Overseas Chinese Equities, Aequitas Research

Ming Lu

A veteran with 19-year experience in equity research.

Geographical coverage:
* Companies operating in China, but listed in Hong Kong and the U.S.
* Previously China A-share (listed in mainland China).

Equity sector coverage:
* Chinese App / Internet-based consumption in China, e.g., Alibaba, Tencent, etc.
* Previously covered education, transportation, telecom, power, bank, advertisement, hotel, etc.

Research methods:
* Generally bottom-up.
* Talk to related people on the ground.  Talk to readers and independent writers for analyzing a news portal.  Talk to parents and teachers for analyzing a tutoring school. 
* Visit stores and show photos as evidence in notes.
* Do technical analysis when finding a short-seller attacking an equity.

Languages:
* English
* Mandarin Chinese (Official language of China)
* Shanghainese (Language of Shanghai, the most developed city in China)
* Cantonese (Language of Hong Kong and Canton Province, one of the most developed provinces in China)

Overseas Chinese Equities

IPOs and Placements coverage across Asia Pacific

Aequitas Research

We cover all listing across the Asia Pacific along with follow-up placements. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%.

We combine fundamental bottom-up views with our proprietary quantitative framework to provide a holistic coverage across new listings and placements. Our coverage includes pre-IPO notes before the deal is launched, follow-up analysis once the deal is live and post-listing trading analysis as well.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Total travelers grew by 26% YoY in China in 1Q25, up from 13% YoY in 4Q24.</li>
<li>Trip.com’s total revenue grew by 16% YoY in 1Q25, among which hotel booking grew by 23%.</li>
<li>We believe operating margin will be stable, as the growth of sales and market expense has been slowing down.</li>
</ul>


Total travelers grew by 26% YoY in China in 1Q25, up from 13% YoY in 4Q24.
Trip.com’s total revenue grew by 16% YoY in 1Q25, among which hotel booking grew by 23%.
We believe operating margin will be stable, as the growth of sales and market expense has been slowing down.


Trip.com (TCOM): 1Q25, Hotel Booking Revenue Up by 23%