Daily Brief Financials: NSDL, Mapletree Logistics Trust, ZEEKR and more

In today’s briefing:

NSDL Vs CDSL: A Bottom-Up Comparison
US-China Decoupling: The Reshaping of Asian Industrial Logistics – SHORT MapleTree Logistics Trust
(Mostly) Asia-Pac M&A: ZEEKR, DD Group, Hanil Cement, Adriatic Metals, Abacus Storage, PointsBet

NSDL Vs CDSL: A Bottom-Up Comparison

NSDL has been gearing up for its IPO and is very likely to hit the markets shortly within the SEBI stipulated deadline of 31st July.
NSDL historically had the upper hand over CDSL as institutional clients led to strong outperformance. But the booming retail investment landscape since 2021 has turned the tables on the leader.
Given that the trend of retail participation inching is expected to continue, NSDL needs to rejuvenate its approach to plough back market share. Payments banking business cant offset the impact.

The US-China decoupling is resulting in geo-political risks, causing structural changes to China’s manufacturing and logistics sector. Companies re-locate their supply chains due to “China Plus One” strategy.
Despite E-commerce remains as a long-term strong driver for China logistics, the sector is facing severe over-supply in the near term. National vacancy is 20.3% at Q1 2025
We recommend SHORT MapleTree Logistics Trust, due to its significant exposure to China logistics. DPU, NPI and ROE are on downward trend

I tally 40 – mostly firm, mostly Asia-Pac – arb transactions currently being discussed and analysed on Smartkarma.
Two new deals were discussed on Smartkarma this week: DD Group (3073 JP)‘s MBO and the Hanil Cement Co Ltd/New (300720 KS)/Hanil Hyundai Cement (006390 KS) merger.
Key updates/news took place on PointsBet Holdings (PBH AU), Adriatic Metals PLC (ADT AU), Abacus Storage King (ASK AU), New World Resources (NWC AU), and ZEEKR (ZK US).

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