This weekly newsletter pulls together summaries of the top ten most-read Insights across Equity Capital Markets on Smartkarma.
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1. GMO Internet (4784) DropDown Holdco Gone Ballistic – Squeezed on Truly Tiny Float
- Gmo Ad Partners (4784 JP) has become GMO Internet as of 1 January 2025. On that day, it merged with the “internet infrastructure business” of GMO Internet (9449 JP).
- It was a kind of reverse takeover – a backdoor listing – and it on 24-Dec-2024, it was announced GMO Internet would move from TSE Standard to TSE Prime end-Jan2025.
- The stock is +300% since then. Why? A squeeze. Share count increase? 15x. Float share increase? Zero. Resulting Real World Float? 1.24% of shares out and about to shrink.
2. Trading LG Chem’s Large-Scale EB Issuance Backed by LG Energy Shares
- With a $2B deal expected, LG Chem will likely issue before end June as the 2023 EB’s put date nears and redemption pressure builds amid strained financials.
- Two years ago, hedge shorting spiked post-issuance and post-exchange start, but price impact was mild—only 3% and 6% drops—likely due to strong sector sentiment then.
- Sector sentiment’s turned sharply, so more aggressive price action is likely post-EB announcement. Timing is tricky, but the setup’s worth watching closely.
3. DN Solutions IPO – Tariffs, Peer Correction Don’t Help
- DN Solutions (298440 KS) (DNS) aims to raise around US$1.1bn in its Korea IPO via selling a mix of primary and secondary shares.
- DNS is engaged in the manufacture and sale of machine tools and the business of automation solutions and services related thereto.
- In our previous note, we looked at the company’s past performance and valuations. In this note, we talk about the updates since then.
4. Kakao Corp Placement – Momentum Isn’t Great but It Is a Small Deal
- SK Telecom (017670 KS) plans to raise around US$280m via selling its 2%+ stake in Kakao Corp (035720 KS).
- Kakao’s recent performance hasn’t been particularly great and the stock has been suffering even since the Kakao Pay management scandal in 2021.
- In this note, we will run the deal through our ECM framework and talk about the recent updates.
5. Initial Thoughts on the Sono International IPO
- Sono International, the largest resort operator in Korea, is getting ready to complete its IPO in 3Q 2025.
- Company is aiming for valuation of about 3 trillion won. Treasury shares accounted for 35.93% of total outstanding shares at the end of 2024.
- One of the noticeable aspects of the company’s income statement is that although the company’s sales growth was modest from 2019 to 2024, its operating margin growth has been spectacular.
6. ECM Weekly (22 Apr 2025) – Suzuki, Zenergy, Chagee, Duality, Manycore, Horizon, Giant Bio, TV Asahi
- Aequitas Research’s weekly update on the IPOs, placements, lockup expiry and other ECM linked events that were covered by the team over the past week.
- On the IPO front, Duality Biotherapeutics delivered a strong listing, while Jiangsu Zenergy Battery Technologies was still holding on to its deal price.
- On the placements front, we looked at number of upcoming lockup expiries.
7. Waaree Energies IPO Lockup – Lots of Individual Shareholders Own over US$2bn Worth of Stock
- Waaree Energies (WAAREEEN IN) raised around US$514m in its India IPO in October 2024. The lockup on its pre-IPO investors is set to expire soon.
- Waaree Energies is a solar PV module manufacturer in India with an aggregate installed capacity of 12 GW, as of Jun 2024.
- In this note, we will talk about the lockup dynamics and possible placement.
8. Chagee Holdings – Thoughts on the IPO Debut and the Valuation Outlook
- Chagee may think that US IPO will help it gain greater imagination space/higher valuation. Although the tariff war is “a big surprise”, conservative IPO pricing still secure a good debut.
- If Chagee can successfully achieve internationalization and reverse the trend of declining performance, its market value could reach US$10.9 billion. However, Chinese concept stocks would still face valuation discounts.
- If same store GMV fails to stabilize, or overseas market penetration is lower-than-expected, or conflict between China and the US escalates, share price would face correction, with valuation falling below Starbucks.
9. Ather Energy IPO – Still Not Cheap Enough
- Ather Energy is now looking to raise about US$350m in its upcoming India IPO.
- Ather is a pure play electric vehicle company in India designing and developing E2Ws, battery packs, charging infrastructure, associated software and accessories, also manufacturing battery packs and assembling E2Ws in-house.
- In our previous note, we looked at the company’s past performance. In this note, we talk about the updates since then and valuations.
10. Wistron GDR Early Look – Riding the AI Server Boom Amid Macroeconomic Headwinds
- Wistron Corp (3231 TT) is looking to raise up to US$760m in its upcoming global depository receipts (GDRs) offering.
- On 2nd Apr 2025, Wistron announced that it had received its board’s approval to sell up to 250m common shares via a GDR offering.
- Similar to previous GDR listings, the deal is a long drawn out process with the firm required to jump through a number of board/shareholder/regulatory approval loops.
