Head of Research, IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Sumeet Singh

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements

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 Capital Markets

Ngern Tid Lor (NTL), a financial service provider based in Thailand, aims to raise around US$1bn via selling a mix of primary and secondary shares in its Thailand IPO. Prior to listing, it was jointly owned by Bank of Ayudhya and CVC Capital Partners. As per Oliver Wyman’s estimates, NTL had a 16% market share in the vehicle lending market in Thailand, as of 2019. NTL provides hire purchase loans for motorcycles and cars, along with new and used trucks. It also provides insurance brokerage services through its branches for non-life and life insurance. It offers motor insurance, compulsory motor insurance, personal accident insurance, cancer insurance, and loan insurance. As of Dec 2020, it had over 730,000 accounts with total outstanding loans of THB51.3bn. In 2020, it generated non-life insurance premium sales of THB4bn. Over 2016-20, NTL’s gross loans grew at 25.1% CAGR, averaging 25%+ per annum over 2017-19 before slowing down to 7% YoY growth in 2020. Its total income has grown at 22.5% CAGR, while PAT did better with a CAGR of 29.1% over 2016-20. Although, asset quality has taken a hit owing to COVID-19 and Bank of Thailand's induced moratorium. We have covered various aspects of the deal in our earlier note, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/ngern-tid-lor-pre-ipo-pre-covid-growth-track-record-has-been-very-strong" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ngern Tid Lor Pre-IPO - Pre-COVID growth track record has been very strong</a>. In this note we’ll undertake a peer comparison.

Ngern Tid Lor (NTL), a financial service provider based in Thailand, aims to raise around US$1bn via selling a mix of primary and secondary shares in its Thailand IPO. Prior to listing, it was jointly owned by Bank of Ayudhya and CVC Capital Partners. As per Oliver Wyman’s estimates, NTL had a 16% market share in the vehicle lending market in Thailand, as of 2019. NTL provides hire purchase loans for motorcycles and cars, along with new and used trucks. It also provides insurance brokerage services through its branches for non-life and life insurance. It offers motor insurance, compulsory motor insurance, personal accident insurance, cancer insurance, and loan insurance. As of Dec 2020, it had over 730,000 accounts with total outstanding loans of THB51.3bn. In 2020, it generated non-life insurance premium sales of THB4bn. Over 2016-20, NTL’s gross loans grew at 25.1% CAGR, averaging 25%+ per annum over 2017-19 before slowing down to 7% YoY growth in 2020. Its total income has grown at 22.5% CAGR, while PAT did better with a CAGR of 29.1% over 2016-20. Although, asset quality has taken a hit owing to COVID-19 and Bank of Thailand's induced moratorium. We have covered various aspects of the deal in our earlier note, Ngern Tid Lor Pre-IPO - Pre-COVID growth track record has been very strong. In this note we’ll undertake a peer comparison.

Ngern Tid Lor Pre-IPO - Peer Comparison - Playing Catch up After Being Left Behind

Ngern Tid Lor (NTL), a financial service provider based in Thailand, aims to raise around US$750m via selling a mix of primary and secondary shares in its Thailand IPO. Prior to listing, it was jointly owned by Bank of Ayudhya and CVC Capital Partners. As per Oliver Wyman’s estimates, NTL had a 16% market share in the vehicle lending market in Thailand, as of 2019. NTL provides hire purchase loans for motorcycles and cars, along with new and used trucks. It also provides insurance brokerage services through its branches for non-life and life insurance. It offers motor insurance, compulsory motor insurance, personal accident insurance, cancer insurance, and loan insurance. As of Dec 2020,  it had over 730,000 accounts with total outstanding loans of THB51.3bn. In 2020, it generated non-life insurance premium sales of THB4bn. Over 2016-20, NTL’s gross loans grew at 25.1% CAGR, averaging 25%+ per annum over 2017-19 before slowing down to 7% YoY growth in 2020. Its total income has grown at 22.5% CAGR, while PAT did better with a CAGR of 29.1% over 2016-20.Although, asset quality has taken a hit owing to COVID-19 and Bank of Thailand's induced moratorium.

Ngern Tid Lor (NTL), a financial service provider based in Thailand, aims to raise around US$750m via selling a mix of primary and secondary shares in its Thailand IPO. Prior to listing, it was jointly owned by Bank of Ayudhya and CVC Capital Partners. As per Oliver Wyman’s estimates, NTL had a 16% market share in the vehicle lending market in Thailand, as of 2019. NTL provides hire purchase loans for motorcycles and cars, along with new and used trucks. It also provides insurance brokerage services through its branches for non-life and life insurance. It offers motor insurance, compulsory motor insurance, personal accident insurance, cancer insurance, and loan insurance. As of Dec 2020,  it had over 730,000 accounts with total outstanding loans of THB51.3bn. In 2020, it generated non-life insurance premium sales of THB4bn. Over 2016-20, NTL’s gross loans grew at 25.1% CAGR, averaging 25%+ per annum over 2017-19 before slowing down to 7% YoY growth in 2020. Its total income has grown at 22.5% CAGR, while PAT did better with a CAGR of 29.1% over 2016-20.Although, asset quality has taken a hit owing to COVID-19 and Bank of Thailand's induced moratorium.

Ngern Tid Lor Pre-IPO - Pre-COVID Growth Track Record Has Been Very Strong

Financials Credit Analyst

Hank Calenti, CFA

CreditContinuum

Credit

Executive Summary:  We recommend that investors Overweight <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/krung-thai-bank-pub-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:298:1" rel="noopener">Krung Thai Bank's (KTBTB)</a> recently issued Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bond. Krung Thai’s published credit metrics are on-par with, if not superior to, its Thailand-based peers as well as <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/standard-chartered-plc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:193:1" rel="noopener">Standard Chartered (STAN LN)</a>. Furthermore, after adjusting for Covid-19 relief exposure, KTBTB has a higher capital buffer and a superior pre-provision earnings ability relative to <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kasikornbank-pcl" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:293:1" rel="noopener">Kasikornbank (KBank)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tmb-bank-pcl" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8090:1" rel="noopener">TMB Bank (TMB TB)</a>. As such, we believe that Krung Thai’s recently issued AT1 note should compress to, if not through, KBank’s bond.Thailand-headquartered banks face both a net profit and a capital buffer test towards determining their ability to make optional distributions, such as dividends, bonuses, and Additional Tier 1 coupons. Unfortunately, Thai-bank AT1 spreads bear no relationship relative to their respective capital buffers. This suggests that other concerns may be driving their respective valuations.We note that loans under COVID-19 relief measures remain subject to an IFRS9 staging standstill under Bank of Thailand regulations until the end of 2021, according to Krung Thai Bank. Given the large amount of relief provided by Thai banks over the last year, and more that may develop in the future, current earnings power and capital buffers may overstate each banks’ ability to make optional distribution payments over time.Therefore, a complete analysis on the fair value of a Thai-bank security should incorporate the capital buffer and pre-provision earnings that may be at risk from Covid-19 relief loans that could go sour.  We undertake this analysis within.Taken together, we conclude that after adjusting for Covid-19 relief exposure, KTBTB has a higher capital buffer and a superior pre-provision earnings ability relative to Kasikornbank and TMB Bank. As such, we believe that Krung Thai’s recently issued AT1 note should compress to, if not through, KBank’s, bond. Issued last week at a spread of T+353, and currently trading at T+ 330, we see at least 30bps of upside remaining for investors in KTBTB’s bond. As such, we recommend that investors Overweight Krung Thai Bank’s 4.4% coupon 2026 callable AT1 note.

Executive Summary:  We recommend that investors Overweight Krung Thai Bank's (KTBTB) recently issued Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bond. Krung Thai’s published credit metrics are on-par with, if not superior to, its Thailand-based peers as well as Standard Chartered (STAN LN). Furthermore, after adjusting for Covid-19 relief exposure, KTBTB has a higher capital buffer and a superior pre-provision earnings ability relative to Kasikornbank (KBank) and TMB Bank (TMB TB). As such, we believe that Krung Thai’s recently issued AT1 note should compress to, if not through, KBank’s bond.Thailand-headquartered banks face both a net profit and a capital buffer test towards determining their ability to make optional distributions, such as dividends, bonuses, and Additional Tier 1 coupons. Unfortunately, Thai-bank AT1 spreads bear no relationship relative to their respective capital buffers. This suggests that other concerns may be driving their respective valuations.We note that loans under COVID-19 relief measures remain subject to an IFRS9 staging standstill under Bank of Thailand regulations until the end of 2021, according to Krung Thai Bank. Given the large amount of relief provided by Thai banks over the last year, and more that may develop in the future, current earnings power and capital buffers may overstate each banks’ ability to make optional distribution payments over time.Therefore, a complete analysis on the fair value of a Thai-bank security should incorporate the capital buffer and pre-provision earnings that may be at risk from Covid-19 relief loans that could go sour.  We undertake this analysis within.Taken together, we conclude that after adjusting for Covid-19 relief exposure, KTBTB has a higher capital buffer and a superior pre-provision earnings ability relative to Kasikornbank and TMB Bank. As such, we believe that Krung Thai’s recently issued AT1 note should compress to, if not through, KBank’s, bond. Issued last week at a spread of T+353, and currently trading at T+ 330, we see at least 30bps of upside remaining for investors in KTBTB’s bond. As such, we recommend that investors Overweight Krung Thai Bank’s 4.4% coupon 2026 callable AT1 note.   

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One, Periscope Analytics

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One

Event-Driven

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has commenced a market consultation on changing the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/stock-exchange-of-thailand-set-50-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31493:1" rel="noopener">Stock Exchange of Thailand SET 50 Index (SET50 INDEX)</a>, SET100 and SETHD indices to free float market cap weighted indices from the upcoming rebalance in June.The market consultation document is short on detail, but the main points are the change in index calculation from full market cap weighted to free float market cap weighted, implementation of the changes in two tranches at the June and December reviews, and implementation of quarterly changes in free float for moves of +/-5%.The biggest uncertainty for us is whether the selection of the stocks for inclusion/exclusion will use the full market cap or the free float market cap.Using the full market cap for stock selection could see 3 changes at the upcoming June review, while using free float market cap for stock selection could result in up to 6 changes at the review. The two step implementation of the free float changes will dampen the index turnover but it will still be relatively high, ranging from a one-way turnover of 7.8% for changes in free float only to 9.52% if the stock selection methodology uses free float market cap.In this Insight, we look at the proposed changes and enumerate three scenarios, the changes they will entail, the impact on the stocks and the turnover for each scenario.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has commenced a market consultation on changing the Stock Exchange of Thailand SET 50 Index (SET50 INDEX), SET100 and SETHD indices to free float market cap weighted indices from the upcoming rebalance in June.The market consultation document is short on detail, but the main points are the change in index calculation from full market cap weighted to free float market cap weighted, implementation of the changes in two tranches at the June and December reviews, and implementation of quarterly changes in free float for moves of +/-5%.The biggest uncertainty for us is whether the selection of the stocks for inclusion/exclusion will use the full market cap or the free float market cap.Using the full market cap for stock selection could see 3 changes at the upcoming June review, while using free float market cap for stock selection could result in up to 6 changes at the review. The two step implementation of the free float changes will dampen the index turnover but it will still be relatively high, ranging from a one-way turnover of 7.8% for changes in free float only to 9.52% if the stock selection methodology uses free float market cap.In this Insight, we look at the proposed changes and enumerate three scenarios, the changes they will entail, the impact on the stocks and the turnover for each scenario.

SET50 Index - Proposed Methodology Changes: Scenarios, Names Affected & Impact

It is difficult to make a truly bullish argument on behalf of US Treasuries now. The bottom line is it is still not time to buy duration. Risk yes. Duration no. Emerging Markets? It depends.The Fed re-anchored short-term, front-end, interest rate expectations via the Dot Plot, the Chairman’s comments, and actions to aid the overnight rate market. Overall, it was a better-than-expected communique from the Fed. With a spike of inflation next on the horizon, it may be a hard act to follow.Inflation can hide a host of sins. It can benefit financials and borrowers, but not the vulnerable in society, as inflation is a regressive tax. From a financial market perspective, it is difficult to envision a near-term spike in inflation as being credit positive. Market interest rates may overshoot as insurance against out-of-control inflation expectations. Risk assets, in particular Emerging Market assets, could over-react while the Fed under-reacts.The risk is that US policy makers are “fighting the last war.” Rather than continued curve steepening, we may see a period of consolidation, as short-end interest rate expectations rise at a faster rate,  essentially flattening the yield curve. We expect the Fed to be on watch for this.For financials, we anticipate improved net interest income levels during Q2 as both volume and yields rise. This would also result in higher non-interest income revenues as fee income soars from increased transactions. However, trading activity may see some institutions off-sides in terms of mistiming the market. We believe that it is better to be in banks with solid core operating revenues, rather than firms that have rediscovered and become over-reliant, once again, on trading activity.The recent back-up in US interest rates may be an opportunity to reload in some Emerging Markets (EM), just not in Turkey. Central bank independence is shattered once again by the firing of the Central Bank Governor. Only four months into the role, the former Governor is being replaced by an interest rate dove. We expect a large correction in Turkish bank bond as the markets digest this implausible reality next week. It may be better to focus on opportunities off the radar. EM high yield, but low duration, sovereign and more frontier bonds may be the answer. We cite a few inside.In terms of recent performance, in Asia, short duration and long risk bank bonds kept pace with Treasury weakness to end the week unchanged on a total return basis. Meanwhile, longer-dated European bank Contingent Capital (CoCos) managed to keep pace with Treasury market weakness to end the week unchanged on a total return basis. Each Additional Tier 1 bond callable in 2030 and 2031 tightened by 10 basis points. Given the simultaneous tightening, we ascribe this performance as due a restart of the AstraZeneca shot across the lagging EU’s vaccine effort. A third round of lockdowns may unwind these gains next week. Market Outlook: The US economy may run very hot before we see a change in Fed policy regarding short-term interest rates and the US dollar should remain stronger than analysts forecasted at year-end. Broadly, this is not Emerging Market friendly; however, a strong US economic rebound should benefit EM and European financials. First, we may need to get past the upcoming inflation spike.

It is difficult to make a truly bullish argument on behalf of US Treasuries now. The bottom line is it is still not time to buy duration. Risk yes. Duration no. Emerging Markets? It depends.The Fed re-anchored short-term, front-end, interest rate expectations via the Dot Plot, the Chairman’s comments, and actions to aid the overnight rate market. Overall, it was a better-than-expected communique from the Fed. With a spike of inflation next on the horizon, it may be a hard act to follow.Inflation can hide a host of sins. It can benefit financials and borrowers, but not the vulnerable in society, as inflation is a regressive tax. From a financial market perspective, it is difficult to envision a near-term spike in inflation as being credit positive. Market interest rates may overshoot as insurance against out-of-control inflation expectations. Risk assets, in particular Emerging Market assets, could over-react while the Fed under-reacts.The risk is that US policy makers are “fighting the last war.” Rather than continued curve steepening, we may see a period of consolidation, as short-end interest rate expectations rise at a faster rate,  essentially flattening the yield curve. We expect the Fed to be on watch for this.For financials, we anticipate improved net interest income levels during Q2 as both volume and yields rise. This would also result in higher non-interest income revenues as fee income soars from increased transactions. However, trading activity may see some institutions off-sides in terms of mistiming the market. We believe that it is better to be in banks with solid core operating revenues, rather than firms that have rediscovered and become over-reliant, once again, on trading activity.The recent back-up in US interest rates may be an opportunity to reload in some Emerging Markets (EM), just not in Turkey. Central bank independence is shattered once again by the firing of the Central Bank Governor. Only four months into the role, the former Governor is being replaced by an interest rate dove. We expect a large correction in Turkish bank bond as the markets digest this implausible reality next week. It may be better to focus on opportunities off the radar. EM high yield, but low duration, sovereign and more frontier bonds may be the answer. We cite a few inside.In terms of recent performance, in Asia, short duration and long risk bank bonds kept pace with Treasury weakness to end the week unchanged on a total return basis. Meanwhile, longer-dated European bank Contingent Capital (CoCos) managed to keep pace with Treasury market weakness to end the week unchanged on a total return basis. Each Additional Tier 1 bond callable in 2030 and 2031 tightened by 10 basis points. Given the simultaneous tightening, we ascribe this performance as due a restart of the AstraZeneca shot across the lagging EU’s vaccine effort. A third round of lockdowns may unwind these gains next week. Market Outlook: The US economy may run very hot before we see a change in Fed policy regarding short-term interest rates and the US dollar should remain stronger than analysts forecasted at year-end. Broadly, this is not Emerging Market friendly; however, a strong US economic rebound should benefit EM and European financials. First, we may need to get past the upcoming inflation spike.

Bank Credit Weekly: Inflation, the Next Market Challenge or Opportunity?

Thailand

Kasikornbank Public Company Limited provides commercial banking services including personal and commercial banking, international trade, as well as investment banking services, to its customers throughout Thailand.  The Bank has foreign branches in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Cayman Islands, and Shenzhen; and representative offices in Shanghai, Beijing, and Kunmin.

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Kasikornbank PCL (KBANK TB)

Ngern Tid Lor Pre-IPO - Peer Comparison - Playing Catch up After Being Left Behind

Ngern Tid Lor aims to raise around US$1bn via selling a mix of primary and secondary shares in its Thailand IPO. Prior to listing, it was jointly...

Sumeet Singh

Ngern Tid Lor Pre-IPO - Pre-COVID Growth Track Record Has Been Very Strong

Ngern Tid Lor (NTL), a financial service provider based in Thailand, aims to raise around US$750m via selling a mix of primary and secondary shares...

Sumeet Singh

Krung Thai Bank: Overweight This AT1 Gem

Krung Thai offers superior Covid-19 adjusted metrics. Issued at a discount to fair value, its recently issued AT1 bond is a gem for investors.

Hank Calenti, CFA

SET50 Index - Proposed Methodology Changes: Scenarios, Names Affected & Impact

The SET has commenced a market consultation on the proposed changes to make its indices free float market cap weighted. We look at the impact on...

Brian Freitas

Bank Credit Weekly: Inflation, the Next Market Challenge or Opportunity?

The recent back-up in US rates may be an opportunity to reload in some Emerging Markets. A US inflation spike is the next hurdle. EM High Yield,...

Hank Calenti, CFA

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