Smartkarma Daily Briefs

• Regulatory Tangles:Promoters faced cricket betting allegations, SEBI penalties, debarment from financial markets and a litany of investigations. Legal and financial risks loom due to regulatory delays and unresolved litigations.
• Operational and Financial Hurdles:Excessive inventory, delayed payments, and opaque related-party transactions.Weaker margins, ROE, and underutilized manufacturing hint at broader governance frailty.
• Debt Dilemmas and Transparency Concerns: Heavy reliance on high-interest promoter loans. Governance lapses are reflected in financial metrics, raising questions about transparency and conflicts of interest.

• We view both Weixin Video Account (WVA) and Douyin China as secondary assets to their respective parents, which in our view, may lead to them forming…(TBC)
• However, rising competition in the short-play (短剧) market may put the two businesses in more direct confrontation, which may delay or diminish the chance for two to work together;
• We view Tencent as the likely winner in the continuing evolution of short video as it considers various options to maximize the value of WVA traffic.

• Local news reported an unnamed expert suggesting ByteDance might be buying Eleme for US$7bn, leading to share of Meituan to fall;
• While we believe (1) buying a food delivery business to complement Douyin’s in-store business makes some sense and…
• (2) ByteDance has been aggressive in pushing the boundary of its businesses, an entry into domestic food delivery is a daunting challenge that yields very little benefits for ByteDance;

• Singapore Airlines (SIA SP) (SIA) November operating statistics were good, passenger load factor rose by 1.9ppt YoY to 87.8%, and cargo load factor rose by a similar quantum  
• Market observations suggest yields should remain at high levels and cost items such as fuel and USD-denominated items on a favorable downtrend 
• If this performance continues, SIA will beat consensus easily. We recommend BUY with a TP of SGD8.07 – pegged to 10x FY24 PE. (+26% UPSIDE)  

• Driven by stronger PC/networking DRAM sales, Micron reports 5% stronger 4Q23 sales, 10-13ppts q/q margin improvement and 34% y/y decline in MOI to 5.2 months;
• Micron guides 1Q24 sales growth 8-16% q/q and 38-49% y/y and gross margin of 12%, beating Bloomberg consensus estimates by 6ppts;
• Rooms to raise: 1. 1Q24 sales of 18% q/q likely; 2. Turning profits sooner than expected; 3. +Free cash flow in 2024; 4. HBM3E for GH200/H200 to improve mix, margin. 

• Q3 2023 results for the Philippine Stock Exchange / (PSE PM) were uneventful. EBITDA margins were rock solid at>60%, and net margins were>40%. Revenues and profits were up 1.3%/51% YoY.
• Cash and Investments at 4.8 bn pesos account for 32% of the market capitalization. The cash will aid in acquiring the remaining 79% stake in PDS.
• Trading at 19x/17x FY23e/24e and a dividend yield of 5.3%/5.9%, there are several catalysts to drive earnings over the next few years (and investors are paid to wait). 

• LIFULL runs the LIFULL Home’s real estate website. Compared to its main rival, whose strategy is focused mainly on the quantity of listings, LIFULL’s aim is to achieve greater quality, as measured by the percentage of inquiries that lead to sales for professional real estate clients.
• While others primarily charge a fixed fee for listings, LIFULL charges a combination of fixed fees and incentive fees based on the number of inquiries received for a listing.
• Compared to its main rival LIFULL tends to invest more heavily in software development and considerably less on advertising. 

• Pfizer seems to be the worst-performing large pharma stock of 2023 after it lowered 2024 forecast. The Company continues to grapple with plummeting demand for its COVID products
• The acquisition of Seagen can’t turn things around. Except a few products that are still able to maintain growth, sales of vast majority products that we’re familiar with are declining. 
• The growth engine of Pfizer in post-pandemic era is still uncertain. Even though Pfizer’s share price has fallen sharply, this may still not be the time for bottom fishing.

Pan American Silver (PAAS) released a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the La Colorada Skarn project, confirming its potential to become a large-scale operation producing an average 17.2Moz of silver per annum over the first 10 years of its 17-year mine life. At a base case throughput rate of 50ktpd, the company estimates the project’s post-tax NPV8 at US$1.1bn, with an IRR of 14% and a payback period of 4.3 years. We intend to update our valuation shortly to incorporate the PEA and the prevailing stronger than expected gold and silver prices.

• MillerKnoll reports 2QFY24 earnings after market close on Wednesday, December 20, and will host its management conference call at 5:00 pm ET.
• WTR is modeling EPS of $0.55, the midpoint of guidance, on revenue of $987 million. Consensus is $0.54, with an estimate range of $0.52-0.56.
• Order trends. We are modeling orders in the Americas at +13.9% versus a poor year-ago quarter of -17.3%.