Gross capital flows lead World shipping activity by 4 months
Capital flows have been slowly rising since June 2018: in February they jumped
Reinforces out pro-Asia and pro-China investment message
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
* JD ever generated cash flows by accounts payable in direct sales, but cost control is necessary when the commission business grew faster than the direct sales business.
* We believe that the overwhelming majority of delivery men will stay with JD after the salary cut, as many small delivery companies went bankrupt in 2018.
* we believe JD will be able to control costs well and keep close-to-zero net margin in 2019.
Crude scored successive new five-month highs last week, with Brent closing above the key $70/barrel psychological mark on Friday.
Tight supply fundamentals remain supportive of crude prices. OPEC reduced its supply further in March, its 11 members that are bound by quotas swinging way beyond 100% compliance with their pledged cuts.
Meanwhile, signs of the US and China inching close to a trade deal and a strong US jobs report on Friday spurred a rush of funds into risk assets and crude went up with the rising tide.
But how far can it rise? Not much from its current levels, we say. It’s important to not forget the Trump factor. The US president loathes high oil prices. His tweets against OPEC may be proving the law of diminishing returns, but he has some other important and effective levers, and he won’t hesitate to use them.
In our Discover HK Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of southbound trades via the Hong Kong Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by mainland investors in the past seven days.
We split the stocks eligible for the Hong Kong Connect trade into three groups: component stocks in the HSCEI index, stocks with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion, and stocks with a market capitalization between USD 500 million and USD 1 billion.
In this insight, we will highlight Air China and Great Wall Motor.
Below is a recap of the key IPO/placement research produced by the Global Equity Research team. This week, we update on the bevvy of placements offered by various companies. After placements by Pinduoduo (PDD US) and Sea Ltd (SE US) , we saw more offerings from HUYA Inc (HUYA US) , Bilibili Inc (BILI US) and Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US). We update on these three offerings and perhaps big picture, this could reflect a signalling inflection point in these shares. More details below
In addition, we have provided an updated calendar of upcoming catalysts for EVENT driven names below.
Best of luck for the new week – Arun, Venkat and Rickin
This post estimates Nexon Japan tender price. For this, I use the same approach that a local PE named “MBK Partners” would use based on EBITDA multiple and IRR on a 3 year exit. From their position, the only proven value-up path would be KOSPI moving. MBK must try to stay as conservative as possible. Whatever Netmarble value addition should be an extra when deciding on a tender price. So, I base my estimation solely based on KOSPI moving effect. For this, I use NCsoft as a sole valuation comp.
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
Crude scored successive new five-month highs last week, with Brent closing above the key $70/barrel psychological mark on Friday.
Tight supply fundamentals remain supportive of crude prices. OPEC reduced its supply further in March, its 11 members that are bound by quotas swinging way beyond 100% compliance with their pledged cuts.
Meanwhile, signs of the US and China inching close to a trade deal and a strong US jobs report on Friday spurred a rush of funds into risk assets and crude went up with the rising tide.
But how far can it rise? Not much from its current levels, we say. It’s important to not forget the Trump factor. The US president loathes high oil prices. His tweets against OPEC may be proving the law of diminishing returns, but he has some other important and effective levers, and he won’t hesitate to use them.
In our Discover HK Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of southbound trades via the Hong Kong Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by mainland investors in the past seven days.
We split the stocks eligible for the Hong Kong Connect trade into three groups: component stocks in the HSCEI index, stocks with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion, and stocks with a market capitalization between USD 500 million and USD 1 billion.
In this insight, we will highlight Air China and Great Wall Motor.
Below is a recap of the key IPO/placement research produced by the Global Equity Research team. This week, we update on the bevvy of placements offered by various companies. After placements by Pinduoduo (PDD US) and Sea Ltd (SE US) , we saw more offerings from HUYA Inc (HUYA US) , Bilibili Inc (BILI US) and Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US). We update on these three offerings and perhaps big picture, this could reflect a signalling inflection point in these shares. More details below
In addition, we have provided an updated calendar of upcoming catalysts for EVENT driven names below.
Best of luck for the new week – Arun, Venkat and Rickin
This post estimates Nexon Japan tender price. For this, I use the same approach that a local PE named “MBK Partners” would use based on EBITDA multiple and IRR on a 3 year exit. From their position, the only proven value-up path would be KOSPI moving. MBK must try to stay as conservative as possible. Whatever Netmarble value addition should be an extra when deciding on a tender price. So, I base my estimation solely based on KOSPI moving effect. For this, I use NCsoft as a sole valuation comp.
In my weekly digest China News That Matters, I will give you selected summaries, sourced from a variety of local Chinese-language and international news outlets, and highlight why I think the news is significant. These posts are meant to neither be bullish nor bearish, but help you separate the signal from the noise.
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
Tesla Motors (TSLA US) has changed its mind, again, and now reportedly is putting on hold plans to close hundreds of its mostly newly opened stores and lay off thousands more employees–at least until the end of the month.
Employees, customers, suppliers, and investors still are reeling over Tesla’s startling decision, announced February 28th, to move immediately to online-only sales, a dramatic reversal of strategy still in place as of the 2018 10-K filing on February 19th in which the company had touted growth via recent store expansions and substantial additions planned globally going forward.
Tesla explained that even with now three substantial price cuts on all its cars and now three significant layoffs since last summer, it must slash costs even more to support the launch of its long overdue $35,000 base version of the flagship Model 3 (see my report Tesla’s New Plan: Buy Before You Try).
I warned clients that Tesla’s stunning strategy reversal seemed driven more by alarming cash consumption plus much weaker than expected sales and profit margins already apparent in what is shaping up to be a disastrous first quarter–troubling trends that may continue. However, as I noted, it also costs money to close stores, get out of leases (good luck with that), fire employees and redistribute remaining staff, and sell off fairly new equipment at steep losses.
Tesla probably hasn’t seen the light–it’s just received as of March 1st a desperately needed cash infusion by finally securing overdue funding for Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory 3 which has been under construction since January (see Tesla – Shanghai Surprise). Unfortunately, the four banks in Tesla’s new “China Loan Agreement,” which the company announced on Thursday with a rare 8-K filing, committed only to fund a one-year limited purpose loan for up to 3.5 billion yuan ($521 million). This is barely enough time or cash to get the Shanghai assembly plant up and running–much less also stave off the current cash crunch.
But Tesla must keep up appearances as well as bolster its liquidity through at least the end of the quarter as it gets ready to reveal Thursday evening the long-awaited Model Y–though I suspect this won’t result in a massive burst of cash from new reservations as Tesla hopes.
Years of robbing Peter to pay Paul hasn’t produced a sustainable growth model for Tesla, mostly because its business strategy still is better described as, “Wow, we didn’t see that coming.”
I’ll see you and raise you: Huawei sues Washington
In my weekly digest China News That Matters, I will give you selected summaries, sourced from a variety of local Chinese-language and international news outlets, and highlight why I think the news is significant. These posts are meant to neither be bullish nor bearish, but help you separate the signal from the noise.
Meituan Dianping (3690 HK)‘s shares currently trade 18% below its IPO price of HK$69.00 per share. Meituan will announce its 4Q18 results on Monday, 11 March 2019, after market close. Notably, Meituan’s six-month lock-up period expires on 19 March 2019.
We believe that should Meituan deliver a strong 4Q18; it will likely not experience Xiaomi Corp (1810 HK)’s share price collapse after the end of its six-month lock-up period.
Gross capital flows lead World shipping activity by 4 months
Capital flows have been slowly rising since June 2018: in February they jumped
Reinforces out pro-Asia and pro-China investment message
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
In our Discover HK Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of southbound trades via the Hong Kong Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by mainland investors in the past seven days.
We split the stocks eligible for the Hong Kong Connect trade into three groups: component stocks in the HSCEI index, stocks with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion, and stocks with a market capitalization between USD 500 million and USD 1 billion.
In this insight, we will highlight Air China and Great Wall Motor.
Below is a recap of the key IPO/placement research produced by the Global Equity Research team. This week, we update on the bevvy of placements offered by various companies. After placements by Pinduoduo (PDD US) and Sea Ltd (SE US) , we saw more offerings from HUYA Inc (HUYA US) , Bilibili Inc (BILI US) and Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US). We update on these three offerings and perhaps big picture, this could reflect a signalling inflection point in these shares. More details below
In addition, we have provided an updated calendar of upcoming catalysts for EVENT driven names below.
Best of luck for the new week – Arun, Venkat and Rickin
This post estimates Nexon Japan tender price. For this, I use the same approach that a local PE named “MBK Partners” would use based on EBITDA multiple and IRR on a 3 year exit. From their position, the only proven value-up path would be KOSPI moving. MBK must try to stay as conservative as possible. Whatever Netmarble value addition should be an extra when deciding on a tender price. So, I base my estimation solely based on KOSPI moving effect. For this, I use NCsoft as a sole valuation comp.
In my weekly digest China News That Matters, I will give you selected summaries, sourced from a variety of local Chinese-language and international news outlets, and highlight why I think the news is significant. These posts are meant to neither be bullish nor bearish, but help you separate the signal from the noise.
Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that have been covered by Smartkarma Insight Providers recently, along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
Placements activity picked up momentum this week as evidenced by the number of follow-on offerings launched by a handful of US-listed Chinese tech companies. It all started with Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US) ‘s follow-on offering, then followed by Bilibili Inc (BILI US)‘s equity + convertible note placement, and ending the week with HUYA Inc (HUYA US)‘s follow-on offering and Baozun Inc. (BZUN US)‘s convertible bond and placement.
On the other hand, Ruhnn Holding Ltd (RUHN US)‘s debut this week had been a total disaster. It closed 37% below its IPO price on the first day. This is the worst first-day performance among Chinese ADRs (deal size >US$100m) in the past six months.
Back in Hong Kong, Dongzheng Automotive Finance (2718 HK) also broke its IPO price on the first day after relaunching at a much lower price. As per our trading update note, considering that there will be greenshoe support, we thought that the risk to reward could be favorable for a trade (from its first day mid-day price of HK$2.57).
As for placements, Ronshine China Holdings (3301 HK) seems to have made its equity raise a yearly affair. The company is back to tap the equity market through a top-up placement and it has done the same in 2017 and 2018. The initial deal size was small, US$122m, but was upsized later on. The share price traded well post-placement, closing 9.5% above its deal price of HK$10.95 on Thursday.
Map Aktif Adiperkasa PT (MAPA IJ) will be closing its bookbuild for its follow-on offering next Tuesday (pricing on Wednesday). We heard that books are already covered as of Thursday.
Accuracy Rate:
Our overall accuracy rate is 72.4% for IPOs and 63.5% for Placements
(Performance measurement criteria is explained at the end of the note)
New IPO filings
Changliao AKA 派派(Hong Kong, ~US$100m)
Below is a snippet of our IPO tool showing upcoming events for the next week. The IPO tool is designed to provide readers with timely information on all IPO related events (Book open/closing, listing, initiation, lock-up expiry, etc) for all the deals that we have worked on. You can access the tool here or through the tools menu.
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
I’ll see you and raise you: Huawei sues Washington
In my weekly digest China News That Matters, I will give you selected summaries, sourced from a variety of local Chinese-language and international news outlets, and highlight why I think the news is significant. These posts are meant to neither be bullish nor bearish, but help you separate the signal from the noise.
Meituan Dianping (3690 HK)‘s shares currently trade 18% below its IPO price of HK$69.00 per share. Meituan will announce its 4Q18 results on Monday, 11 March 2019, after market close. Notably, Meituan’s six-month lock-up period expires on 19 March 2019.
We believe that should Meituan deliver a strong 4Q18; it will likely not experience Xiaomi Corp (1810 HK)’s share price collapse after the end of its six-month lock-up period.
Gross capital flows lead World shipping activity by 4 months
Capital flows have been slowly rising since June 2018: in February they jumped
Reinforces out pro-Asia and pro-China investment message
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
Below is a recap of the key IPO/placement research produced by the Global Equity Research team. This week, we update on the bevvy of placements offered by various companies. After placements by Pinduoduo (PDD US) and Sea Ltd (SE US) , we saw more offerings from HUYA Inc (HUYA US) , Bilibili Inc (BILI US) and Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US). We update on these three offerings and perhaps big picture, this could reflect a signalling inflection point in these shares. More details below
In addition, we have provided an updated calendar of upcoming catalysts for EVENT driven names below.
Best of luck for the new week – Arun, Venkat and Rickin
This post estimates Nexon Japan tender price. For this, I use the same approach that a local PE named “MBK Partners” would use based on EBITDA multiple and IRR on a 3 year exit. From their position, the only proven value-up path would be KOSPI moving. MBK must try to stay as conservative as possible. Whatever Netmarble value addition should be an extra when deciding on a tender price. So, I base my estimation solely based on KOSPI moving effect. For this, I use NCsoft as a sole valuation comp.
In my weekly digest China News That Matters, I will give you selected summaries, sourced from a variety of local Chinese-language and international news outlets, and highlight why I think the news is significant. These posts are meant to neither be bullish nor bearish, but help you separate the signal from the noise.
Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that have been covered by Smartkarma Insight Providers recently, along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
Placements activity picked up momentum this week as evidenced by the number of follow-on offerings launched by a handful of US-listed Chinese tech companies. It all started with Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US) ‘s follow-on offering, then followed by Bilibili Inc (BILI US)‘s equity + convertible note placement, and ending the week with HUYA Inc (HUYA US)‘s follow-on offering and Baozun Inc. (BZUN US)‘s convertible bond and placement.
On the other hand, Ruhnn Holding Ltd (RUHN US)‘s debut this week had been a total disaster. It closed 37% below its IPO price on the first day. This is the worst first-day performance among Chinese ADRs (deal size >US$100m) in the past six months.
Back in Hong Kong, Dongzheng Automotive Finance (2718 HK) also broke its IPO price on the first day after relaunching at a much lower price. As per our trading update note, considering that there will be greenshoe support, we thought that the risk to reward could be favorable for a trade (from its first day mid-day price of HK$2.57).
As for placements, Ronshine China Holdings (3301 HK) seems to have made its equity raise a yearly affair. The company is back to tap the equity market through a top-up placement and it has done the same in 2017 and 2018. The initial deal size was small, US$122m, but was upsized later on. The share price traded well post-placement, closing 9.5% above its deal price of HK$10.95 on Thursday.
Map Aktif Adiperkasa PT (MAPA IJ) will be closing its bookbuild for its follow-on offering next Tuesday (pricing on Wednesday). We heard that books are already covered as of Thursday.
Accuracy Rate:
Our overall accuracy rate is 72.4% for IPOs and 63.5% for Placements
(Performance measurement criteria is explained at the end of the note)
New IPO filings
Changliao AKA 派派(Hong Kong, ~US$100m)
Below is a snippet of our IPO tool showing upcoming events for the next week. The IPO tool is designed to provide readers with timely information on all IPO related events (Book open/closing, listing, initiation, lock-up expiry, etc) for all the deals that we have worked on. You can access the tool here or through the tools menu.
E. History of Rechargeable Battery Technologies And An In-Depth Analysis on Li-ion Batteries
F. Batteries Beyond Li-ion
G. Supply Constraints for Key Raw Materials
H. The Competitive Landscape
A. Key Conclusions
Global sales of EV’s reached 2m units in 2018. As a base case scenario, we expect a combination of improving EV battery cost-effectiveness, increasingly challenging emissions standards and ongoing incentives by various governments to propel unit sales to 8m units annually by 2025. Against this, we consider battery material price increases, a reduction of EV incentives in the US and China and political and environmental risks from the mining of metals used in batteries as downside risks which could delay the growth of the EV market.
Surprisingly, the EV battery technology that will drive us towards that 8m unit goal is still very much a work in progress. While Lithium Ion is the by far the dominant technology, there are striking differences between variants of the technology, battery pack design, battery management systems and manufacturing scale between the leading contenders. Furthermore, while there’s nothing on the horizon to completely displace Lithium Ion within the next decade, it remains unclear whether the technology will be the one to achieve the $100/kWh price target that would make the EV cost-neutral compared to its internal combustion predecessors.
Quite apart from the technology, the EV battery segment faces other significant challenges including increasing costs for core materials such as Cobalt, increasing safety concerns as the mix of that very same cobalt is reduced in the cathode, the growing risk of litigation amidst a fiercely competitive environment and last but not least, the appetite of various governments to maintain a favourable subsidy framework.
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
I’ll see you and raise you: Huawei sues Washington
In my weekly digest China News That Matters, I will give you selected summaries, sourced from a variety of local Chinese-language and international news outlets, and highlight why I think the news is significant. These posts are meant to neither be bullish nor bearish, but help you separate the signal from the noise.
Meituan Dianping (3690 HK)‘s shares currently trade 18% below its IPO price of HK$69.00 per share. Meituan will announce its 4Q18 results on Monday, 11 March 2019, after market close. Notably, Meituan’s six-month lock-up period expires on 19 March 2019.
We believe that should Meituan deliver a strong 4Q18; it will likely not experience Xiaomi Corp (1810 HK)’s share price collapse after the end of its six-month lock-up period.
Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that have been covered by Smartkarma Insight Providers recently, along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
It has been a fairly hectic week. We have been busy writing on upcoming IPOs, post-IPO events, and, to top it all off, there were four placements (Sea Ltd, RHB Bank, Xinyi Solar, and China Gas) this week.
As for early coverage on IPOs, Sumeet Singh had already given a broad overview of ESR Cayman (ESR HK)‘s business. He will be following up with more detailed analyses in the coming weeks.
In the US, Futu Holdings Ltd (FHL US) debuted well on Friday, trading up to as high as US$17 per share before closing just above US$15 but still well above the IPO price. We had been slightly more conservative because it is not exactly a very exciting company doing something groundbreaking but the management background in tech appears strong and there are no corporate governance issues.Sumeet Singh will update on trading liquidity and post-IPO analysis next week.
For pipeline IPOs, we heard that Ehang is planning its US IPO and it is looking to raise about US$500m. This is the Chinese drone manufacturer which made waves just over a year ago with a video of a team testing its autonomous aerial vehicle shown in the video below. Suffice to say, if and when the IPO launches, it will be interesting.
Ruhnn had also filed for IPO this week and we heard that pre-marketing will start next week while bookbuild will likely launch end of the month. This is an Alibaba-backed e-commerce influencer platform and we will be analyzing the company soon.
Intellicentrics (Hong Kong, CLSA sole-sponsor, likely to be <US$100m)
Below is a snippet of our IPO tool showing upcoming events for the next week. The IPO tool is designed to provide readers with timely information on all IPO related events (Book open/closing, listing, initiation, lock-up expiry, etc) for all the deals that we have worked on. You can access the tool here or through the tools menu.
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that have been covered by Smartkarma Insight Providers recently, along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
It has been a fairly hectic week. We have been busy writing on upcoming IPOs, post-IPO events, and, to top it all off, there were four placements (Sea Ltd, RHB Bank, Xinyi Solar, and China Gas) this week.
As for early coverage on IPOs, Sumeet Singh had already given a broad overview of ESR Cayman (ESR HK)‘s business. He will be following up with more detailed analyses in the coming weeks.
In the US, Futu Holdings Ltd (FHL US) debuted well on Friday, trading up to as high as US$17 per share before closing just above US$15 but still well above the IPO price. We had been slightly more conservative because it is not exactly a very exciting company doing something groundbreaking but the management background in tech appears strong and there are no corporate governance issues.Sumeet Singh will update on trading liquidity and post-IPO analysis next week.
For pipeline IPOs, we heard that Ehang is planning its US IPO and it is looking to raise about US$500m. This is the Chinese drone manufacturer which made waves just over a year ago with a video of a team testing its autonomous aerial vehicle shown in the video below. Suffice to say, if and when the IPO launches, it will be interesting.
Ruhnn had also filed for IPO this week and we heard that pre-marketing will start next week while bookbuild will likely launch end of the month. This is an Alibaba-backed e-commerce influencer platform and we will be analyzing the company soon.
Intellicentrics (Hong Kong, CLSA sole-sponsor, likely to be <US$100m)
Below is a snippet of our IPO tool showing upcoming events for the next week. The IPO tool is designed to provide readers with timely information on all IPO related events (Book open/closing, listing, initiation, lock-up expiry, etc) for all the deals that we have worked on. You can access the tool here or through the tools menu.
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
In my weekly digest China News That Matters, I will give you selected summaries, sourced from a variety of local Chinese-language and international news outlets, and highlight why I think the news is significant. These posts are meant to neither be bullish nor bearish, but help you separate the signal from the noise.
Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that have been covered by Smartkarma Insight Providers recently, along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
Placements activity picked up momentum this week as evidenced by the number of follow-on offerings launched by a handful of US-listed Chinese tech companies. It all started with Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US) ‘s follow-on offering, then followed by Bilibili Inc (BILI US)‘s equity + convertible note placement, and ending the week with HUYA Inc (HUYA US)‘s follow-on offering and Baozun Inc. (BZUN US)‘s convertible bond and placement.
On the other hand, Ruhnn Holding Ltd (RUHN US)‘s debut this week had been a total disaster. It closed 37% below its IPO price on the first day. This is the worst first-day performance among Chinese ADRs (deal size >US$100m) in the past six months.
Back in Hong Kong, Dongzheng Automotive Finance (2718 HK) also broke its IPO price on the first day after relaunching at a much lower price. As per our trading update note, considering that there will be greenshoe support, we thought that the risk to reward could be favorable for a trade (from its first day mid-day price of HK$2.57).
As for placements, Ronshine China Holdings (3301 HK) seems to have made its equity raise a yearly affair. The company is back to tap the equity market through a top-up placement and it has done the same in 2017 and 2018. The initial deal size was small, US$122m, but was upsized later on. The share price traded well post-placement, closing 9.5% above its deal price of HK$10.95 on Thursday.
Map Aktif Adiperkasa PT (MAPA IJ) will be closing its bookbuild for its follow-on offering next Tuesday (pricing on Wednesday). We heard that books are already covered as of Thursday.
Accuracy Rate:
Our overall accuracy rate is 72.4% for IPOs and 63.5% for Placements
(Performance measurement criteria is explained at the end of the note)
New IPO filings
Changliao AKA 派派(Hong Kong, ~US$100m)
Below is a snippet of our IPO tool showing upcoming events for the next week. The IPO tool is designed to provide readers with timely information on all IPO related events (Book open/closing, listing, initiation, lock-up expiry, etc) for all the deals that we have worked on. You can access the tool here or through the tools menu.
E. History of Rechargeable Battery Technologies And An In-Depth Analysis on Li-ion Batteries
F. Batteries Beyond Li-ion
G. Supply Constraints for Key Raw Materials
H. The Competitive Landscape
A. Key Conclusions
Global sales of EV’s reached 2m units in 2018. As a base case scenario, we expect a combination of improving EV battery cost-effectiveness, increasingly challenging emissions standards and ongoing incentives by various governments to propel unit sales to 8m units annually by 2025. Against this, we consider battery material price increases, a reduction of EV incentives in the US and China and political and environmental risks from the mining of metals used in batteries as downside risks which could delay the growth of the EV market.
Surprisingly, the EV battery technology that will drive us towards that 8m unit goal is still very much a work in progress. While Lithium Ion is the by far the dominant technology, there are striking differences between variants of the technology, battery pack design, battery management systems and manufacturing scale between the leading contenders. Furthermore, while there’s nothing on the horizon to completely displace Lithium Ion within the next decade, it remains unclear whether the technology will be the one to achieve the $100/kWh price target that would make the EV cost-neutral compared to its internal combustion predecessors.
Quite apart from the technology, the EV battery segment faces other significant challenges including increasing costs for core materials such as Cobalt, increasing safety concerns as the mix of that very same cobalt is reduced in the cathode, the growing risk of litigation amidst a fiercely competitive environment and last but not least, the appetite of various governments to maintain a favourable subsidy framework.
ICBC (H) (1398 HK) delivered a robust PH Score of 8.5 – our quantamental value-quality gauge.
A highlight was the trend in cost-control. The bank delivered underlying “jaws” of 420bps. Besides OPEX restraint, including payroll, Efficiency gains were supported by robust underlying top-line expansion as growth in interest income on earning assets, underpinned by moderate credit growth, broadly matched expansion of interest expenses on interest-bearing Liabilities. This combination is not so prevalent in China these days, especially in smaller or medium-sized lenders.
It is well-flagged that the system is grappling with Asset Quality issues and there is a debate about the interrelated property market. ICBC is not immune, similar to other SOEs, from migration of souring loans. However, by China standards, rising asset writedowns which exerted a negative pull on Pre-Tax Profit as a % of pre-impairment Operating Profit, high charge-offs, and swelling (though not exploding) substandard and loss loans look arguably manageable given ICBC‘s sheer scale. The Asset Quality issue here is also not as bad as it was in bygone years (2004 springs to mind) when capital injections, asset transfers, and government-subsidised bad loan disposals were the order of the day. This is a “Big Four” player.
Shares are not expensive. ICBC trades at a P/Book of 0.8x, a Franchise Valuation of 10%, an Earnings Yield of 16.7%, a Dividend Yield of 4.9%, and a Total Return Ratio of 1.6x.
In our Discover SZ/SH Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of northbound trades via the Shanghai Connect and Shenzhen Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by offshore investors in the past seven days.
We split the stocks eligible for the northbound trade into three groups: those with a market capitalization of above USD 5 billion, and those with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion.
We note that in March, northbound inflows turned more cautious vs strong inflows in February (link to our Feb note) and January (link to our Jan note). Nevertheless we see strong inflows into Healthcare sector, led by Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., (600276 CH). We also highlight Universal Scientific Industrial Shanghai (601231 CH 环旭电子) in the mid cap space that attracted strong northbound inflows.
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
