Smartkarma Daily Briefs

• Auckland City Council is looking to sell 163.23m shares of Auckland Intl Airport (AIA NZ) in a clean-up trade. This is big at NZ$1.3bn and 64 days of ADV.
• The placement was expected by the market and the stock has run up despite that. The stock is in a trading halt and should open lower.
• There will be passive buying at the time of settlement of the placement shares and that will mop up around 15% of the offering.

• In this insight, we review the major tender offers of Korean companies in 2024. The tender offers have mostly been profitable for the investors in these targeted companies.
• What is also impressive is that even after the 1st day of trading (post tender offer announcement), there have been extra alpha for the following week and month.
• The number of tender offers in Korea increased from 6 in 2020 to 12 in 2021, 7 in 2022, 18 in 2023, and 28 in 2024.

• Back on the 25 November, SG Fleet (SGF AU) (SGF), an Aussie provider of fleet leasing services, announced a A$3.50/share non-binding/indicative proposal from Sydney PE outfit Pacific Equity Partners (PEP).
• The initial due diligence period was extended one week to the 6th December. That short timeframe suggested a firm Offer was imminent. Both parties have now entered into a SID. 
• Terms remains the same as the NBIO. SGF’s largest shareholder, Super Group (SPG SJ) (53.58%), is supportive. Implementation is expected in the 1Q25. 

• With a massive 125% rally YTD, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology (2208 HK) is no longer cheap. Its yield of 3.5% for FY25 cannot stand out as attractive.
• Good 9M24 earnings growth is partly due to an extremely low base last year. However, the average bidding price of WTG suppliers is still 50% below that in early 2022. 
• Net operating cash outflow surged 37.8% YoY, adding pressure to its balance sheet. Its gearing has increased by 7pp over the last nine months.

• Copart, Inc. delivered their first-quarter fiscal 2025 results amidst significant environmental challenges and dynamic industry trends.
• The firm exhibited strong performance, particularly in their insurance segment and response to natural disasters, while also experiencing some cost increases related to capacity expansion and hurricane preparation.
• A critical highlight was Copart’s adept response to consecutive hurricanes in the southeastern United States, notably Hurricanes Helane and Milton.

• Tsubakimoto Kogyo announced at 10:00 a.m. on November 29, 2024 that it had completed its share buyback, which it announced following the previous day’s market close.
• The Company explained that the reason for the share buyback is to improve shareholder returns and capital efficiency and to enable the implementation of an agile and flexible capital policy.
• In its Q2 FY2025/3 earnings briefing held on October 31, 2024, the Company reported results that fell slightly short of plan, leading to a temporary drop in its share price.

Following Singapore Post’s resilient H1 results in November, the company has now announced that it has agreed to sell its Australian logistics business for an enterprise value of c A$1bn to a private equity investor. The disposal is likely to result in the reporting of a gain on disposal of over S$300m. The proceeds are likely to be used to pay down debt and to potentially pay a special dividend to shareholders.

• RaaS has published a flash comment on advanced materials manufacturing group Amaero International (ASX:3DA) following the company’s announcement yesterday that it has signed a three-year supply agreement for US melt and forged titanium bar with The Perryman Company, a US-based privately owned, fully-integrated manufacturer of titanium products.
• For the term of the contract, Amaero says Perryman will be its preferred and primary supplier of high-quality, reliable and scalable US melt and forged titanium alloy bar feedstock for the atomisation of premium spherical powder.
• The contract guarantees that Amaero will have sufficient titanium bars to meet anticipated contractual demand for Ti64 powder in an environment of heightening tariff wars between the US and China, limited sources of supply for critical metals and ongoing demand from the US defence, aerospace and space components sector for full lot traceability of feedstock.