Asean-focused. Ex-Head of Thai Research

Athaporn Arayasantiparb, CFA

Athaporn served as Head of Research for UOB and ANZ in Thailand and was an award-winning telecoms analyst at UBS in 2010 (AsiaMoney Thailand category) and Regional Strategist for DMG in Singapore. Prior to that, he also served as Kasikornbank credit analyst and scholar. He has a total work experience of 22 years, of which 19 were in research and 9 in research management roles. He started his career as an engineer for PTT and currently manages family investments. He holds an MBA from Stern (NYU) and CFA Charter since 2006.

Apart from IPO Radar, which focuses on future listings, MCorp Review also performs financial advisory services for TKC Services and provides 11 other on-going thematic series ranked by frequency in descending order, namely:

1) Snippets (news-driven);
2) Sathorn Series (financial services);
3) Silicon Stories (technology); 
4) Thai-Coons (billionaire origin series);
5) Reality Check (data-driven, investigative);
6) Thai Media Spotlight;
7) Political Pit Stop; 
8) Telecom Review; 
9) Thai Macro Watch (read-through from foreign events);  
10) Small Cap Diary; and
11) Property Grid

There are also 3 limited-time series driven by specific events or locations, namely:
1) Thai Corona Crisis;
2) South Series; and
3) Mechanics and Details (deal forensics).

Champions of 2017: Stocks With Eye-Popping Returns!

The Autobot Update (September): Aapico's Indian Turnaround

Thai Strategy 2018 (Part III): Sector Outlook & Highlights

Asean (Thailand) Focused Independent Research

M Corp Review

M Corp is led by Athaporn Arayasantiparb who served as Head of Research for UOB and ANZ in Thailand and was an award-winning telecoms analyst at UBS in 2010 (AsiaMoney Thailand category) and Regional Strategist for DMG in Singapore. Prior to that, he also served as Kasikornbank credit analyst and scholar. He has a total work experience of 17 years, of which 14 were in research and 4 in research management roles. He started his career as an engineer for PTT and currently manages family investments. He holds an MBA from Stern (NYU) and CFA Charter since 2006. Apart from IPO Radar, which focuses on future listings, MCorp Review also provides six on-going thematic series ranked by frequency in descending order, namely: 1) Silicon Stories (technology) 2) Sathorn Series (financial services) 3) Thai-Coons (billionaire origin stories) 4) Reality Check (data-driven, investigative) 5) Thai Media Spotlight; and 6) Thai Macro Watch (global market drivers).

Equity Bottom-Up

We met up with two small companies today, namely Aapico and TMILL, and neither of them is doing well. Perhaps, this is just a reflection of how poor the economy is right now. In any case, this is a quick run-down:<ul>
<li>
Earnings were down 45.8% for Aapico and 8% for TMILL in Q1'19. Aapico blamed the end of their BOI tax privileges, while TMILL blamed high wheat prices.</li>
<li>
Fighting against gravity. Isuzu's sales in Thailand is barely growing at 1.4%. In Malaysia, Honda sales actually sunk 8.2%. These are the two important platforms (potential customer base) for Aapico in their two largest markets.</li>
<li>
Some impact from trade wars. While not yet a major issue, TMILL sees trade wars affecting exchange rates and impacting their input costs. For Aapico, tariffs are a big deal, but they sidestep this as their main production bases are not in China.</li>
</ul>

We met up with two small companies today, namely Aapico and TMILL, and neither of them is doing well. Perhaps, this is just a reflection of how poor the economy is right now. In any case, this is a quick run-down:

Earnings were down 45.8% for Aapico and 8% for TMILL in Q1'19. Aapico blamed the end of their BOI tax privileges, while TMILL blamed high wheat prices.

Fighting against gravity. Isuzu's sales in Thailand is barely growing at 1.4%. In Malaysia, Honda sales actually sunk 8.2%. These are the two important platforms (potential customer base) for Aapico in their two largest markets.

Some impact from trade wars. While not yet a major issue, TMILL sees trade wars affecting exchange rates and impacting their input costs. For Aapico, tariffs are a big deal, but they sidestep this as their main production bases are not in China.


Aapico Hitech

Aapico and TMILL: Sign of the Times