Smartkarma Daily Briefs

• Back on 30 October, Daito Trust Construct (1878 JP) announced a large earnings, a new Shareholder Return policy, a higher payout this year, and a big buyback. 
• It said the buyback period would start two days later, but they did not specify the method (Daito Trust Construction (1878) – Big Buyback, Dense Register, 120% Payout This Year 
• Today they announced a ToSTNeT-3 purchase for “the whole size”, which is accompanied by a “Japan-style ASR.” Know your details.

• HK & China CRE credit impaired loans are rising sharply and high in 3Q23. We believe there is risk that the bank has to take much higher credit costs.
• Not only Mainland China CRE where there are risks. HSBC shows its ECL coverage ratio for HK CRE rising 45% over the past nine months, from 4Q22 to 3Q23.
• LT credit costs shows HSBC’s provisioning is like during a benign environment, at ~1/3 of its LT average. Its +34% QoQ credit costs in 4Q22 is worth keeping in mind.

• The S&P/ASX 200 INDEX closed up last week (CC=+1), currently uptrending, but the rally is weak, there is a chance that it could fall already this week and close down.
• The index has reached Q2 resistance, that’s the area where the index starts to be OVERBOUGHT, based on the current pattern.
• We see a potential pullback between -1% and -2% from current levels, across 1-2 weeks, this would bring the index down to the 6990-6920 support area. 

Deutsche Börse, a German markets infrastructure provider, operates through four divisions: Trading & Clearing, Securities Services, Data & Analytics and Fund Services. Trading & Clearing handles regulated market securities including derivatives, commodities, cash equities and foreign exchange, as well as providing market data. Data & Analytics – through its Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Qontigo subsidiaries offers quality-focused ESG, data and analytics products alongside indices such as STOXX and DAX. Securities Services manages settlement, custody, collateral and liquidity. Fund Services provides a comprehensive service offering data, distribution and processing(safekeeping). Both Security Services and Fund Services are operated on its leading platform, Clearstream, the largest asset holder in Germany.

Mutares (MUX) predominantly invests in corporate carve-outs (80%+ of all deals) where it seeks to drive an operational turnaround, and often also executes a ‘buy-and-build’ strategy. MUX looks for companies with an annual turnover of €100–750m, with its ‘sweet spot’ in the range of €200–300m generated across multiple production sites. Its focus is on four major sectors: automotive & mobility (which is early-cycle), engineering and technology (project-driven, late-cycle), goods and services (considered non-cyclical) and retail and food (cyclical). MUX’s portfolio as at October 2023 consisted of 29 companies (including signed transactions) across Europe with more than 27,000 employees worldwide and annualised revenues of more than c €6bn.

Alpha Bank is the third largest Greek bank with a presence in Cyprus, Romania, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. Through its subsidiaries, Alpha Bank provides a range of services including banking services (comprising both retail and corporate banking), financing services by providing leasing and factoring solutions, financial services through asset management and brokerage support, investment services (setting up the first private equity/venture capital firm in Greece), real estate management and life insurance. Domestically, it ranks number one in wholesale lending, mutual funds, private banking and credit cards.

• ZEEKR (ZK US), a premium EV brand by Geely Auto (175 HK), aims to raise around US$500m in its US listing.
• Zeekr was formed in Mar 2021 as a JV between Geely and its founder. Its first model was launched in Apr 21 with deliveries starting in Oct 21.
• We have looked at the company’s past performance in our earlier notes . In this note, we will undertake a peer comparison.

CoinShares International (CS) fortsätter sin stabila utveckling under 2023 och redovisade en justerad EBITDA på 9,9 miljoner pund under kvartal 3 2023 (6,4 miljoner pund under Q322). Detta trots en förlust på 3,0 miljoner GBP på huvudinvesteringar, främst till följd av avsättningar i FlowBank (där CS har en ägarandel på 28,3%). Både kapitalförvaltningsverksamheten och kapitalmarknadsverksamheten bidrog starkt till resultatet för kvartal 3 2023, med 10,7 miljoner GBP i avgifter och 9,3 miljoner GBP i vinster och intäkter. I september 2023 lanserade CS officiellt Hedge Fund Solutions (aktiv kapitalförvaltning), med de första strategierna aktiva sedan slutet av kvartal 3 2023 och pågående diskussioner med potentiella investerare över hela världen.

Following the merger of Heliad Equity Partners (HEP) with FinLab, the combined entity holds a portfolio of more than 20 innovative, private businesses and fully owns Patriarch Multi-Manager, which develops fund of funds solutions and asset management strategies for independent financial advisers, selecting managers for each mandate.

JDC’s key asset is its highly scalable Advisortech insurance platform, which enables private clients to manage insurance portfolios from hundreds of German insurance companies. This technology platform, in which JDC invested more than €70m to develop, was initially built for its own broker pool business, Jung, DMS & Cie, and the financial advisory business FiNUM, but at a later stage JDC decided to exploit it commercially.