-habits" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:52873" rel="noopener">Nayuki Holdings IPO: Drinking Habits</a>, we noted that recent results (disclosed in the PHIP) show that Nayuki is well-positioned as a post-COVID-19 recovery play.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/nayuki-holdings-ipo-valuation-insights" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:53291" rel="noopener">Nayuki Holdings IPO: Valuation Insights</a>, we noted that Nayuki is attractively valued to its peer group for its forecasted earnings growth i.e. on a PEG basis. We recommended participating at the low end of the IPO price range due to the decent upside compared to our base-case DCF valuation.</p>
</div><div><div><div class="content-highlight"><p>Updating for the final IPO net raise and FX, our base-case DCF derived price target is HK$19.45 per share. Nevertheless, our DCF sensitivity and relative valuation analysis show that the grey market price is justifiable.  </p></div></div></div>


Nayuki Holdings (2150 HK) is the second-largest premium teahouse chain in China accounting for 18.9% of China’s premium modern teahouse market as measured by total retail consumption value in 2020, according to CIC.
Nayuki will commence trading on Wednesday, 30 June. Nayuki priced its IPO at HK$19.80 and the shares stood 11% higher at HK$22.00 in the grey market.

In Nayuki Holdings IPO Initiation: A New Leaf, we noted that premium teahouses have rapidly gained popularity in China as they bring new tea-drinking experiences and benefit from the structural trend of consumer’s consumption upgrades driven by higher disposable income. We opined that Nayuki has the right ingredients to offer investors an attractive play on this market. In Nayuki Holdings IPO: Drinking Habits, we noted that recent results (disclosed in the PHIP) show that Nayuki is well-positioned as a post-COVID-19 recovery play.
In Nayuki Holdings IPO: Valuation Insights, we noted that Nayuki is attractively valued to its peer group for its forecasted earnings growth i.e. on a PEG basis. We recommended participating at the low end of the IPO price range due to the decent upside compared to our base-case DCF valuation.
Updating for the final IPO net raise and FX, our base-case DCF derived price target is HK$19.45 per share. Nevertheless, our DCF sensitivity and relative valuation analysis show that the grey market price is justifiable.  

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nayuki-holdings" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:32149:1" rel="noopener">Nayuki Holdings (2150 HK)</a> is the second-largest premium teahouse chain in China accounting for 18.9% of China’s premium modern teahouse market as measured by total retail consumption value in 2020, according to CIC.</p><div><p>At the proposed IPO price range of HK$17.20-19.80 per share, Nayuki will have a market cap of HK$29,500.2-33,959.5 million ($3.8-4.4 billion). At the mid-point of the IPO price range, the net proceeds are HK$4,521.3 million ($582 million). </p></div><div>
<p>Five cornerstone investors will purchase $155 million worth of the offer shares (25.25% of the offer shares at the mid-point of the IPO price range). The cornerstone investors are UBS Asset Management, China Universal Asset Management, GF Fund, China Southern Asset Management and CCB International. </p>
<div>
<p>In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/nayuki-holdings-ipo-initiation-a-new-leaf" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:48532" rel="noopener">Nayuki Holdings IPO Initiation: A New Leaf</a>, we noted that premium teahouses have rapidly gained popularity in China as they bring new tea-drinking experiences and benefit from the structural trend of consumer’s consumption upgrades driven by higher disposable income. We opined that Nayuki has the right ingredients to offer investors an attractive play on this market. In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/nayuki-holdings-ipo-drinking-habits" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:52873" rel="noopener">Nayuki Holdings IPO: Drinking Habits</a>, we noted that recent results (disclosed in the PHIP) show that Nayuki is well-positioned as a post-COVID-19 recovery play.</p>
<div class="content-highlight"><p>Based on our forecasts, Nayuki is attractively valued to its peer group for its forecasted earnings growth i.e. on a PEG basis. Overall, we are inclined to participate at the low end of the IPO price range due to the decent upside compared to our base-case DCF valuation of HK$19.49 per share.</p></div>
</div>
<p></p>
</div>

Nayuki Holdings (2150 HK) is the second-largest premium teahouse chain in China accounting for 18.9% of China’s premium modern teahouse market as measured by total retail consumption value in 2020, according to CIC.At the proposed IPO price range of HK$17.20-19.80 per share, Nayuki will have a market cap of HK$29,500.2-33,959.5 million ($3.8-4.4 billion). At the mid-point of the IPO price range, the net proceeds are HK$4,521.3 million ($582 million). 
Five cornerstone investors will purchase $155 million worth of the offer shares (25.25% of the offer shares at the mid-point of the IPO price range). The cornerstone investors are UBS Asset Management, China Universal Asset Management, GF Fund, China Southern Asset Management and CCB International. 

In Nayuki Holdings IPO Initiation: A New Leaf, we noted that premium teahouses have rapidly gained popularity in China as they bring new tea-drinking experiences and benefit from the structural trend of consumer’s consumption upgrades driven by higher disposable income. We opined that Nayuki has the right ingredients to offer investors an attractive play on this market. In Nayuki Holdings IPO: Drinking Habits, we noted that recent results (disclosed in the PHIP) show that Nayuki is well-positioned as a post-COVID-19 recovery play.
Based on our forecasts, Nayuki is attractively valued to its peer group for its forecasted earnings growth i.e. on a PEG basis. Overall, we are inclined to participate at the low end of the IPO price range due to the decent upside compared to our base-case DCF valuation of HK$19.49 per share.




China

Xiabuxiabu Catering Management (China) Holdings Co., Ltd. is a multi-brand restaurant operator specializing in Chinese hotpot, primarily through its fast-casual Xiabuxiabu brand and premium Coucou brand. The company also offers catering services and sells condiment products. It was founded in Beijing, China, in 1998.

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Xiabuxiabu (520 HK)

Haidilao (6862 HK)'s Store Closures - A Fait Accompli?

We discuss whether Haidilao's store closures were inevitable given the early warning signs of deteriorating performance, which becomes apparent...

Jason Yap, CFA

Yihai International (1579): Diversified Away from Haidilao

Mispriced Yihai Intl - share price highly correlated with Haidilao although it has diversified away by growing its ready-to-eat food business that...

Henry Soediarko

Helens Intl (海伦司国际) IPO - Cheap Drinks, Expensive Valuation

Helen's International Holding (9869 HK) (HIH) is looking to raise up to US$358m in its Hong Kong IPO. Helens International Holdings (HIH) is the...

Zhen Zhou, Toh

Nayuki Holdings IPO: Trading Debut

Nayuki priced its IPO at HK$19.80 and the shares stood 11% higher at HK$22.00 in the grey market. Our DCF sensitivity and relative valuation...

Arun George

Nayuki Holdings IPO: Valuation Insights

We are inclined to participate at the low end of the IPO price range due to the decent upside compared to our base-case DCF valuation of HK$19.49...

Arun George

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