Aaron Gabin

I have over 18 years’ experience in investing in the TMT and Consumer sectors, almost entirely on the buyside. Started at Bernstein covering software in 2001, moved to the buyside at Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) in 2003, covering hardware, software, and media. 

After getting an MBA at NYU in 2008 and a CFA, I spent 8 years at Coburn Ventures (a market neutral TMT/Consumer hedge fund). In 2015, I joined Deimos Asset Management, a low net multi-strat, where I managed a  TMT/Consumer portfolio.

I've spent the past few years at Obex Capital Management providing independent investment research to TMT and Consumer investors.

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst

Actionable bottom-up long/short Insights on equities

Equity Bottom-Up

Tesla Motors, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells high-performance electric vehicles and electric vehicle powertrain components.  The Company owns its sales and service network and sells electric powertrain components to other automobile manufacturers.

<ul>
<li>In this insight, we analyzed the different share price movements of SK Telecom relative to KOSPI from 2005 to 2022 when foreign ownership remained above 99%.</li>
<li>Once MSCI announces the potential deletion of SK Telecom from MSCI Korea Index in the next several weeks, there could be some short term temporary weakness on SK Telecom.</li>
<li>Over a longer period, SK Telecom is well poised to outperform the market amid the market's rotation into value stocks and the company's strong earnings and cash flow growth.</li>
</ul>

Douglas Kim

Korea/Asia, New Economy, IPOs, Events

Lucror Analytics Weekly Wraps provide an overview of all Morning Views comments and reports published by our analyst team in the past week, and also showcase a list of the most-read reports.In this Insight:<ol><li><a href='/entities/china-jinmao-holdings-group' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>China Jinmao Holdings</a></li><li><a href='/entities/guangzhou-r-f-properties-h' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Guangzhou R&F Properties</a></li><li><a href='/entities/sunac-china-holdings-ltd' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Sunac China Holdings</a></li><li><a href='/entities/greenland-hong-kong-holdings-ltd' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Greenland Hong Kong Holdings</a></li><li><a href='/entities/china-evergrande-group' target='_blank' rel='noopener'>Evergrande</a></li></ol>and more...

Charles Macgregor

Head of Asia

<ul>
<li>Unsurprisingly, the independent expert (IE) considers the offer for <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/irongate-group" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:30897:1" rel="noopener">Irongate Group (IAP AU)</a> to be fair and reasonable. We think that IE’s valuation approach is sound.</li>
<li>The key condition is approval from shareholders and regulatory authorities (FIRB, OIO, SARB). The scheme meeting is scheduled for 29 June. </li>
<li>We continue to think that offer is attractive. At the last close price and for the 15 July implementation date, the gross and annualised spread is 1.4% and 9.2%, respectively.</li>
</ul>

Arun George

IPOs and Catalysts/Events

<ul>
<li>The bleak retail performance of the previous two months reversed to a surprising extent as sales surged by 1.4%. Demand for booze dominated falling non-food store sales.</li>
<li>GDP seems only slightly less weak in Q2 as this bounce will probably prove short-lived around Easter. Falling real incomes squeezes sale volumes rather than raising values. </li>
<li>Crashing consumer confidence has now reached record lows in contrast to the business optimism that seems set for a rude awakening as customers baulk at higher prices.</li>
</ul>

Phil Rush

Chief Economist

The Chinese Property Weekly focuses on providing updates in the Chinese real-estate sector, including recent regulatory and company developments, top and bottom performers, rating actions, as well as a list of bond maturities in the next 30 days.

<ul>
<li>Tesla is a short. We know. You can't short it. But it is a short.</li>
<li>We continue to look for businesses that overearned and pulled in growth during the pandemic...some more recently identified examples: CHWY, ROKU</li>
<li>Spotify remains one of our top short ideas, bad business model, and now increasing competition from alternative listening services. </li>
</ul>

Obex Capital Research

“Obex” is Latin for Barriers to Entry. Obex Capital Management’s investment philosophy is driven by an intense focus on which business model’s Barriers to Entry are able to withstand the ever increasing competitive disruption in the TMT and Consumer Sectors.

<ul>
<li>Foreign investors hold 106.51m shares of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sk-telecom-co-ltd-bbccd86c-474d-4a4d-946d-10e911a225a2" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:395:1" rel="noopener">SK Telecom (017670 KS)</a> versus a limit of 107.23m shares. There are only 723k more shares (1 day of ADV) available for foreign buying.</li>
<li>MSCI will delete <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sk-telecom-co-ltd-bbccd86c-474d-4a4d-946d-10e911a225a2" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:395:1" rel="noopener">SK Telecom (017670 KS)</a> from its indices once the foreign room reaches zero, while FTSE will likely reduce the investability weight in two tranches of 5% each.</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sk-telecom-co-ltd-bbccd86c-474d-4a4d-946d-10e911a225a2" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:395:1" rel="noopener">SK Telecom (017670 KS)</a> could continue underperforming <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kt-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1112:1" rel="noopener">KT Corp (030200 KS)</a> in the short-term due to passive selling and inability of foreign investors to buy the stock.</li>
</ul>

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/Events/Delta One

<ul>
<li>Celltrion Inc (068270 KS)'s deletion seems pretty much a foregone conclusion as its average float-adjusted market cap on May 3-19 is way below the next one in line.</li>
<li>Shinhan Financial (055550 KS) is the one to replace Celltrion based on the numbers so far. There is close to a ₩1T gap with the next one, POSCO (005490 KS).</li>
<li>In this rebalancing, the flow impact of the addition/deletion is even more significant. So, their share price fluctuations on June 10 will likely be more substantial than last time.</li>
</ul>

Sanghyun Park

Korea / Special Sits, Pairs, Index Rebalancing

<ul>
<li>The EGM of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/woodside-petroleum-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:177:1" rel="noopener">Woodside Petroleum (WPL AU)</a> today approved the BHP Petroleum merger in overwhelming fashion. 98.66% FOR. </li>
<li>They did not approve of the Climate Report the board submitted to vetting by shareholders for the first time. That got 51% "support."</li>
<li>But now that's done, people will talk about flows. So far the trade has worked but now time to think about how far to stretch it.</li>
</ul>

Travis Lundy

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/woolworths-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:500:1" rel="noopener">Woolworths Ltd (WOW AU)</a> proposes to acquire all shares in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/mydeal-com-au-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:30939:1" rel="noopener">MyDeal.com.au Ltd (MYD AU)</a> other than those held by Sean Senvirtne and other key management personnel.</li>
<li>MyDeal shareholders will receive $1.05/share in cash, a punchy 62.8% premium to last close, but just 5% above its 2020 IPO price.</li>
<li>This proposal is being done by way of a Scheme with expected completion in Q3/Q4 2022.</li>
</ul>

David Blennerhassett

<ul>
<li>Most of the countries that <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/frasers-hospitality-trust" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:913:1" rel="noopener">Frasers Hospitality Trust (FHT SP)</a> has assets in have their borders already opened. </li>
<li>The full impact of the reopening will only be seen in the subsequent quarters thus it is almost certain that next quarter's result will be better than the past one.</li>
<li>The upside from privatization is mostly priced in but the recovery of the business is real albeit potentially gradual. </li>
</ul>

Tesla Motors

1H22 Obex Research Short Portfolio