Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Nearly 25 years of experience in analyzing hundreds of companies, especially in Asia. Deep expertise in the following sectors:
- Technology (E-commerce, SaaS, Internet)
- Consumer 
- Special Situations/Deep Value Plays
- Holdcos/Stubs
- Asian Unicorns/Private Companies

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Nikola:A Winning SPAC Story Turning Into Greek Tragedy & A Shot Across the Bows for SPAC Investors

Korea Stock Market Monthly Recap #52 (September 2020)

Hyundai Mobis - Restarts Its Big Share Buyback Program in 4Q 2020

A Surge in Value of Nikola Corp - 'Tesla' of Hydrogen Trucks: A Merger of Hanwha Corp & H-Solutions?

Hanwha General Chemical Secures Rights for 1,200 Hydrogen Charging Stations in North America

Nikola – Grid Balancing, Hydrogen and Vertical Integration

Equity Bottom-Up

In this insight, we provide our thoughts on the resignation of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nikola-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29029:1" rel="noopener">Nikola Corp (NKLA US)</a> founder Trevor Milton, who will be replaced by Stephen Girsky, a former GM executive who already sits on Nikola Corp's board. On 10 September, a firm called  Hindenburg Research published a<a href="https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> report</a> that harshly criticized the company. We are interested in Nikola mainly because a Korean company called <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hanwha-solutions" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8656:1" rel="noopener">Hanwha Solutions (009830 KS)'s </a>stock price has been highly impacted by Nikola's share price recently.In our view, Hindenburg Research makes legitimate criticism of Nikola Corp and its founder Trevor Milton. Nikola Corp has come out with a rebuttal but we do not believe this is enough to calm investors and customers. Regarding Nikola Corp, it all comes down to whether or not the company has its own unique hydrogen-based technology which it claims it does. Nikola Corp needs to hire a well-respected third party agent and give sufficient proof that its technology really works. Investors are waiting for the confirmation of an independent third party test of its technology. If the company is unwilling to provide such tests and continues to delay such tests, we believe this could have a further negative impact on Nikola Corp and its major investors including Hanwha Solutions.

In this insight, we provide our thoughts on the resignation of Nikola Corp (NKLA US) founder Trevor Milton, who will be replaced by Stephen Girsky, a former GM executive who already sits on Nikola Corp's board. On 10 September, a firm called  Hindenburg Research published a report that harshly criticized the company. We are interested in Nikola mainly because a Korean company called Hanwha Solutions (009830 KS)'s stock price has been highly impacted by Nikola's share price recently.In our view, Hindenburg Research makes legitimate criticism of Nikola Corp and its founder Trevor Milton. Nikola Corp has come out with a rebuttal but we do not believe this is enough to calm investors and customers. Regarding Nikola Corp, it all comes down to whether or not the company has its own unique hydrogen-based technology which it claims it does. Nikola Corp needs to hire a well-respected third party agent and give sufficient proof that its technology really works. Investors are waiting for the confirmation of an independent third party test of its technology. If the company is unwilling to provide such tests and continues to delay such tests, we believe this could have a further negative impact on Nikola Corp and its major investors including Hanwha Solutions. 

Nikola's Founder Resigns - The Next Enron?