Daily Brief China: ESR Group , Oneconnect Financial Technology, Kuaishou Technology and more

In today’s briefing:

ESR (1821 HK): Pre-Cons Done. Scheme Doc By 22nd May

Back on the 4th December 204, Starwood/Warburg Pincus Consortium announced a firm pre-conditional Offer for ESR Group (1821 HK) at HK$13/share (best & final), by way of a Scheme.
The list of pre-cons was extensive. Last night (15th May), ESR announced the satisfaction of all pre-cons.
The Scheme Doc is now required to be dispatched by the 22nd May, suggesting payment around mid-July. Assuming no dispatch delays.

Back on 3rd March, dual-listed OneConnect Financial (6638 HK/OFT US), a digital retail banking/commercial banking/digital insurance play, announced a non-binding proposal from Ping An, OneConnect’s controlling shareholder with 32.12%.
By way of a Scheme, Ping An offered HK$2.068/share, or US$7.98/ADS, a 72.33% premium to last close, and a 131.66% premium to the 30-day average. The price was final.
SAMR has now signed off on the deal and terms are now firmed. M&G is supportive (1.98% of shares out, ~8% of disinterested shares). Perhaps mid-September completion.

There are no constituent changes for the Hang Seng Internet & IT Index (HSIII) in June but there will be float and capping changes.
Estimated one-way turnover is 5.95% and that leads to a round-trip trade of HK$3.2bn (US$410m). There are a few stocks with over 0.5x ADV to trade from passive trackers.
The inflows to NetEase (9999 HK) and Baidu (9888 HK) and the outflows from Kuaishou Technology (1024 HK) and Bilibili (9626 HK) will add to the flows from other indices.

💡 Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma

The Smartkarma Preview Pass is your entry to the Independent Investment Research Network