Daily Briefs

For our next Corporate Webinar we are glad to welcome Lendlease Global Commercial REIT’s CEO, Mr Kelvin Chow.

In the upcoming webinar, Kelvin will share a short company presentation after which, he will engage in a fireside chat with Smartkarma Insight Provider, Angus Mackintosh. Angus will also be providing an industry overview, featuring landscape commentary and returns analysis. The Corporate Webinar will include a live Q&A session.

In the spirit of the festive season, one of the attendees will also be awarded an Amazon Kindle as part of our lucky draw.

The Corporate Webinar will be hosted on Tuesday, 9 January 2024, 19:00 SGT.

About Lendlease Global Commercial REIT

Lendlease Global Commercial REIT’s portfolio comprises two leasehold properties in Singapore, Jem (office and retail property) and 313@somerset (retail property), and three freehold Grade A office buildings, Sky Complex, in Milan. It has a total net lettable area of approximately 2.1 million square feet, with an appraised value of S$3.65 billion. Other investments include a stake in Parkway Parade and the development of a multifunctional event space on a site adjacent to 313@somerset.

• The stage is set for a potential resurgence of NFTs in 2024. As crypto wealth increases, spending on NFTs for “flexing”, identity, and entertainment will rise.
• A few NFT Character Brands could explode into mainstream consciousness and grow exponentially. Others will remain as niche communities.
• Ethereum will lose market share in NFTs, and Solana could catch up.

• Bajaj Finance Ltd (BAF) reported a decent Q2FY24. AUM growth came in at 33% YoY. Profitability was also strong with ROA and ROE at 5%+ and 24%+, respectively.
• While, the overall outlook remains robust, BAF may see some NIM pressure due to rising cost of funds. However, majority of this is likely to be offset by operating leverage.
• BAF’s initiative to enter into new segments like microfinance and new car financing is progressing well. New car financing expansion is already ahead of plan with presence in 85 locations.

• 3 main APAC markets (Nifty, Kospi 200 and ASX200) are very OVERBOUGHT.
• A WEEKLY pullback (1 week down) is expected this coming week, or the next.
• The pullback should be short-lived and last just 1 week, then the rally should resume.

Lippo Malls Indonesia Retail Trust has launched a capped tender offer for its two outstanding USD notes: the 7.25% ’24s, with USD 231.8 mn outstanding; and the 7.5% ’26s, with USD 181.7 mn outstanding. The purchase prices will be 76.5 for the ’24s, and 66.5 for the ’26s. Funding for the tender offer would be from, and capped by the size of, an INR 2.5 tn (SGD 215 mn) secured amortising term loan facility.

We recommend that holders of the ’24s and ’26s tender their notes.

• The stock of Poly Development and Holdings Group Co. Ltd. jumped 7.6% Tuesday after the leading developer unveiled an up to 2-billion-yuan ($279 million) share buyback aimed at arresting its sliding equity price.
• Shares of Poly Development closed at 10.34 yuan in Shanghai Tuesday, compared with 9.61 yuan at Monday’s closing. The stock has nearly halved from the 18.59-yuan peak in April 2022 after the persistent downturn in the property market.
• Poly Development, China’s largest developer by sales this year, said late Monday that it plans to buy back 1 billion yuan to 2 billion yuan of its own shares in the next three months.

• Cash-strapped developer Dalian Wanda Group Co. Ltd. can breathe a temporary sigh of relief having reached an agreement with investors to avoid an immediate repayment of more than 40 billion yuan ($5.6 billion) for an unfulfilled flotation of its property management unit.
• Wanda faced having to repay a group of investors their 38-billion-yuan investments plus interest under a 2021 agreement if the developer failed to list its light-asset unit, Zhuhai Wanda Commercial Management Group Co. Ltd., by the end of this year.
• As Zhuhai Wanda’s listing plan failed despite four attempts, the repayment obligation became a ticking time bomb hanging over the company, which is struggling with capital drains amid plunging sales.

Lucror Analytics Morning Views comprise our fundamental credit analysis, opinions and trade recommendations on high yield issuers in the region, based on key company-specific developments in the past 24 hours. Our Morning Views include a section with a brief market commentary, key market indicators and a macroeconomic and corporate event calendar.

BlackRock Greater Europe Investment Trust (BRGE) has two co-managers: Stefan Gries (since June 2017) and newly appointed Alexandra Dangoor (since September 2023). They highlight that Europe is very attractively valued and as the managers seek the best businesses that are based in Europe, investors do not need to have a positive view on the European economy to consider BRGE. The trust has outperformed the Europe ex-UK market over the last one, five and 10 years, and its NAV total returns also rank first compared with those of the other three funds with a growth mandate in the AIC Europe sector over these periods.

Deutsche Beteiligungs (DBAG) posted a strong 18.1% NAV TR in FY23 (to end-September 2023), which more than offset the NAV TR loss in FY22 of c 13%. Its performance benefited from, among other factors, comparable multiples expansion and a successful year in terms of realisations (in contrast to the muted exit activity across the broad global PE market). Moreover, DBAG’s management decided to enter the fast-growing private debt market through the acquisition of a majority stake in ELF Capital, with DBAG making a €100m investment commitment to ELF Capital’s funds. We believe this may have contributed to the recent update to DBAG’s distribution policy, which now assumes a minimum dividend of €1.00/share versus the previous 2023–25 management target of €1.60/share.