In today’s briefing:
- [Japan Buyback] Leopalace (8848 JP) – A Giant Buyback To Get Fortress Partially Out
- [Japan Buybacks] – Buybacks Announced 26-30 May 2025 And Company Buyback History
- Soul Patts & Brickworks: Index Impact of A$14bn Merger
- Merger Arb Mondays (02 June) – Seven & I, SBI Sumishin, Shibaura, Mayne, ENN Energy, HKBN, Zeekr
- Soul Patts/Brickworks To Unwind Circularity
- (Mostly) Asia M&A, May 2025 Wrap: NTT Data, ZEEKR, MAC Copper, Torii, Mitsu. Shokuhin, SBI Sumishin
- Nifty 50 and the RBI Rate Decision: History Has a Pattern
- [Alert] Buy Net Lease Office Properties (NLOP)
- Renatus Tactical Acquisition Corp I: SPAC with Crypto Focus and Trump-Linked Management
[Japan Buyback] Leopalace (8848 JP) – A Giant Buyback To Get Fortress Partially Out
- Leopalace21 Corp (8848 JP) had a giant oopsie in 2018-2021 where they lost ¥180bn over three years because of defective construction requiring repairs.
- Murakami and others got involved. Leopalace got financing from FIG (shares/SARs/loan), Murakami bailed. Eventually Hikari Tsushin got in. Leopalace got FIG out of their loan, doing a refi through Mizuho.
- Cash was up, cashflow is strong. Business is changed/revived. Now Leopalace is buying back SARs it sold to FIG. FIG will still own 26%. The future is potentially interesting. Still.
[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.
Soul Patts & Brickworks: Index Impact of A$14bn Merger
- Washington H. Soul Pattinson (SOL AU) and Brickworks Ltd (BKW AU) have executed a binding Combination Deed to implement an A$14bn merger that simplifies the company structure by eliminating crossholdings.
- The merger ratio is a good one for Brickworks Ltd (BKW AU) shareholders and the benefits to both sets of shareholders should see the merger approved.
- There will be large passive buying in Washington H. Soul Pattinson (SOL AU) from global and local index trackers and that could lead to short covering.
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).
Soul Patts/Brickworks To Unwind Circularity
- The cross-shareholding between Washington H. Soul Pattinson (SOL AU) (Soul Patts) and Brickworks Ltd (BKW AU) was established in 1969 to defend the companies from the corporate raiders.
- Perpetual pursued a case in the Federal Court of Australia, alleging that the cross-shareholding was oppressive to minority shareholders; however the claim was dismissed in 2017.
- Today, via inter-conditional Schemes, the circularity is set to be unwound through a merger. Soul Patts currently owns 43.3% in Brickworks, and Brickworks 26% in Soul Patts.
(Mostly) Asia M&A, May 2025 Wrap: NTT Data, ZEEKR, MAC Copper, Torii, Mitsu. Shokuhin, SBI Sumishin
- For May 2025, 13 new transactions (firm and non-binding) were discussed on Smartkarma (by the Quiddity team) with an overall announced deal size of ~US$27bn.
- The average premium for the new transactions announced (or first discussed) in May was ~28%, with a year-to-date average of 49%.
- The average premiums for transactions in 2024 (129 transactions), (2023 (117), 2022 (106), 2021 (165), 2020 (158), and 2019 (145 ) were 43%, 39%, 41%, 33%, 31%, and 31%.
Nifty 50 and the RBI Rate Decision: History Has a Pattern
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is set to announce a monetary policy decision on Friday, 6 June 2025.
- Market Expectations: The consensus anticipates a 25-basis-point rate cut, lowering the rate from currently 6.00% to 5.75%. Historically, one in four RBI rate decisions is a surprise to the market.
- This Insight investigates past market behavior during comparable RBI policy announcements, unearthing a surprising statistic about how the Nifty 50 might react to June’s decision, regardless of the outcome.
[Alert] Buy Net Lease Office Properties (NLOP)
- I thought I had missed NLOP. But a conversation at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting convinced me to take another look.
- I told a friend that I “was pissed that I missed NLOP.” He said, “You haven’t missed it. All recourse debt has been paid off and the company is about to start paying dividends.”
- So I made a decision to revisit NLOP with a fresh perspective.
Renatus Tactical Acquisition Corp I: SPAC with Crypto Focus and Trump-Linked Management
- Renatus Tactical Acquisition Corp I (RTAC) is a SPAC targeting crypto/blockchain with a $240m IPO, led by Trump Media executives.
- RTAC units include one share and half a warrant, with a trust value of $10.025/share, trading above trust value.
- RTAC’s sponsor sold 1.5m shares and 0.7m warrants post-IPO at $2.45/unit, below IPO price.
💡 Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma
Sign Up for Free
The Smartkarma Preview Pass is your entry to the Independent Investment Research Network
- ✓ Unlimited Research Summaries
- ✓ Personalised Alerts
- ✓ Custom Watchlists
- ✓ Company Data and News
- ✓ Events & Webinars
