In today’s briefing:
- [Japan Buybacks] – Buybacks Announced 26-30 May 2025 And Company Buyback History
- Merger Arb Mondays (02 June) – Seven & I, SBI Sumishin, Shibaura, Mayne, ENN Energy, HKBN, Zeekr
- The TJX Companies: Leveraging Vendor Relationships For A Competitive Edge!
- DigiPlus Interactive (PLUS PM): Galloping Away Into A Strong Q2 FY25
- Target Corporation: Will Its Investments in Digital Fulfillment and Supply Chain Pay Off?
- How The Home Depot Plans to Capture a $50 Billion Opportunity Amid Economic Uncertainty!
- Toll Brothers: Will Its Spec Home Strategy & Market Adaptation Be A Breakthrough Move?
- Water Oasis H1 FY25 Results: An Improvement In Profitability And Cash 90% of Market Capitalization
- Zozo Purchase of Lyst Is Timely
- Governance Issues Were Not Highlighted and the Win-Win by REIT Sponsors and Investors Continues
[Japan Buybacks] – Buybacks Announced 26-30 May 2025 And Company Buyback History
- Buybacks in Japan are becoming a much greater driver of shareholder return than in previous years. The total amount of buybacks announced just during the March-end earnings season cleared ¥7trln.
- Quiddity has developed a buyback tool which tracks Japanese buybacks and the buyback history for any given company. Isuzu Motors (7202 JP) announced a big post-Offering buyback this week.
- Want to see how Isuzu has executed buybacks the past decade? Daily data? % volume? You can check here for any of the 21 companies which announced buybacks this week.
Merger Arb Mondays (02 June) – Seven & I, SBI Sumishin, Shibaura, Mayne, ENN Energy, HKBN, Zeekr
- We summarise the latest spreads and newsflow of merger arb situations we cover across Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Chinese ADRs.
- Highest spreads: Mayne Pharma (MYX AU), Insignia Financial (IFL AU), ENN Energy (2688 HK), Seven & I Holdings (3382 JP), Smartpay Holdings (SPY NZ), Smart Share Global (EM US).
- Lowest spreads: Bright Smart Securities And (1428 HK), Dada Nexus (DADA US), Spartan Resources (SPR AU), Nissin Corp (9066 JP), Torii Pharmaceutical (4551 JP), Nippon Road (1884 JP).
The TJX Companies: Leveraging Vendor Relationships For A Competitive Edge!
- The TJX Companies, Inc. reported its first-quarter results for fiscal year 2026, demonstrating resilient performance across its various divisions amidst a challenging macroeconomic environment.
- The company achieved a 3% increase in comparable store sales, driven by higher customer transactions, with each division—both in the U.S. and internationally—contributing positively.
- Notable growth was observed in the HomeGoods division, which outperformed its competitors, delivering a 4% increase in comp sales and a 70 basis point improvement in segment profit margin compared to the previous year.
DigiPlus Interactive (PLUS PM): Galloping Away Into A Strong Q2 FY25
- DigiPlus Interactive (PLUS PM) reported robust Q1 FY25 results, driven by an increase in MAUs to 7.5 million (6.5 in Q4). The company maintained its market share at ~45%.
- Net margins expanded 200 bps QoQ (to 18.2%), as the company benefited from a 500 bps reduction in its share of GGR to PAGCOR.
- The stock has increased by >400% since January 2024, but it trades at 14.1x FY25 PE, with growth catalysts from the Philippines and Brazil expected in the future.
Target Corporation: Will Its Investments in Digital Fulfillment and Supply Chain Pay Off?
- Target Corporation faced a set of challenging conditions in the first quarter of 2025, significantly impacting its overall performance.
- The detailed analysis of the quarterly results reveals a balanced mix of positive aspects, setbacks, and strategic adjustments, offering investors insights into the company’s current standing and future priorities.
- First-quarter sales for Target declined by 2.8%, primarily driven by a decrease in comparable sales of 3.8%.
How The Home Depot Plans to Capture a $50 Billion Opportunity Amid Economic Uncertainty!
- The Home Depot, during its first quarter of fiscal 2025, reported sales of $39.9 billion, which represented a 9.4% increase compared to the same period last year.
- However, the company’s comparable store sales declined slightly by 0.3%.
- The U.S. comps showed a modest increase of 0.2%.
Toll Brothers: Will Its Spec Home Strategy & Market Adaptation Be A Breakthrough Move?
- During its second quarter earnings for fiscal 2025, Toll Brothers, Inc. outlined its financial and operational performance amidst a challenging economic environment, providing insights into its strategies and market outlook.
- Toll Brothers reported robust financial performance for the second quarter, achieving record second quarter home sales revenue of $2.71 billion, which surpassed the midpoint of their guidance by $236 million.
- They delivered 2,899 homes at an average selling price of approximately $934,000.
Water Oasis H1 FY25 Results: An Improvement In Profitability And Cash 90% of Market Capitalization
- Water Oasis (1161 HK) H1 FY25 results were encouraging and a step in the positive direction as revenue/PAT improved by -2.5%/116% YoY
- The company declared a semi-annual dividend of 3.5 cents (6.7% annualized yield) for a 43% payout ratio. Net cash of 633 million HKD represents 90% of the market capitalization.
- Trading at 6.0x FY25 PE with earnings stabilization, this is a great name to explore, although we would like to see an improvement in capital allocation.
Zozo Purchase of Lyst Is Timely
- Zozo’s purchase of UK mall Lyst will create significant synergies, allowing Zozo to build a strong base in Europe and the US.
- The move will allow brands from Japan to sell overseas easily, while also potentially making it simple for European and US brands to sell into Japan.
- The deal comes just in time given slowing e-commerce sales in Japan.
Governance Issues Were Not Highlighted and the Win-Win by REIT Sponsors and Investors Continues
- While offering non-serious TOB prices, knowing that the likelihood of TOBs by the activist fund is low, the aim to extract concessions from the REIT and sponsor companies was successful.
- The governance problem is the composition of the company, which continues to manage off-balance sheet real estate through its subsidiary REIT asset management company.
- So far, however, governance issues have not received much attention, only confirming the sponsor companies’ willingness to continue REIT control and investors’ benefit from higher REIT stock prices by TOBs.
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