This weekly newsletter pulls together summaries of the top ten most-read Insights across Equity Capital Markets on Smartkarma.
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1. Curator’s Cut: Seoul Searching Redux, APAC Placements Apace & More Private Markets Coverage
- Welcome to Curator’s Cut – a fortnightly roundup of standout themes from the 1,300+ insights published on Smartkarma.
- In this cut, we examine why opportunities exist in Korea despite the record rally, look at the rush of shareholders trimming APAC stakes, and welcome coverage on 500+ private companies.
- Want to dig deeper? Comment or message with the themes you’d like to see highlighted next.
2. [Japan Offering] Japan Electronic Materials (6855 JP) – More Money for More Probe Cards
- With the huge boom in AI, the wafer, semiconductor, and SPE space has gone bonkers.Many stocks are up 5x, 10x, even 50x in the last months and years.
- Japan Electronic Materials (6855 JP) makes probe cards for wafer/IC testing. (between etch and dicing). The stock is up. Comps are up even more (and are expensive).
- 4 weeks ago, they revised up earnings, divs, and announced a new plant. Shares rose 100% in 3wks. Then a week ago, they announced an equity offering to fund it.
3. PayPay Sets Terms for ~$1.0B Nasdaq IPO as Profitable Japanese Fintech Scales Beyond $100B in GMV
- PayPay Corporation has set terms for its U.S.
- initial public offering and plans to list on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker PAYP .
- The company intends to offer 54,987,214 American Depositary Shares (ADSs) at a proposed price range of $ 17.00 to $20.00 per ADS.
4. UI Boustead REIT IPO: The Investment Case
- UI Boustead REIT (UIBREIT SP) invests in logistics, industrial, Hi-Specs industrial, and business space assets. It has launched an SGX IPO to raise proceeds up to US$770 million.
- The portfolio will comprise 23 Properties – with 21 leasehold Singapore Properties and two freehold Japan Properties.
- UI Boustead REIT offers an attractive value proposition, driven by a diversified portfolio, high occupancy rates, long portfolio WALE, growth opportunities, and debt headroom.
5. Aequitas: PayPay IPO – Thoughts on Valuations
- PayPay (PAYP US) (PP), a payments and financial services platform, is now looking to raise up to US$1.1bn in its upcoming US IPO.
- PP operates a digital finance platform that serves as a payment solution for users and merchants, along with offering additional services.
- We have looked at its past performance and undertaken a peer comparison in our earlier notes. In this note, we provide our thoughts on valuations.
6. PayPay IPO (PAYP US): Valuation Insights
- PayPay (PAYP US), Japan’s leading financial technology company, is seeking to raise about US$1.1 billion through a Nasdaq IPO.
- I previously discussed the IPO in PayPay IPO (PAYP US): The Investment Case.
- In this note, I present my forecasts and valuation. My analysis suggests that the IPO price range is attractive. The pricing date is 11 March.
7. Pre-IPO Estun Automation (PHIP Updates) – The Business, the Concerns and Thoughts on Valuation
- ESTUN’s core competitiveness is reflected in two dimensions: One is technological autonomy and vertical integration. The other is strong ability of “M&As + integration”. However, ESTUN’s profit performance is unsatisfactory.
- The lower limit of valuation is 1.2-1.5x P/S. The upper limit is 2-2.5x P/S. Based on 2025 forecast, market value is RMB6.1 billion-7.6 billion and RMB10.1 billion-12.7 billon respectively.
- Considering the current high financial risks and other challenges, a comfortable IPO valuation range could be between RMB8 billion and RMB11 billion. So, we think the IPO pricing is expensive.
8. Aequitas ECM Weekly (2 March 2026)- Toyota Motors, Nintendo, IBIDEN, Estun, PayPay, CleanMax
- Aequitas Research’s weekly update on the IPOs, placements, lockup expiry and other ECM linked events that were covered by the team over the past week.
- On the IPO front, a number of deals were launched at the end of the week.
- On the placement front, there was a flurry of deals across the region, along with news of a possible large cross-shareholding unwind in Toyota Motor (7203 JP).
9. PayPay Corporation (PAYP): Japanese Fintech Sets Terms for IPO Amidst Broad Market Volatility
- PayPay Corporation plans to raise over $1 billion, offering 54.99M ADSs at $17–$20, implying an $11.7B–$13.7B market cap ahead of its March 12 debut.
- Approximately 56% of shares are primary, with SoftBank retaining 91.78% voting control post-IPO; cornerstone demand includes Qatar Holding, Visa, and ADIA for up to $220M.
- Strong profitability and scale support the story, but volatile markets and weak recent fintech IPO performance make execution a key near-term test.
10. UI Boustead REIT IPO – Diverse Asset Base
- Ui Boustead Reit (UIBREIT SP) (UBREIT), a logistics and industrial REIT, aims to raise up to US$767m in its Singapore IPO.
- UBREIT’s initial portfolio comprises 21 properties in Singapore and two properties in Japan. The total value of the IPO Portfolio is approximately S$1.9bn (US$1.5bn) as at 30 September 2025.
- In this note, we look at the company’s past performace.
