Smartkarma Daily Briefs

• Meitu Inc (1357 HK)‘s stock price has more than tripled over the last few months and the significantly higher market cap should lead to global index inclusion in August. 
• Shorts covered a lot in 2024 and that has continued this year as the stock price has moved higher.
• Meitu Inc (1357 HK) has outperformed its peers significantly and there could be a pullback in the stock following index inclusion.

• Corpay has made headlines with its definitive agreement to acquire Alpha Group International in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $2.2 billion (£1.6 billion).
• The transaction, offering Alpha shareholders £42.50 per share—a 55% premium over its undisturbed price as of May 1, 2025—is expected to close in Q4 2025, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals.
• This acquisition comes on the heels of a busy strategic year for Corpay, including a $300 million cross-border partnership with Mastercard and a minority investment in AvidXchange.

• Rumors are swirling around a potential acquisition that could significantly reshape the cybersecurity landscape.
• SentinelOne, a company known for its autonomous endpoint protection platform, saw its shares surge after reports emerged suggesting that industry giant Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) might be in advanced talks to acquire it.
• While neither company has confirmed the speculation, multiple Israeli media outlets have cited industry sources suggesting a potential deal value of around $7 billion.

• 2Q25 beats consensus by 5% with a number of unexpected moves: NAND and Commodity DRAM shipments a lot higher than expected, hence weaker ASP (more commodity), margins decline QoQ. 
• HBM positive messages: HBM sales double in 2025, we now have secured visibility on next year’s demand”, leading to higher capex in 2025, HBM will continue to enjoy strong growth. 
• But a lack of concrete numbers (HBM, eSSD % of revenue), 2025-26 Capex, capacity increase, etc means that the market will not find grounds to have a more positive view. 

• McGraw Hill (MH US) priced a full-size offering of 24.4mm shares at $17.00 and saw a flat opening print. 
• This was the second private equity backed deal of the week and second to trade below issue.
• Ultimately, the deal did not have the “strength” and was forced to give-way to the buy-side with a $2 discount below the low-end of the range.

• Datadog, a leader in observability and security, is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity firm Upwind for approximately $1 billion, according to a report by Calcalist.
• The move comes just months after Upwind raised $100 million in a Series A funding round, valuing the startup at roughly $900 million.
• As Datadog continues expanding its product portfolio, especially in cloud-native security and AI observability, the potential acquisition of Upwind signals a strategic push deeper into cloud workload protection and runtime security.

• SentinelOne shares surged as much as 18% on Monday, July 21, 2025, amid speculation that cybersecurity heavyweight Palo Alto Networks may be eyeing the smaller player for acquisition.
• Although the stock pared its gains later in the day, the buzz remained strong after Israeli media outlets, including Calcalist and Globes, reported that Palo Alto was in advanced discussions to purchase SentinelOne in a deal potentially valued at around $7 billion.
• Both companies declined to comment on market speculation, but investors took notice — especially as SentinelOne’s market cap hovers near $6 billion, while Palo Alto commands a significantly larger valuation of approximately $131 billion.

• 2Q25 huge miss, even excluding restructuring costs. 3Q guidance is “back to normal” but how to put any trust in guidance after the 2Q miss? Better wait for 3Q earnings. 
• Consensus will revised down sharply. 2025 definitely too high. 2027 expectations of a sharp margins improvement require a perfect alignment of the stars. 
• New CEO who is cleaning up the organization and refocusing Intel on what is required: fixing manufacturing, regaining x86 market share. It’s a good start, but can take 2-3 years.

Boku expects to report year-on-year revenue growth of 34% for H125, up from the 20% growth reported in FY24, and is guiding to revenue growth of at least 27% for FY25. Both direct carrier billing (DCB including bundling) and other local payment methods (LPMs) showed double-digit revenue growth, with the launch of digital wallet and account-to-account (A2A) scheme connections for new and existing merchants the main driver of the company’s medium-term growth ambitions. We have upgraded our forecasts to reflect the strong performance in H125.

• In this edition: • BE Semiconductor Industries | expects order intake to increase significantly in 25Q3 • ING | Tanate Phutrakul to step down as CFO at 2026 AGM • KPN | post earnings call comment • RELX Group | another strong half year; solid outlook for 2H25 • Aalberts | lowers FY25 organic revenue growth and EBITA-margin outlook • e-Commerce and Logistics | pressure building on Chinese platforms selling unsafe goods • Consumer confidence | Dutch consumers less negative in July