In today’s briefing:
- Quiddity NIFTY Sep26 Results and Flow Update: 11/12 Correct; ~US$940mn Combined One-Way Flow
- Public Financial (626 HK) Halted: Public Bank (PBK MK) Takeover Expected
- Public Financial Holdings (626 HK): Privatisation Offer from Public Bank?
- Aequitas: Svatantra Microfin Limited Pre-IPO Tearsheet
- Indian PSBs: Baroda (BOB IN) Stays a Buy, Adding Canara (CBK IN) As a Buy Replacing UBI (UNBK IN)
- Futu Holdings (FUTU US): A Splendid Show
- India: Relative Value Opportunities and Pair Trades (21 Aug 2026)
- Svatantra Microfin Limited (1607575D IN): Synthetic Expert Call Transcript (20 Aug 2026)
- CLAS Masterclass: Engineering A 180-Bps Yield Arbitrage In A Tight Capital Market
- Jon Ma, CEO Of Artemis, On Building 24/7 AI Agents For Trading & Investing
Quiddity NIFTY Sep26 Results and Flow Update: 11/12 Correct; ~US$940mn Combined One-Way Flow
- The semiannual index rebal events of the NIFTY 50 index and NIFTY 100 index will take place near the end of September 2026.
- There will be one change for NIFTY 50 index and five changes for NIFTY 100.
- In this insight, we take a look at our latest flow expectations for the confirmed index changes.
Public Financial (626 HK) Halted: Public Bank (PBK MK) Takeover Expected
- Public Financial (626 HK) is suspended pursuant to Hong Kong Code on Takeovers and Mergers. Expect a Scheme Offer from Public Bank (PBK MK), holding 73.23%.
- Public Bank could offer, say $2.50/share, a 60% premium, which still backs out a low trailing P/B of 0.35x. It may well go higher to factor in the headcount test.
- Public Financial is super-illiquid. Look away now if this is not your thing.
Public Financial Holdings (626 HK): Privatisation Offer from Public Bank?
- Public Financial (626 HK) has entered a trading halt “pending the issuance of an announcement pursuant to the Code on Takeovers and Mergers which contains inside information of the Company.”
- It is likely that the controlling shareholder (Public Bank (PBK MK)), representing 73.23% of the outstanding shares, is seeking to launch a privatisation through a Bermuda scheme.
- While no disinterested shareholder holds a blocking stake, the headcount test necessitates a reasonable offer. I estimate a potential offer range of HK$2.20-2.80 (41.9%-80.6% premium to last close).
Aequitas: Svatantra Microfin Limited Pre-IPO Tearsheet
- Svatantra Microfin Limited (1607575D IN) (SML) plans to raise around US$315m in its upcoming India IPO. The deal will be run by Axis, Avendus, IIFL, Kotak and SBI Caps.
- SML is an inclusion-focused non-banking financial company, focused on providing microfinance and individual loans, particularly to rural and semi-urban women entrepreneurs.
- As per CRISIL, SML was the second largest non-banking financial company – microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI) in India as of FY24-26 in terms of microfinance assets under management.
Indian PSBs: Baroda (BOB IN) Stays a Buy, Adding Canara (CBK IN) As a Buy Replacing UBI (UNBK IN)
- We keep deep-value Bank of Baroda on the buy list, whilst replacing UBI with Canara on the buy list; Baroda trades at an over 50% discount to SBI’s PBV ratio
- Canara stands out for its PBV to ROE, as well as its prospective earnings and dividend yields; Canara has also been aggressively writing-off NPAs, reducing its low NPL ratio further
- We add Indian Bank to our coverage in this report; it ranks highly on the scorecard but we believe that Canara has the edge on valuation metrics and credit write-offs
Futu Holdings (FUTU US): A Splendid Show
- Futu Holdings Ltd (FUTU US)‘s 2Q26 non-GAAP net profit growth of 40.1% is impressive, suggesting that the negative impact of regulatory issues is fading.
- Operational metrics accelerated sequentially, partly due to the solid HK IPO pipeline, which is likely to sustain. 3Q26 momentum moderated slightly but is manageable.
- Its 12.1x FY26 PER is inflated given the room for earnings upgrades. It is also cheaper than the average of 17.2x since 2021 and 13.7x since 2025.
India: Relative Value Opportunities and Pair Trades (21 Aug 2026)
- Context: This Insight follows up on previously highlighted relative value opportunities, using a statistical methodology based on mean-reversion to identify opportunities in paired securities.
- Highlights: In India’s financial sector, currently four pair trade opportunities persist
- Why read: Statistical analysis offers a unique perspective on relative value. Gain insights into actionable statistical pair trade opportunities and monitor performance of previously highlighted pairs.
Svatantra Microfin Limited (1607575D IN): Synthetic Expert Call Transcript (20 Aug 2026)
- Svatantra Microfin has consolidated its position as India’s second-largest NBFC-MFI following the legal amalgamation of Chaitanya India Fin Credit, completed on March 21, 2026, bringing consolidated assets under management (AUM) to approximately ₹22,000 crore.
- Svatantra commands the lowest cost of borrowings in the microfinance industry at 8.14% as of March 31, 2026, largely driven by its CRISIL AA (Stable) rating and strong promoter lineage via Ananya Birla, outclassing peers like CreditAccess Grameen, Fusion, and Spandana.
- Despite reporting a industry-leading Gross Stage 3 ratio of 1.19% for its microfinance portfolio in FY26, Svatantra faces notable operational risks, including a high reliance on cash collections at 79.22% and a massive negative operating cash flow of ₹5,392.60 crore due to rapid loan disbursements.
Disclaimer: The following transcripts are synthetic, AI-generated on demand, and compiled exclusively from public data sources; no real-word experts were actually interviewed. This content is designed to highlight potential market mispricings, explore compelling lines of inquiry, and suggest strategic questions rather than present verified facts. All specific financial metrics and data points, including market shares, TAM, margins, and growth rates, are AI-estimated approximations. They may be inaccurate and must be independently verified.
CLAS Masterclass: Engineering A 180-Bps Yield Arbitrage In A Tight Capital Market
- Capturing a 180-basis-point positive spread by recycling a mature hotel into a 4.1% yielding co-living asset drives highly accretive 2.4% DPS growth without issuing new equity.
- Backed by SGD 8.9bn in assets, 37.7% gearing, and an extraordinarily low 2.8% debt cost, CLAS leverages immense balance sheet strength to dominate the Asia-Pacific lodging space.
- Unlike logistics assets trapped by long leases, hospitality’s dynamic pricing and co-living’s sticky revenue provide a superior inflation hedge and defensive floor amid macroeconomic volatility.
Jon Ma, CEO Of Artemis, On Building 24/7 AI Agents For Trading & Investing
- Crypto-token-only investing is disappearing as a standalone strategy, with major specialist funds expanding into frontier tech, AI & robotics (Paradigm) and into public & private crypto equities (Multicoin) as much of the value created by tokens has accrued to businesses like Coinbase, Circle & Tether rather than to tokenholders.
- With liquidity & volume growing across every market from private secondaries (Augment, EquityZen) to tokenized equities (Robinhood, Kraken), tokens & perpetuals (Pump.fun, Hyperliquid), and prediction markets (Kalshi, Polymarket), a single worldview can now map to dozens of different assets, making the hard part figuring out what to actually buy.
- As conviction rather than access becomes the bottleneck, every investment app is launching its own AI agents, from brokerages (Composer, acquired by SoFi) to trading apps (Robinhood, Public) and research platforms (Artemis), bringing research, portfolio management & execution together with the upside of owning the core user interface for deciding what to invest in, building a portfolio, and managing it over time.
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