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).

ORI: Laggard Play with a Strong Position in the EEC

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 15 companies during the past two months and picked these three that impressed us the most:<ul>
<li>
Intuch, the holding company of mobile juggernaut AIS, has seen its discount to NAV narrowing over the long run thanks to its venture capital business. Startups making money, and a few like Wongnai (foodie guide), Ookbee (e-publishing), and Ydm (digital marketing) all making waves.</li>
<li>
Minor. Reported earnings may not be great, and signs of weaknesses are seen in restaurant business, but there's still big upsides left to our Bt46/sh price target. Importantly, the underlying overseas hotel business are all making good progress in their local currencies. The Baht doesn't stay strong forever yo!</li>
<li>
DoHome was able to grow profits almost 50% despite flat revenues through a combination of store format downsizing, increase of house brands, and making changes to the distribution system.</li>
</ul>

We visited 15 companies during the past two months and picked these three that impressed us the most:

Intuch, the holding company of mobile juggernaut AIS, has seen its discount to NAV narrowing over the long run thanks to its venture capital business. Startups making money, and a few like Wongnai (foodie guide), Ookbee (e-publishing), and Ydm (digital marketing) all making waves.

Minor. Reported earnings may not be great, and signs of weaknesses are seen in restaurant business, but there's still big upsides left to our Bt46/sh price target. Importantly, the underlying overseas hotel business are all making good progress in their local currencies. The Baht doesn't stay strong forever yo!

DoHome was able to grow profits almost 50% despite flat revenues through a combination of store format downsizing, increase of house brands, and making changes to the distribution system.


Intouch Holdings

The Best of August/September 2019