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).

The Week That Was in ASEAN@Smartkarma - Thai Union, Bluebird Taxi, and Cement

Krungthai Card - Performing in All Line Items

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 visited two companies in Mongkol Prakitchaiwattana's portfolio. He's one of Thailand's new tycoons and one who has risen primarily through passive investing. KTC is one of Thailand's most profitable, if not largest, credit card issuer, while Taokaenoi is the market leader in seaweed snacks ahead of Singha's Machida. Here's some updates on how they are doing:<ul>
<li>
KTC reported Q1'20 earnings of only 3.2% in Q1'20 on the back of difficult operating conditions as well as small programs of debt forgiveness inspired by government requests, but they did give out interesting anecdotes about how several of their customers transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic</li>
<li>
Taokaenoi reported Q1'20 earnings growth of 5% despite a revenue plunge of 13% during the period, as Thai sales and exports plunged 24% and 6% respectively. This was partly offset by an 8% drop in seaweed costs and lower marketing expenses.</li>
<li>
Still hopeful. Despite their difficult operating environment, the company is still hopeful of double-digit earnings growth in both 2020 and 2021 due to their new joint venture with Orion in North Asia, which should help improve distribution and logistics, and further cost reductions.</li>
</ul>

We visited two companies in Mongkol Prakitchaiwattana's portfolio. He's one of Thailand's new tycoons and one who has risen primarily through passive investing. KTC is one of Thailand's most profitable, if not largest, credit card issuer, while Taokaenoi is the market leader in seaweed snacks ahead of Singha's Machida. Here's some updates on how they are doing:

KTC reported Q1'20 earnings of only 3.2% in Q1'20 on the back of difficult operating conditions as well as small programs of debt forgiveness inspired by government requests, but they did give out interesting anecdotes about how several of their customers transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic

Taokaenoi reported Q1'20 earnings growth of 5% despite a revenue plunge of 13% during the period, as Thai sales and exports plunged 24% and 6% respectively. This was partly offset by an 8% drop in seaweed costs and lower marketing expenses.

Still hopeful. Despite their difficult operating environment, the company is still hopeful of double-digit earnings growth in both 2020 and 2021 due to their new joint venture with Orion in North Asia, which should help improve distribution and logistics, and further cost reductions.


Company Visits: KTC, Taokaenoi (Treading Water)