Smartkarma Daily Briefs

For our next Corporate Webinar we are glad to welcome Sasseur REIT’s CFO, Mr. Xie Jianfeng, COO, Mr. Cheng Hsing Yuen, and Head of Investor Relations & Capital Markets, Ms. Helen Qiu.

In the upcoming webinar, the Sasseur REIT team will share a short company presentation after which, they will engage in a fireside chat with Smartkarma Insight Provider, Garreth Elston. The Corporate Webinar will include a live Q&A session.

The Corporate Webinar will be hosted on Wednesday, 25 June 2025, 16:30 SGT.

About Sasseur REIT

Sasseur REIT is the first retail outlet mall REIT listed in Asia. Sasseur REIT offers investors
the unique opportunity to invest in the fast-growing retail outlet mall sector in China through
its initial portfolio of four quality retail outlet mall assets strategically located in fast-growing
Chinese cities such as Chongqing, Kunming and Hefei, with a combined net lettable area of
310,241 square metres.

Sasseur REIT was established with the investment strategy to invest principally, directly or
indirectly, in a diversified portfolio of income-producing real estate which is used primarily for
retail outlet mall purposes, as well as real estate-related assets in relation to the foregoing,
with an initial focus on Asia.

You can view their latest factsheet here.

For more information on Sasseur REIT, please visit http://www.sasseurreit.com/

• We see 21 potential and close adds and 34 potential and close deletes for the Hang Seng Composite Index in September. Some of the stocks are close on market cap/liquidity.
• There have been some big listings in the last couple of months and those stocks should be added to the index in September. That increases the number of potential deletions.
• There are stocks that have a very high percentage of holdings via Stock Connect and there could be some unwinding prior to the stocks becoming Sell-only.

• Septeni Holdings is one of the leaders in Japan in the digital marketing business which mainly includes digital advertising, marketing support, data & AI-driven solutions.
• The company has also aggressively raised dividend payouts which is a clear sign of improving corporate governance.
• The company is also well positioned to deliver sales growth rate of about 5-7% per year in the next 2-3 years with 20%+ per year growth in operating profit.

• Following the results of NTT (9432 JP)‘s tender offer for NTT Data Corp (9613 JP), NTT Data will be deleted from the Nikkei 225 (NKY INDEX).
• ROHM Co Ltd (6963 JP) will be added to the Nikkei 225 (NKY INDEX) at the close on 3 July. The stock is up a fair bit from its lows.
• Nearly all the NTT Data Corp shares not tendered will be held by passives and there will be selling in the stock as index providers move the float lower/delete.

• Today the results of the NTT Data Corp (9613 JP) Tender Offer came out. NTT has 81.75%. I warned of lack of liquidity at that level yesterday here. 
• Yesterday I proposed that ROHM Co Ltd (6963 JP) would replace NTT Data in the Nikkei 225 and that the likely timing was the last couple of days of August.
• Today, the Nikkei used the June 2020 rule change to announce NTT Data’s near-term deletion. Rohm goes in 3 July. 7.5x ADV to buy. $3.8bn a side to trade.

• Context: Analysis of Alibaba’s (9988 HK) implied volatility surface as of June 20, 2025, examining implied volatility patterns, skew structures, and open interest distribution across various expiry dates.
• Highlights: One-month implied volatility at 31.6% is trading at historically cheap levels (13th percentile), while the skew shows a pronounced volatility smile favoring spreads.
• Why Read: Essential for options traders and volatility strategists looking to capitalize on the historical cheapness of current implied volatility levels, particularly given the favorable skew structure for spread strategies.

• In FY25, Sysmex Corp (6869 JP) revenue rose 10% YoY to ¥509B. Operating profit margin expanded 20bps to 17.2%. Amid rising costs, favorable Fx impact of ¥8.6B drove the margin.
• Sales grew across regions as instrument installed increased and use of reagents multiplied. America’s volatile margin is a concern, amid the fact that Japan remains the major margin contributor.
• For FY26, Sysmex has guided for revenue of ¥535B (+5% YoY). The company has factored in the impact of tariff estimating annual cost of sales impact of approximately ¥3B-4B.

• Context: Statistical analysis of a relative value opportunity in the Australian Oil & Gas industry between Ampol (ALD AU) and Woodside Energy Group Ltd (WDS AU).
• Highlights: Going long Ampol and short Woodside targets an 8% return to the statistical mean reversion level.
• Why Read: Essential for quantitative traders seeking mean-reversion opportunities, with detailed execution framework, risk management protocols, and historical simulation showing the statistical basis for this relative value play.

• Context: Over the past five trading days, Alibaba Group Holding (9988 HK) live multi-leg option strategies showcased a variety of approaches. Strategy highlights are provided.
• Highlights: Diagonal Spreads continue to enjoy popularity. Strategies tend to have a short-term horizon and exhibit a slightly bearish bias.
• Why read: This breakdown of complex option strategies sheds light on market sentiment and positioning. Detailed examples provide actionable insights that could inspire similar strategies,

•  FY 2024-25 NR production at 875,000 tons, consumption 1.41 mn tons  
•  Compound rubber imports go up by 44.5% to 245,407 tons in FY 24-25  
•  Replanting supported primarily by pineapple farming contractors

• The NTT Data Corp (9613 JP) Tender Offer closed today. Results will come out tomorrow. I expect it will have been successful. 
• That will mean some US$8bn+ of passive tracking flows to sell and $8bn+ to buy related to this event alone in the next 3 months. 
• And there are some very interesting dynamics to consider in the meantime. 

• The March 2025 Nikkei 225 review came out with a sparse set of changes. That gives us hints for the September 2025 review.
• For the moment, that leads me to believe we get ONE ADD and ONE DELETE though up to three of each is possible.
• For now, Fast Retailing (9983 JP) capping is off, but there’s an ad hoc coming in late Q3 or early Q4 and the Sony Financial spinoff to look forward to.

• We see 21 potential and close adds and 34 potential and close deletes for the Hang Seng Composite Index in September. Some of the stocks are close on market cap/liquidity.
• There have been some big listings in the last couple of months and those stocks should be added to the index in September. That increases the number of potential deletions.
• There are stocks that have a very high percentage of holdings via Stock Connect and there could be some unwinding prior to the stocks becoming Sell-only.

• There are no constituent changes for the S&P 500 INDEX (SPX INDEX) in June but there are capping changes for the Select Sector indices and the Equal Weight Index.
• The round-trip trade is US$12.7bn with a big chunk from the Equal Weight Index, Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLC US) and Consumer Discretionary Select (XLY US).
• The largest flows are expected in Meta, Amazon.com, Alphabet, Broadcom, Live Nation Entertainment, Tesla, T Mobile Us, Exxon Mobil, Fox, Omnicom Group, TKO Group Holdings and Netflix.

• Today after the close, Seven Bank Ltd (8410 JP) announced a MASSIVE ToSTNeT-3 transaction to buy back up to 200,000,000 shares (17.0% of shares out) for ¥52.4bn. Tomorrow AM. 
• There is a complex iterative calculation on the part of Seven Eleven Japan to figure out how many shares they should put into the buyback.
• I see a minimum buyback of 10.8%. 17% would be great. But there is a potential issue on the back end of which investors should be aware.

• HDB Financial Services Ltd (0117739D IN) is looking to list on the exchanges by selling up to INR125bn (US$1.46bn) of stock at a valuation of around INR 620bn (US$7.2bn).
• The stock will not get Fast Entry to either of the global indices. The earliest inclusion in a global index should take place in December.
• HDB Financial Services Ltd‘s peers have traded well over the last 6 months and that could spill over into demand for the stock. Grey market premium is pretty high.

• Insiders say Google’s fast-growing phone biz now overlaps Samsung’s, sparking serious rivalry fears. This “Google shock” has become a major topic among Samsung’s top execs lately.
• Sammy’s crisis plan involves carving out System LSI from foundry, with a likely spin-off of the foundry biz as a separate entity—insiders say that’s the favored move now.
• Samsung’s restructuring sparks a tug-of-war between shareholder value erosion and foundry re-rating. A spin-off looks likely, with recent stock moves showing investor optimism.

• Guidance around an unsurprisingly unchanged BoE rate preserved the necessary uncertainty about when it might ease again, albeit with a broad bias to do more later.
• Dave Ramsden joined the dovish dissent, taking it to three for a 25bp cut, but none of them are in the MPC majority revealed in May as leaning towards a slower pace of cuts.
• We believe the August decision remains finely balanced for the majority. Ongoing data resilience, discouraging the Fed and ECB from easing, should also keep the BoE on hold.

• Saint Bella, a luxury maternity and baby care brand, has announced the fixed offer price of HK$6.58 per share for its IPO in Hong Kong.  
• The company is expected to IPO next week and initial fixed offer price implies a market cap of ~HK$3.9B. Saint Bella is set to start trading on June 26, 2025.
• Cornerstone investors have agreed to invest ~$42M in this offering. China Asset Management, JKKB and SS Morgan are among the cornerstone investors.  

• US diplomacy with Iran has been given two weeks, bringing it close to the reciprocal tariff deferral date. Both may roll later, while central bankers wait to see the impact.
• Unsurprising UK and EA inflation data offered little direction, nor did the BoE or Fed. Brazil and Norway delivered opposite surprises outside a flood of cautious statements.
• Next week is much quieter for data and decisions (TH and MX). The flash PMIs are the main global highlight, although some HICP and PCE data are notable on Friday.