In today’s briefing:
- Toshiba – These Are The Days Of Our Lives
- Bank of Kyoto – Trading the Holdco Range
- Rakuten (Neutral) – A Surprising Win with Goto Although Its Mobile Challenges Remain
- Hogy Medical (3593 JP): Reviving Demand for Premium Surgical Kit Products to Drive Future Growth
- Challenge Is How to Promote Sustainability in a Japanese Company that Has Inadequate Human Resources
Toshiba – These Are The Days Of Our Lives
- At last year’s Toshiba AGM we had an elected director resign because the sitting chairman was rejected.
- This year we have another director resigning because two other directors weren’t rejected.
- Now all we are really waiting for in this drama is for Kurumatani’s hitherto unknown identical twin, separated at birth, to show up with a plot for revenge or something…
Bank of Kyoto – Trading the Holdco Range
- Bank of Kyoto has twice changed/improved its capital governance in the past six months.
- Silchester International Investors wants it to do more, asking for a small special dividend at tomorrow’s AGM. I don’t think it will get it.
- The holdco is now a better holdco trade than it was 6mos ago, and trading the range is the right way to look at it.
Rakuten (Neutral) – A Surprising Win with Goto Although Its Mobile Challenges Remain
- Rakuten’s stake in Goto is worth ¥13bn and the IPO of the latter in April and the subsequent value re-rating could provide some (very) modest offset to operating losses
- Our forecasts remain unchanged from our mid-month update although we would flag up potential electricity resale upside for Rakuten and the sector from utility resale
- We have lowered our price target to ¥1,000 from ¥1,150 but uncertainty over the timing of a Bank listing, mobile recovery and return to profitability keep us cautious
Hogy Medical (3593 JP): Reviving Demand for Premium Surgical Kit Products to Drive Future Growth
- Hogy Medical (3593 JP) is high-quality idea on Japan re-opening, with surgical kit, especially premium kit being the main growth driver of the company.
- With the declining effect of the COVID-19 and resuming elective surgeries in Japan, Hogy expects 5% y/y revenue growth in FY23, driven by an 11% growth in surgical kit products.
- Hogy is expanding marketing initiatives in Southeast Asian countries. The company is enhancing production capacity of premium kit products, with partial operation of the new plant to start in July.
Challenge Is How to Promote Sustainability in a Japanese Company that Has Inadequate Human Resources
- I would like to discuss the Nikkei article titled “EY Survey Legal Managers on Awareness of Sustainable Society.”
- The survey also included responses from Japanese companies, stating that “many legal departments in Japanese companies do not have sufficient systems in place to deal with ESG and other issues.
- The question is how seriously management is discussing how to deal with these issues, as many Japanese companies do not have sufficient human resources, not only in their legal departments.
Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma
