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).

Sathorn Series A: Asia Plus Treading Water

Rabble Rousers (Ep. 3): The King of Banks

Sathorn Series 7: Twilight of Investment Banking?

Sathorn Series 8: Bailing Out on the Lil'l Guys

Equity Bottom-Up

Asia Plus Group Holdings / Equity Bottom-Up

During March, we visited several Thai securities companies and saw their approach to dealing with the decline in brokerage and investment banking. In most cases, the answer is simple. They try to diversify their revenue base outside what used to be their core businesses in retail brokerage, and each of their situation are unique. Unable to crack the institutional business properly, Finansia Syrus diversified its various initiatives especially on the online trading front by investing in SBI (a Japanese online broker) joint venture. The more adept Asia Plus, whose CEO Dr. Kongkiat is much celebrated, managed to hold out well through proprietary investments and asset management, which created more stable recurring income, though they also struggled on institutional research. AIRA, a much smaller broker, diversified way off field into new areas such as leasing. During the meeting, Dr. Kongkiat also shared his views on international investing for Thai net worth investors, and we gotta admit he's surprisingly bullish yo.

During March, we visited several Thai securities companies and saw their approach to dealing with the decline in brokerage and investment banking. In most cases, the answer is simple. They try to diversify their revenue base outside what used to be their core businesses in retail brokerage, and each of their situation are unique. Unable to crack the institutional business properly, Finansia Syrus diversified its various initiatives especially on the online trading front by investing in SBI (a Japanese online broker) joint venture. The more adept Asia Plus, whose CEO Dr. Kongkiat is much celebrated, managed to hold out well through proprietary investments and asset management, which created more stable recurring income, though they also struggled on institutional research. AIRA, a much smaller broker, diversified way off field into new areas such as leasing. During the meeting, Dr. Kongkiat also shared his views on international investing for Thai net worth investors, and we gotta admit he's surprisingly bullish yo.

Sathorn Series 9: Surviving the Sunset in Thai Securities