ECM Weekly (18th April 2021) - ByteDance Zhaoke, We Doctor, Medlive, Bio-Thera, Grab, Ngern Tid Lor

Asia ECM pipeline continued to build up this week. Grab announced the details of its SPAC listing with a target market value of about US$40bn. The company will raise more than US$4bn proceeds from a fully committed PIPE which include BlackRock, MSIM, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, Janus Henderson, Mubadala, Nuveen, Permodalan Nasional Berhad and Temasek. We shared our initial thoughts in:

• Grab SPAC Listing - High on Ambition, Very High on Valuation

In Hong Kong, it was reported that ByteDance has kicked off IPO preparations for some of its main businesses, which includes Douyin. The company was still deliberating on the listing venue but it is likely that it will conduct a separate listing of its overseas assets.

Dida re-filed with HKEX after its initial application from October last year lapsed last week. The company is probably trying to get ahead of Didi Chuxing’s listing as the latter filed confidentially for a US listing last week. There were also news reports of SF REIT looking to pre-market this month and JD Logistics will be seeing listing approval at the end of this month.

• Dida Pre-IPO - Making hay while big brother retreats
• Dida Pre-IPO - Peer Comparison - Lagging in Scale, Leading in Profitability
• Dida Pre-IPO - Earnings Forecast and First Stab at Valuation
• ByteDance (字节跳动) IPO: How Jinri Toutiao Paves The Way for a Bigger Empire
• ByteDance (字节跳动) IPO: Tiktok the No.1 Short Video App for a Good Reason
• ByteDance (字节跳动) Pre-IPO: How Has It Done in 1H?
• ByteDance: The Unlisted Company’s Video Apps Leading the Market and Threatening Internet Giants
• ByteDance (字节跳动) Pre-IPO: Why Facebook Should Worry About TikTok
• ByteDance (字节跳动) Pre-IPO - Globally the Most Downloaded App for Jan 2020 Driven by India
• ByteDance (字节跳动) Pre-IPO: A Winner in 2020 Chinese New Year

Trip.com’s secondary listing in Hong Kong will debut on Monday and the company’s ADR corrected in line with our earlier expectation but the spread out allocation might weigh on near-term performance.

• Trip.com Secondary Listing - Probably Needs to Correct, and
• Trip.com Secondary Listing Quick Take - Doing the Bare Minimum - Needs Some More Correction.
• Trip.com Secondary Trading Note - Delivered a Good Correction but Seems to Be Widely Distributed

Our upcoming IPO coverage this week centered around Healthcare names. Zhaoke Ophthalmology Pharma (6622 HK) launched its bookbuild on Friday and it is expected to price this coming Wednesday.

• Zhaoke Ophthalmic (兆科眼科): Could Be Over-Valued for Pre-IPO Round
• Zhaoke Ophthalmic (兆科眼科) Pre-IPO: Thoughts on Valuation
• Zhaoke Ophthalmic (兆科眼科) Pre-IPO: Beware of Aggressive “Guidance”
• Zhaoke Ophthalmic (兆科眼科) IPO: Rationalize the Valuation

We also looked at We Doctor, Bio-Thera, Medlive, and Edding Group. :

• WeDoctor (微医) Pre-IPO - A More Focused Online Medical Svc Provider than Ping An Good Doctor

• WeDoctor (微医) Pre-IPO -App Walk Through - The Online Medical Directory and More

• We Doctor Pre-IPO (微医) - Remedying Pain Points

• We Doctor (微医) Pre-IPO - Peer Comparison - Picking Its Battles Wisely

• Medlive (医脉通) Pre-IPO: Internet Hospital a Different Ball Game

• Bio-Thera Solutions (百奥泰) A+H: Not an Attractive Pipeline

• Bio-Thera Solutions (百奥泰) A+H: Recent Termination of Drug Candidates

• Edding Group (亿腾医药) Pre-IPO: Distributor Turning Pharmaceutical

• Edding Group (亿腾医药) Pre-IPO: Notes from Latest Financials and Its Related Party

In the US, Waterdrop Inc prospectus is publicly filed with the SEC. The online insurance technology company is looking to raise about US$500m but there had been news reports that the company was facing pushback from local regulators.

Aside from Didi Chuxing, Ximalaya FM also filed confidentially for up to US$1bn IPO. Soulgate, a Chinese social networking app operator, and Keep, a Chinese fitness app are looking to file their prospectuses this month.

This week we took a brief look at TuSimple, a pre-commercialization autonomous technology vendor for truck freights, before it debuted on Thursday.

• Tusimple IPO: Buy the Autonomous Freight as a Service (AFaaS) Company Founded by Chinese Scholars

In Thailand, Ngern Tid Lor (NTL TB), launched its US$1bn bookbuild. Books will close on 27th April.

• Ngern Tid Lor Pre-IPO - Pre-COVID growth track record has been very strong

• Ngern Tid Lor Pre-IPO - Peer Comparison - Playing Catch up After Being Left Behind

• Ngern Tid Lor IPO - Not Really at a Large Discount but the Overall Sector Has Been Doing Very Well

In the Philippines, we followed-up with a peer comparison of Monde Nissin against competitors.

• Monde Nissin Pre-IPO - The Positives - High Market Share

• Monde Nissin Pre-IPO - The Negatives - High Debt, Div Payments, Floundering MA

• Monde Nissin Pre-IPO - Peer Comparison for Food Business

Singapore ECM suffered a setback this week. ThaiBev announced on Friday that they have decided to defer the Proposed Spin-off listing of BeerCo citing uncertain market conditions and volatile outlook. We had discussed management’s valuation expectation of BeerCo vs. the likely valuation it can command in our earlier note. Core REIT has also shelved its IPO citing weak demand and volatile market conditions.

• ThaiBev BeerCo Pre-IPO - Valuation Updates and Crystallizing Growth Potential for BeerCo

• ThaiBev BeerCo's Deferred IPO -Beer Comparison - Sober Up

Placements were spread out over the past week, with Regis Resources (RRL AU) in Australia and Lasalle Logiport Reit (3466 JP) in Japan. Kakao Corp (035720 KS)’s founder sold about US$450m worth of shares.

• Regis Resources Placement - A Big, Pricey Quality Purchase but Not Set in Stone

• LaSalle Logiport REIT Placement - Well-Flagged Property with Upside Potential

• Kakao Corp Placement - Selldown by Founder

Credits to Clarence Chu for helping out with the Weekly Update.