In today’s briefing:
- Gemini at Work 2026. Impressive Enterprise AI Strategy Is Revealed. Key Takeaways & Full Transcript
- USD 10bn Catalyst: Japan Post’s Mega-Monetisation & Mitsui Fudosan’s Ascension
- BBNI IJ: When Credit Growth Outruns Earning Power
- Hong Leong Asia Ltd. (SGX: H22): Initiation Research (6 October 2026)
- SK HYNIX (000660 KS / SKHY US): The Solidigm Confusion Is a Gift. Average Down.
- Coway (021240): Haze Beneficiary
- Micron sells AI memory before the year starts, and each bit takes three times the wafer
- Coupang (CPNG US): A Temporary Glitch?
- Japan: Relative Value Opportunities and Pair Trades (13 Oct 2026)
- Furuno Electric (6814 JP): Good Quarter, Better Plan
Gemini at Work 2026. Impressive Enterprise AI Strategy Is Revealed. Key Takeaways & Full Transcript
- Google’s latest frontier model, Argon, delivers frontier performance and complex workflows across knowledge work, real-world software engineering, and cybersecurity defense.
- The Chrome team (3 billion users) has been using Argon to refactor features that span millions of lines of code. Normally, this would take months. They’ve done it in weeks
- Gemini is the agent. The model underneath is a separate choice, and it is yours. From Argon at the frontier to Flash for speed and to the latest Claude models.
USD 10bn Catalyst: Japan Post’s Mega-Monetisation & Mitsui Fudosan’s Ascension
- Japan Post is monetizing a JPY 1.6 trillion portfolio, unlocking JPY 700bn in gains through private funds under activist pressure, creating a generational asset pipeline.
- Mitsui Fudosan is uniquely positioned to dominate these mandates, expanding asset management fees and driving ROE toward 10% via aggressive share buybacks without balance sheet bloat.
- Accelerated fund launches offer massive upside, while Bank of Japan rate shocks pose limited downside due to resilient fixed-rate corporate debt and robust Tokyo office rental growth.
BBNI IJ: When Credit Growth Outruns Earning Power
- Bottom line: BBNI is the only one of Indonesia’s four largest banks below book value (0.76x versus BMRI 1.34x, BBRI 1.48x, BBCA 2.76x); we rate it BULLISH, moderate-to-low conviction.
- What the price implies: at Rp3,430, a perpetual ROE of about 9.9% — below FY2025 normalized ROE of 12.89% and the 1H26 run-rate of roughly 12.7%–12.9%.
- Why conviction is low: funding, margin and capital pressure has not been shown to stop; scenarios are model assumptions, not forecasts, and do not show earning power has stabilized.
Hong Leong Asia Ltd. (SGX: H22): Initiation Research (6 October 2026)
- Hong Leong Asia (HLA) is a Singapore holding company with two key drivers: a 48.70% controlling stake in NYSE-listed China Yuchai International (“CYI”), one of China’s main diesel engine makers, and an integrated building materials business in Singapore and Malaysia.
- Trailing twelve-month (TTM) PATMI reached S$148.7m to 30 June 2026, more than double FY2023, as engine volumes, data centre demand and Singapore’s construction upcycle lifted both segments.
- About 47% of HLA’s market value is covered by its listed stakes in China Yuchai and BRC Asia at market.
SK HYNIX (000660 KS / SKHY US): The Solidigm Confusion Is a Gift. Average Down.
- Solidigm IPO rumours have hurt: ₩129tn of MCAP erased since 26 Sep. Investors clearly dislike it; and management adding no value by stating “nothing decided yet.”
- Our math: a US$100bn IPO moves value −1.7% to +1.1%; even a fire-sale costs 6.2%. Abandonment recovers ~₩176,000 per share.
- Maintain BULLISH, FV ₩2,700,000 (+60%). At 6.2x FY27E P/E, average down. Cyclicals are bought when the bad news is out.
Coway (021240): Haze Beneficiary
- Coway Co Ltd (021240 KS) counts around 35% of its revenue from Southeast Asia particularly Malaysia and Thailand, where it recorded high growth, offsetting the mature domestic Korean market.
- Due to the current haze season that may last until November, Coway’s revenues are supposed to be carried up and its share price may see multiple expansion as well.
- At <2x PBV, 11x PER and 8x EV/EBITDA, a defensive stock that is committed to Value Up program, including cancellations of treasury and maintaining dividends, it sounds like a bargin.
Micron sells AI memory before the year starts, and each bit takes three times the wafer
- Micron, one of three companies that make the stacked memory beside AI chips, commits most of each year’s supply of it before that year starts.
- By Micron’s own account, each unit of it uses about three times the silicon of ordinary computer memory.
- So while AI memory grows faster than the rest, it takes silicon away from the ordinary memory in phones, laptops and servers, and keeps that short too.
Coupang (CPNG US): A Temporary Glitch?
- In the book Free Capital, the private investor Vernon talks about his strategy of buying growth stocks when they encounter “glitches” – temporary market overreactions to negative events.
- I try to catch that company when nobody wants it, while it is still working through its problems” – VernonSouth Korean e-commerce operator Coupang (CPNG US – US$26 billion) is a test of that idea.
- The stock sold off after its cybersecurity breach in November 2025.
Japan: Relative Value Opportunities and Pair Trades (13 Oct 2026)
- Context: This Insight follows up on previously highlighted relative value opportunities, using a statistical methodology based on mean-reversion to identify opportunities in paired securities.
- Highlights: In Japan, currently two pair trade opportunities persist across two sectors.
- Why read: Statistical analysis offers a unique perspective on relative value. Gain insights into actionable statistical pair trade opportunities and monitor performance of previously highlighted pairs.
Furuno Electric (6814 JP): Good Quarter, Better Plan
- 2QFY2/27 OP of ¥7.2bn beat our forecast by 32% and the Street by 31%; excluding FX, 1H OP still grew c.16%.
- The FY2030 plan targets ¥180bn of sales and a 15%+ OPM, with services and defence delivering nearly half of the growth.
- We raise FY2/27–29E OP by 8–12% and our target to ¥8,870 (from ¥7,770); we remain Bullish.
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