External broker reports(aggregated public sources), CMB International

CMB International

External broker reports(aggregated public sources)

Incorporated in Hong Kong, supported by the mainland and targeting in global market, CMB International Capital Corporation Limited (“CMBI”) is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank ("CMB"), by leveraging on the Group’s synergy and coordination in domestic and overseas markets, as well as CMB’s strong resources and outstanding social reputation, CMBI and its subsidiaries have been actively implementing diversified business strategies and set up an overall layout of main business segments including Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Global Markets and Structured Finance, etc. Adhering to the philosophy of “being clients oriented and increasing our own values by the way of creating value for clients”, CMBI endeavors to provide quality and integrated financial services to institutional, corporate and individual customers both domestic and overseas including Hong Kong IPO sponsorship and underwriting, share placement and rights issue for listed companies, financial advisors, bonds issuance services, asset management, direct investment, wealth management, equity sales and trading, etc.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Zhihu’s 4Q23 results were better-than-feared, with strong vocational training and narrowing loss.</li><li>For FY24E, mgmt. emphasized more on margin improvement with disciplined expenses, and restated its quarterly breakeven target by 4Q24E.</li><li>With shrinking S&amp;M investment, we expect prudent user trend and top line growth ahead (forecasting total revenue to decline 10% YoY in FY24E, in which marketing services/membership /vocational training -20%/+0%/+5% YoY). </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Zhihu’s 4Q23 results were better-than-feared, with strong vocational training and narrowing loss.For FY24E, mgmt. emphasized more on margin improvement with disciplined expenses, and restated its quarterly breakeven target by 4Q24E.With shrinking S&amp;M investment, we expect prudent user trend and top line growth ahead (forecasting total revenue to decline 10% YoY in FY24E, in which marketing services/membership /vocational training -20%/+0%/+5% YoY). Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Zhihu (ZH US) - Prioritizing Breakeven Target

<ul><li>Zhihu delivered inline 3Q23 results with strong membership &amp; vocational training and narrowing loss.</li><li>Looking into 4Q23E, we expect topline -6% YoY, with adj. net loss at RMB200mn.</li><li>Vocational training and online marketing would see sequential growth on seasonality and 11.11 promotion, while paid membership might slow down for a high base (forecasting +11% YoY). </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Zhihu delivered inline 3Q23 results with strong membership &amp; vocational training and narrowing loss.Looking into 4Q23E, we expect topline -6% YoY, with adj. net loss at RMB200mn.Vocational training and online marketing would see sequential growth on seasonality and 11.11 promotion, while paid membership might slow down for a high base (forecasting +11% YoY). Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Zhihu (ZH US) – Resilient Education to Offset Subs Slowdown

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.

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>PCAOB officials concluded their Hong Kong visit last month and PCAOB is due to announce its annual judgment on whether it had adequate access to US listed China companies.</li>
<li>The Hong Kong visit was on the back of the 26th Aug 2022 announcement by PCAOB and CSRC that they had entered into an agreement with US authorities for access.</li>
<li>In this note, we'll talk about the latest developments, possible outcomes and implications.</li>
</ul>


PCAOB officials concluded their Hong Kong visit last month and PCAOB is due to announce its annual judgment on whether it had adequate access to US listed China companies.
The Hong Kong visit was on the back of the 26th Aug 2022 announcement by PCAOB and CSRC that they had entered into an agreement with US authorities for access.
In this note, we'll talk about the latest developments, possible outcomes and implications.


China ADRs Delisting - Friday Could Be Judgment Day for over US$800bn Mcap of Stocks

<ul><li>Zhihu delivered 2Q23 results with in-line rev and upbeat margin.</li><li>We forecast 3Q23E rev +12% YoY (in line with consensus), with resilient membership and strong vocational training.</li><li>Membership would see sequential growth in 3Q23E (+42% YoY), backed by richer content and cooperation with Huawei. </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Zhihu delivered 2Q23 results with in-line rev and upbeat margin.We forecast 3Q23E rev +12% YoY (in line with consensus), with resilient membership and strong vocational training.Membership would see sequential growth in 3Q23E (+42% YoY), backed by richer content and cooperation with Huawei. Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Zhihu (ZH US) – Strong vocational training with loss narrowing

<ul><li>Zhihu delivered upbeat 1Q23 results (rev +34% YoY, 4% above consensus), with solid membership (+105% YoY) &amp; vocational training (+171% YoY) and narrowing loss.</li><li>We forecast 2Q23E rev +24% YoY, in which strong membership and vocational training would continue. Its newly-launched app of Yanyan &lt;盐言 故事&gt; would bring further upside to membership.</li><li>Marketing services saw a mild recovery from 3C and ecommerce verticals in 2Q23E, and 2H23E ads might see positive growth. </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Zhihu delivered upbeat 1Q23 results (rev +34% YoY, 4% above consensus), with solid membership (+105% YoY) &amp; vocational training (+171% YoY) and narrowing loss.We forecast 2Q23E rev +24% YoY, in which strong membership and vocational training would continue. Its newly-launched app of Yanyan &lt;盐言 故事&gt; would bring further upside to membership.Marketing services saw a mild recovery from 3C and ecommerce verticals in 2Q23E, and 2H23E ads might see positive growth. Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Zhihu (ZH US) – Positive OCF for the First Time

China

Zhihu Inc. operates as an online share knowledge community. The Company provides a socialized website for questions and answers which enables users to obtain information through questions that provoke the opinions and views from answerers as individuals. Zhihu conducts businesses in China.

Zhihu Technology (ZH US)

Zhihu (ZH US) - Prioritizing Breakeven Target

For FY24E, mgmt. emphasized more on margin improvement with disciplined expenses, and restated its quarterly breakeven target by 4Q24E.

CMB International

Zhihu (ZH US) – Resilient Education to Offset Subs Slowdown

Zhihu delivered inline 3Q23 results with strong membership & vocational training and narrowing loss. Looking into 4Q23E, we expect topline -6% YoY,...

CMB International

China ADRs Delisting - Friday Could Be Judgment Day for over US$800bn Mcap of Stocks

PCAOB officials concluded their Hong Kong visit last month and PCAOB is due to announce its annual judgment on whether it had adequate access to US...

Sumeet Singh

Zhihu (ZH US) – Strong vocational training with loss narrowing

Zhihu delivered 2Q23 results with in-line rev and upbeat margin. We forecast 3Q23E rev +12% YoY (in line with consensus), with resilient membership...

CMB International

Zhihu (ZH US) – Positive OCF for the First Time

Zhihu delivered upbeat 1Q23 results (rev +34% YoY, 4% above consensus), with solid membership (+105% YoY) & vocational training (+171% YoY) and...

CMB International