Global equities research in innovation & tech

Vishal Hargovan

An innovation focussed investment company

Granite Bay Capital

Granite Bay Capital is an innovation focussed investment company with a deep focus on the companies at the leading edge of innovation across major themes such as AI, ubiquitous computing, sustainability, automation and longevity.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Affirm is a leading North American based BNPL provider that is well placed to grow aggressively over the next decade</li>
<li>Their advantages are threefold:</li>
</ul><ol>
<li>Excellence at technology and data which enables Affirm to win enterprise scale platforms</li>
<li>The ability to address transactions across the average order value scale hence address a larger proportion of credit card displacement TAM</li>
<li>Transparency and fairness with a commitment to never charge late fees appeals to merchants who share this value set / brand ethos</li>
</ol><ul><li>There will be multiple winners in the BNPL space and while Afterpay is our preferred pick, we believe Affirm’s strengths cannot be ignored and warrants strong consideration in a long portfolio</li></ul>


Affirm is a leading North American based BNPL provider that is well placed to grow aggressively over the next decade
Their advantages are threefold:

Excellence at technology and data which enables Affirm to win enterprise scale platforms
The ability to address transactions across the average order value scale hence address a larger proportion of credit card displacement TAM
Transparency and fairness with a commitment to never charge late fees appeals to merchants who share this value set / brand ethos
There will be multiple winners in the BNPL space and while Afterpay is our preferred pick, we believe Affirm’s strengths cannot be ignored and warrants strong consideration in a long portfolio

Affirm (AFRM) – The Rise of the Financial Super App

Key points
<ul>
<li>Afterpay is well on its way to becoming an "Internet Scale" company facilitating viral customer growth in multiple markets.</li>
<li>AfterPay’s flywheel results in aggregation of demand and supply with exceptionally low marginal cost of acquisition.</li>
<li>Afterpay is exposed to two winning trends - growth in eCommerce and migration away from credit cards.</li>
<li>Afterpay is Global - low-cost acquisitions in Europe and Asia will enable it to scale in new geographies quickly and attract global retailers.</li>
<li>It brings retailers new customers, higher conversion, hard to reach millennials and higher AOVs.</li>
<li>It drives repeat purchases with each new cohort increasing frequency of use over the previous cohort.</li>
<li>We still see further upside, despite Afterpay being up almost 5X since the beginning of 2020 (valuation article to follow).</li>
</ul>

Key points

Afterpay is well on its way to becoming an "Internet Scale" company facilitating viral customer growth in multiple markets.
AfterPay’s flywheel results in aggregation of demand and supply with exceptionally low marginal cost of acquisition.
Afterpay is exposed to two winning trends - growth in eCommerce and migration away from credit cards.
Afterpay is Global - low-cost acquisitions in Europe and Asia will enable it to scale in new geographies quickly and attract global retailers.
It brings retailers new customers, higher conversion, hard to reach millennials and higher AOVs.
It drives repeat purchases with each new cohort increasing frequency of use over the previous cohort.
We still see further upside, despite Afterpay being up almost 5X since the beginning of 2020 (valuation article to follow).


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

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/westpac-banking-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:444:1" rel="noopener">Westpac Banking (WBC AU)</a> is looking to raise US$260m by selling its entire shareholding in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zip-co-ltd-3708706d-4978-4e29-acbc-d9702b971da9" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29126:1" rel="noopener">Zip Co Ltd (Z1P AU)</a> a day after it announced its partnership with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/afterpay-limited" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26940:1" rel="noopener">Afterpay Touch (APT AU)</a>. This is a clean up trade.The deal scored well on our framework owing to strong share price momentum and decent track record. Past deals have done well over the longer time horizon and rhe selldown can also be easily absorbed by the market as it only accounted for 4 days ADV.

Westpac Banking (WBC AU) is looking to raise US$260m by selling its entire shareholding in Zip Co Ltd (Z1P AU) a day after it announced its partnership with Afterpay Touch (APT AU). This is a clean up trade.The deal scored well on our framework owing to strong share price momentum and decent track record. Past deals have done well over the longer time horizon and rhe selldown can also be easily absorbed by the market as it only accounted for 4 days ADV.

Zip Placement - Sorry, It's Not You. It's Me

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

*Whoops They Did It Again..: In Afterpay’s Touch’s (APT.AU) [Afterpay] latest update, it was announced that Afterpay will allow Westpac Banking (WBC.AU) to offer its Banking-as-a-Service to Afterpay’s approximate 3.3 mn, which include deposit accounts and cash-flow management tools, as early as FY 2Q21. If successful, this partnership could transform the sleepy Australian banking market as we know it;  *Tencent Tutelage: Afterpay is helping Tencent enter markets earlier and with Tencent’s (700.HK) tutelage likely will help Afterpay more deeply penetrate North America.  We fully anticipate that Tencent will help Afterpay enter the Asian markets - uncharted territory with a large young population – with the big prize obviously being mainland China. Tencent’s digital expertise should also help Afterpay to improve its technology platform (e.g. its digital wallet checkout experience and its shopping platform, plus customer led generation). It also wouldn’t surprise us if Tencent took up greater than its pro rata share of the capital raise; and*Magic Fairy Dust: While no transaction particulars were disclosed, we calculate an average share purchase price of AUD 22.47 per share for the 5% stake or a hefty 6.8x P/BV for a company which is loss-making and where Tencent hasn’t control. Tencent has already earned 354% on this stake. Afterpay has already reached many of its key milestones, and we look forward to its quarterly update in a few weeks.

*Whoops They Did It Again..: In Afterpay’s Touch’s (APT.AU) [Afterpay] latest update, it was announced that Afterpay will allow Westpac Banking (WBC.AU) to offer its Banking-as-a-Service to Afterpay’s approximate 3.3 mn, which include deposit accounts and cash-flow management tools, as early as FY 2Q21. If successful, this partnership could transform the sleepy Australian banking market as we know it;  *Tencent Tutelage: Afterpay is helping Tencent enter markets earlier and with Tencent’s (700.HK) tutelage likely will help Afterpay more deeply penetrate North America.  We fully anticipate that Tencent will help Afterpay enter the Asian markets - uncharted territory with a large young population – with the big prize obviously being mainland China. Tencent’s digital expertise should also help Afterpay to improve its technology platform (e.g. its digital wallet checkout experience and its shopping platform, plus customer led generation). It also wouldn’t surprise us if Tencent took up greater than its pro rata share of the capital raise; and*Magic Fairy Dust: While no transaction particulars were disclosed, we calculate an average share purchase price of AUD 22.47 per share for the 5% stake or a hefty 6.8x P/BV for a company which is loss-making and where Tencent hasn’t control. Tencent has already earned 354% on this stake. Afterpay has already reached many of its key milestones, and we look forward to its quarterly update in a few weeks. 

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

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One

Index Rebalance

S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices have <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/indexnews/announcements/20200903-1214159/1214159_2020.09.04-quarta-200.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> changes to the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/s-p-asx-200" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22901:1" rel="noopener">S&amp;P/ASX 200 (AS51 INDEX)</a> as part of the September index review. The changes are effective after the close of trading on 18 September.There are 5 inclusions and 5 exclusions as part of the review.The inclusions are <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/auckland-intl-airport-ltd-8c26dbc6-035c-46ae-84c3-6401a1d454e4" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:24928:1" rel="noopener">Auckland Intl Airport (AIA AU)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aub-group-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11179:1" rel="noopener">Austbrokers Holdings (AUB AU)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ramelius-resources-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:5968:1" rel="noopener">Ramelius Resources (RMS AU)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/westgold-resources-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:24269:1" rel="noopener">Westgold Resources (WGX AU)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zip-co-ltd-3708706d-4978-4e29-acbc-d9702b971da9" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29126:1" rel="noopener">Zip Co Ltd (Z1P AU)</a> and the exclusions are <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/mcmillan-shakespeare-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:3023:1" rel="noopener">Mcmillan Shakespeare (MMS AU)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/new-hope-corp-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:4414:1" rel="noopener">New Hope Corp (NHC AU)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ooh-media-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8662:1" rel="noopener">oOh!Media Ltd (OML AU)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/orocobre-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:3572:1" rel="noopener">Orocobre Ltd (ORE AU)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/southern-cross-media-group-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:10374:1" rel="noopener">Southern Cross Media (SXL AU)</a>.Most of the names were expected to be included/excluded from the index. For us, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/auckland-intl-airport-ltd-8c26dbc6-035c-46ae-84c3-6401a1d454e4" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:24928:1" rel="noopener">Auckland Intl Airport (AIA AU)</a> was a surprise among the inclusions and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/mcmillan-shakespeare-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:3023:1" rel="noopener">Mcmillan Shakespeare (MMS AU)</a> was a surprise among the deletions.Quite a few stocks have more than 2 days of passive buying/selling. The one stock that does not is <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zip-co-ltd-3708706d-4978-4e29-acbc-d9702b971da9" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29126:1" rel="noopener">Zip Co Ltd (Z1P AU)</a> where volumes have been elevated over the past week following Paypal's entry into the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) market that has sent Z1P's stock around 26% lower.Short interest is elevated on <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/new-hope-corp-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:4414:1" rel="noopener">New Hope Corp (NHC AU)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/orocobre-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:3572:1" rel="noopener">Orocobre Ltd (ORE AU)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/southern-cross-media-group-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:10374:1" rel="noopener">Southern Cross Media (SXL AU)</a> at more than 8 days to cover. Some of these stocks may rise before implementation day as borrows are recalled by passive funds/ index arb desks.

S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices have announced changes to the S&amp;P/ASX 200 (AS51 INDEX) as part of the September index review. The changes are effective after the close of trading on 18 September.There are 5 inclusions and 5 exclusions as part of the review.The inclusions are Auckland Intl Airport (AIA AU), Austbrokers Holdings (AUB AU), Ramelius Resources (RMS AU), Westgold Resources (WGX AU) and Zip Co Ltd (Z1P AU) and the exclusions are Mcmillan Shakespeare (MMS AU), New Hope Corp (NHC AU), oOh!Media Ltd (OML AU), Orocobre Ltd (ORE AU) and Southern Cross Media (SXL AU).Most of the names were expected to be included/excluded from the index. For us, Auckland Intl Airport (AIA AU) was a surprise among the inclusions and Mcmillan Shakespeare (MMS AU) was a surprise among the deletions.Quite a few stocks have more than 2 days of passive buying/selling. The one stock that does not is Zip Co Ltd (Z1P AU) where volumes have been elevated over the past week following Paypal's entry into the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) market that has sent Z1P's stock around 26% lower.Short interest is elevated on New Hope Corp (NHC AU), Orocobre Ltd (ORE AU) and Southern Cross Media (SXL AU) at more than 8 days to cover. Some of these stocks may rise before implementation day as borrows are recalled by passive funds/ index arb desks.

ASX200 Index Rebalance: More Changes Than Expected

Australia

Zip Co Limited provides point-of-sale credit and digital payment services. The Company offers retail finance solutions to small, medium, and enterprise businesses. Zip Co serves retail, education, health, and travel industries in Australia.

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Zip (ZIP AU)

Affirm (AFRM) – The Rise of the Financial Super App

Affirm has a strong technology focus and a mission driven CEO who believes in bringing fairness to financial products. Investors should not...

Vishal Hargovan

Afterpay - An Internet Scale Company

Afterpay is on its way to becoming an "Internet Scale" company. We still see further upside driven by two winning trends - growth in eCommerce and...

Vishal Hargovan

Zip Placement - Sorry, It's Not You. It's Me

Westpac Banking is selling its entire shareholding in Zip a day after it announced its partnership with Afterpay. The deal scored well on our...

Zhen Zhou, Toh

Tencent Holdings – Sliced Bread

Tencent Holdings: AfterPay Is Like The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread For Tencent. Not Only Has Tencent Earned 354% On Its Stake But AfterPay...

Thomas J. Monaco

ASX200 Index Rebalance: More Changes Than Expected

SP Dow Jones Indices have announced changes to the SP/ASX 200 (AS51 INDEX) as part of the September index review.

Brian Freitas

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