'Quantamental' Japan Specialist, LightStream Research

Campbell Gunn

'Quantamental' Japan Specialist

Long-Short Analysis on Japan, Asia and the World

LightStream Research

LightStream conducts quantitatively rigorous and data-driven analysis with a focus on Japan and Asia.

We consistently cover the Tech, Consumer and Industrial sectors, and provide ECM and Events coverage more broadly.

We supplement traditional qualitative insights from company relationships with a robust quantitative foundation that examines as much historical data as is available.
We further refine the accuracy of our insights and calls through the use of alternative data to flesh out current trends, and through a valuation framework that emphasises non-superficial peer group selection and a proper attempt to understand the metrics and changes that have driven security valuations in the past.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<div>
<figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/148/784/original/2020-07-30_08-23-32.png?1596065031" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="148784"></figure><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/148/785/original/2020-07-30_08-24-39.png?1596065092" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="148785"></figure><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/148/786/original/2020-07-30_08-25-16.png?1596065140" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="148786"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source • Japan Analytics</div>
29th JULY - As the pace of announcements picks up, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ana-holdings-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:5308:1" rel="noopener">ANA (9202 JP)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/showa-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:15079:1" rel="noopener">Showa (7274 JP)</a>, and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/isetan-mitsukoshi-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:18871:1" rel="noopener">Isetan Mitsukoshi (3099 JP)</a> were the three 'worst' large-cap results yesterday in terms of our scoring methodology. In the DETAIL below, we cover all the results and forecasts for companies with a market cap of over ¥100 billion and make some trading suggestions.
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DAILY STATS
</div><hr><div>85 Quarterly Results</div><div><ul>
<li>
Results Score: 30 Positive / 5 Neutral / 50 Negative</li>
<li>
Average Results Score Change: -2.4</li>
<li>
Average % Change in Revenue: -9.7% Quarter YoY / -2.7% Rolling TTM YoY </li>
<li>
Average Operating Profit Margin Change: -1.0ppt</li>
<li>
Percentage Making Quarterly Losses: 24%</li>
</ul></div><hr><div> 35 Annual • 15 Interim Forecasts/Revisions</div><div><ul>
<li>
Annual Forecast/Revision Score: 6 Positive / 1 Neutral / 28 Negative</li>
<li>
Interim Forecast/Revision Score Change: 4 Positive / 0 Neutral / 11 Negative</li>
<li>
Average Forecast/Revision Score Change: -12.8</li>
</ul></div>


Source • Japan Analytics
29th JULY - As the pace of announcements picks up, ANA (9202 JP), Showa (7274 JP), and Isetan Mitsukoshi (3099 JP) were the three 'worst' large-cap results yesterday in terms of our scoring methodology. In the DETAIL below, we cover all the results and forecasts for companies with a market cap of over ¥100 billion and make some trading suggestions.

DAILY STATS
85 Quarterly Results

Results Score: 30 Positive / 5 Neutral / 50 Negative

Average Results Score Change: -2.4

Average % Change in Revenue: -9.7% Quarter YoY / -2.7% Rolling TTM YoY 

Average Operating Profit Margin Change: -1.0ppt

Percentage Making Quarterly Losses: 24%
 35 Annual • 15 Interim Forecasts/Revisions

Annual Forecast/Revision Score: 6 Positive / 1 Neutral / 28 Negative

Interim Forecast/Revision Score Change: 4 Positive / 0 Neutral / 11 Negative

Average Forecast/Revision Score Change: -12.8


🇯🇵 JAPAN • Results & Revisions 29th July - Kao, SMFG, Nomura, NRI, Asahi Holdings, NRE

Senior Bank Analyst - Japanese Banks, Windamee Research

J. Brian Waterhouse

Senior Bank Analyst - Japanese Banks

Windamee Research

Japanese Banks

Spare a thought for the poor, embattled Japanese banker.  In this COVID-19-altered world, his biggest problem is that he has too much money.  Way, way too much money.  Money keeps piling in through the branch doors faster than he can put it to work, shovelling it out to customers as loans or investing it in minimal-return securities.
In our recent Insight <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/japanese-banks-ill-winds" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:41530" rel="noopener">Japanese Banks:  Ill Winds</a> we noted that YoY loan growth for the major Japanese banks in June 2020 hit an all-time record high of +9.4%.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that average deposits at the major banks rose +10.3% YoY in May and then a record +12.0% YoY in June, according to the Japanese Bankers Association (JBA).  Major corporates drew down on their credit lines as a precaution against a prolonged economic downturn and then parked the additional cash with their bankers for safe-keeping until needed.  The megabankers are drowning in cash: their loan to deposit ratios (LDR)  -  an important measure of overall efficiency  -  have collapsed to just 52%, whereas back in 2001 they were close to 98%.  In the meantime, margins remain under pressure amidst this hyper-liquidity, banks are struggling to make any profit on their domestic book, unrealised securities gains have been whittled away, and credit costs are rising exponentially.
While many Japanese bank stocks have risen by double-digits over the last three months, rising on a gentle tide of cautious investor optimism over the outlook for recovery in Japan’s manufacturing sector post-COVID-19, it remains a fact that Japanese banks have underperformed Topix virtually unchecked since 2015.  We expect this trend to continue.  “Caveat Emptor!” (May the Buyer Beware) remains our advice to would-be investors in Japanese bank stocks for FY3/2021 and beyond.

Spare a thought for the poor, embattled Japanese banker.  In this COVID-19-altered world, his biggest problem is that he has too much money.  Way, way too much money.  Money keeps piling in through the branch doors faster than he can put it to work, shovelling it out to customers as loans or investing it in minimal-return securities.
In our recent Insight Japanese Banks:  Ill Winds we noted that YoY loan growth for the major Japanese banks in June 2020 hit an all-time record high of +9.4%.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that average deposits at the major banks rose +10.3% YoY in May and then a record +12.0% YoY in June, according to the Japanese Bankers Association (JBA).  Major corporates drew down on their credit lines as a precaution against a prolonged economic downturn and then parked the additional cash with their bankers for safe-keeping until needed.  The megabankers are drowning in cash: their loan to deposit ratios (LDR)  -  an important measure of overall efficiency  -  have collapsed to just 52%, whereas back in 2001 they were close to 98%.  In the meantime, margins remain under pressure amidst this hyper-liquidity, banks are struggling to make any profit on their domestic book, unrealised securities gains have been whittled away, and credit costs are rising exponentially.
While many Japanese bank stocks have risen by double-digits over the last three months, rising on a gentle tide of cautious investor optimism over the outlook for recovery in Japan’s manufacturing sector post-COVID-19, it remains a fact that Japanese banks have underperformed Topix virtually unchecked since 2015.  We expect this trend to continue.  “Caveat Emptor!” (May the Buyer Beware) remains our advice to would-be investors in Japanese bank stocks for FY3/2021 and beyond.

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, as the saying goes.  While Japanese industry is starting to count the economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic in terms of lost production and the global disruption to the supply chain, some Japanese banks have seen a remarkable surge in loan demand as major companies rush to secure lines of credit and draw down cash reserves in order to survive what is shaping up to be a prolonged economic recession.  Overall lending rose +6.8% YoY in June – the highest year-on-year increase recorded in the last 20 years, led by the megabanks and other major banks whose loan balances rose by an average of +9.4% YoY: a new all-time record.  Whether this is the start of a trend or is simply a short-term phenomenon remains to be seen, as is the question of whether these new loans are economically rational, depending on the interest rate applied.  ‘Profitless prosperity’ remains a clear and present danger for the Japanese banks post-COVID-19.Be that as it may, the fundamental outlook for Japan’s banks has not improved in CY2020: if anything, the outlook for FY3/2021 and beyond is even more uncertain than it was prior to the coronavirus pandemic.  As we have frequently pointed out in past Insights, margins remain under downward pressure, many banks (both big and small) remain underwater on their core domestic businesses, and credit costs are rising across the board as Japanese banks brace for a new wave of corporate failures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.While many Japanese bank stocks have risen by double-digits over the last three months, rising on a gentle tide of cautious investor optimism over the outlook for recovery in Japan’s manufacturing sector post-COVID-19, it remains a fact that Japanese banks have underperformed Topix virtually unchecked since 2015.  We expect this trend to continue.  “Caveat Emptor!” (May the Buyer Beware) remains our advice to would-be investors in Japanese bank stocks for FY3/2021 and beyond.

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, as the saying goes.  While Japanese industry is starting to count the economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic in terms of lost production and the global disruption to the supply chain, some Japanese banks have seen a remarkable surge in loan demand as major companies rush to secure lines of credit and draw down cash reserves in order to survive what is shaping up to be a prolonged economic recession.  Overall lending rose +6.8% YoY in June – the highest year-on-year increase recorded in the last 20 years, led by the megabanks and other major banks whose loan balances rose by an average of +9.4% YoY: a new all-time record.  Whether this is the start of a trend or is simply a short-term phenomenon remains to be seen, as is the question of whether these new loans are economically rational, depending on the interest rate applied.  ‘Profitless prosperity’ remains a clear and present danger for the Japanese banks post-COVID-19.Be that as it may, the fundamental outlook for Japan’s banks has not improved in CY2020: if anything, the outlook for FY3/2021 and beyond is even more uncertain than it was prior to the coronavirus pandemic.  As we have frequently pointed out in past Insights, margins remain under downward pressure, many banks (both big and small) remain underwater on their core domestic businesses, and credit costs are rising across the board as Japanese banks brace for a new wave of corporate failures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.While many Japanese bank stocks have risen by double-digits over the last three months, rising on a gentle tide of cautious investor optimism over the outlook for recovery in Japan’s manufacturing sector post-COVID-19, it remains a fact that Japanese banks have underperformed Topix virtually unchecked since 2015.  We expect this trend to continue.  “Caveat Emptor!” (May the Buyer Beware) remains our advice to would-be investors in Japanese bank stocks for FY3/2021 and beyond.

Silver Point

Thomas J. Monaco

Independent Insight Provider

Silver Point is a boutique research firm that focuses on the broader financial services sector, with a particular focus on troubled institutions globally. 

Asia Ex Japan

* ECB Potentially Killing Dividends: The European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to make a final decision next week on whether to allow banks to pay dividends in 2020 from 2019 results. The ECB leaning towards not allowing banks to pay dividends;*Asia-Pacific Likely To Follow: The financial sectors of Japan, Australia, mainland China, and India had been experiencing feeling capital pressures prior to COVID-19, now the entire Asia-Pacific regions would appear to be in the same boat. As such, we look for the entire region to follow the ECB’s lead on dividends – possibly even some of the ECB’s more ridiculous capital forbearance moves; and    *Europeans Banks Not Likely At Risk: BNP Paribas (BNP.FP) and Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.IM) likely have the best lobbying power to pay a dividend in the event that national regulators are given the discretion to allow dividends. On a regulatory capital basis, as noted in our “DNB ASA – Window to Be Constructive Is Now Open” report dated July 13, 2020, DNB ASA (DNB.NO) remains best positioned to resume dividend payment and share buybacks, as CET1 is already back in compliance with pre-COV-19 capital target excluding all regulatory forbearance.

* ECB Potentially Killing Dividends: The European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to make a final decision next week on whether to allow banks to pay dividends in 2020 from 2019 results. The ECB leaning towards not allowing banks to pay dividends;*Asia-Pacific Likely To Follow: The financial sectors of Japan, Australia, mainland China, and India had been experiencing feeling capital pressures prior to COVID-19, now the entire Asia-Pacific regions would appear to be in the same boat. As such, we look for the entire region to follow the ECB’s lead on dividends – possibly even some of the ECB’s more ridiculous capital forbearance moves; and    *Europeans Banks Not Likely At Risk: BNP Paribas (BNP.FP) and Intesa Sanpaolo (ISP.IM) likely have the best lobbying power to pay a dividend in the event that national regulators are given the discretion to allow dividends. On a regulatory capital basis, as noted in our “DNB ASA – Window to Be Constructive Is Now Open” report dated July 13, 2020, DNB ASA (DNB.NO) remains best positioned to resume dividend payment and share buybacks, as CET1 is already back in compliance with pre-COV-19 capital target excluding all regulatory forbearance.

ECB Dividend Action Likely Leads to Similar Moves In Asia

Equity Bottom-Up

*Stand Out Quarter For First Major European Out of The Box: DNB ASA (DNB.NO) [DNB] kicked off 2Q20 results season with a bang, reporting a bottom-line of NOK 5.0 bn – exceeding 1Q20 results by NOK 1.0 bn or 25.5%. This outperformance was even more pronounced on an operating basis with 2Q20 ahead of the linked quarter result by NOK 1.8 bn or 55.3%. Results were primarily driven by a NOK 3.7 bn (63.3%) decline in loss provisions – which may be somewhat premature; and a NOK 572 mn (9.7%) decline in operating expenses due primarily to lower pension costs.*Management Quite Positive: Management seems to be pleased where DNB is heading, as CEO Braathen has stated that "we’ve seen a gradual but much more rapid recovery than I think we dared to hope for entering the quarter”, and that “June, in particular, was a very strong month for activities in investment banking and housing sales and consumer spending"; and   *Possible Dividend Return: DNB does have best-in-class capital with its CET1 of 18.2%, which is already back above 17.9% pre-COVID-19 CET1 target and nearing its prior peak (4Q19) of 18.6%. Politics aside, DNB does appear to be the first European bank which will be allowed to resume both dividends and share buybacks.

*Stand Out Quarter For First Major European Out of The Box: DNB ASA (DNB.NO) [DNB] kicked off 2Q20 results season with a bang, reporting a bottom-line of NOK 5.0 bn – exceeding 1Q20 results by NOK 1.0 bn or 25.5%. This outperformance was even more pronounced on an operating basis with 2Q20 ahead of the linked quarter result by NOK 1.8 bn or 55.3%. Results were primarily driven by a NOK 3.7 bn (63.3%) decline in loss provisions – which may be somewhat premature; and a NOK 572 mn (9.7%) decline in operating expenses due primarily to lower pension costs.*Management Quite Positive: Management seems to be pleased where DNB is heading, as CEO Braathen has stated that "we’ve seen a gradual but much more rapid recovery than I think we dared to hope for entering the quarter”, and that “June, in particular, was a very strong month for activities in investment banking and housing sales and consumer spending"; and   *Possible Dividend Return: DNB does have best-in-class capital with its CET1 of 18.2%, which is already back above 17.9% pre-COVID-19 CET1 target and nearing its prior peak (4Q19) of 18.6%. Politics aside, DNB does appear to be the first European bank which will be allowed to resume both dividends and share buybacks.

DNB ASA – Window To Be Constructive Is Open

Japan

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. manages financial operations for its subsidiaries. The Company provides commercial banking and a variety of financial services.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316 JP)

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Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316 JP)

🇯🇵 JAPAN • Results & Revisions 29th July - Kao, SMFG, Nomura, NRI, Asahi Holdings, NRE

29th JULY - As the pace of announcements picks up, ANA (9202 JP), Showa (7274 JP), and Isetan Mitsukoshi (3099 JP) were the three 'worst'...

Campbell Gunn

Japanese Banks - Drowning in Liquidity

Spare a thought for the poor, embattled Japanese banker. In this COVID-19-altered world, his biggest problem is that he has too much money. Way,...

J. Brian Waterhouse

Japanese Banks: Ill Winds

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, as the saying goes. While Japanese industry is starting to count the economic cost of the coronavirus...

J. Brian Waterhouse

ECB Dividend Action Likely Leads to Similar Moves In Asia

* ECB Potentially Killing Dividends: The European Central Bank (ECB) is likely to make a final decision next week on whether to allow banks to pay...

Thomas J. Monaco

DNB ASA – Window To Be Constructive Is Open

*Stand Out Quarter For First Major European Out of The Box: DNB ASA (DNB.NO) [DNB] kicked off 2Q20 results season with a bang, reporting a...

Thomas J. Monaco

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Market Cap (USDm)

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