TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst, Obex Capital Research

Aaron Gabin

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research

Obex Capital Research

“Obex” is Latin for Barriers to Entry. Obex Capital Management’s investment philosophy is driven by an intense focus on which business model’s Barriers to Entry are able to withstand the ever increasing competitive disruption in the TMT and Consumer Sectors.

Equity Bottom-Up

<p><strong>Summary: </strong>Coursera, an online education platform will see its business model decelerate faster than expected. While the TAM trajectory of online education has clearly inflected higher due to the pandemic, we think  the Coursera’s growth trajectory is being mismodeled based on 2020’s surge in signups. Coursera’s profitability is dependent on scaling its enterprise and degree customer bases. While the demand for upskilling employees is real, intense competition from LinkedIn, Pluralsight, and others may crimp growth and gross margins segment, while a lack of leverage with its content suppliers (university partners), plus edX’s open source alternative  weaken revenue sharing over time. A lack of tangible evidence of Coursera’s skills-based credentialing translating to jobs will result in underwhelming consumer growth and lack of pricing power. Downside risks around regulation and competitive incursion by tech platforms paired with an obscene valuation make a compelling short case.</p><p> <strong>Base Case Valuation: $33                                  Bull Case: $57                                 Bear Case: $20</strong></p><p></p><div class="content-highlight"><p>Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.</p></div>

Summary: Coursera, an online education platform will see its business model decelerate faster than expected. While the TAM trajectory of online education has clearly inflected higher due to the pandemic, we think  the Coursera’s growth trajectory is being mismodeled based on 2020’s surge in signups. Coursera’s profitability is dependent on scaling its enterprise and degree customer bases. While the demand for upskilling employees is real, intense competition from LinkedIn, Pluralsight, and others may crimp growth and gross margins segment, while a lack of leverage with its content suppliers (university partners), plus edX’s open source alternative  weaken revenue sharing over time. A lack of tangible evidence of Coursera’s skills-based credentialing translating to jobs will result in underwhelming consumer growth and lack of pricing power. Downside risks around regulation and competitive incursion by tech platforms paired with an obscene valuation make a compelling short case. Base Case Valuation: $33                                  Bull Case: $57                                 Bear Case: $20Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.

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

Sona Blw Precision Forgings Lt / Equity Capital Markets

<p>Sona Comstar (Sona) aims to raise around US$800m in its Indian IPO. The company is backed by Blackstone, which held a 66.2% stake prior to listing.</p><p>Sona is an automotive technology company, designing, manufacturing and supplying highly engineered, mission critical automotive systems and components to automotive OEMs across US, Europe, India and China, for both electrified and non-electrified powertrain segments.</p><p>Sona delivered a steady performance in 2019 with revenue up 16.6% and PAT up 24.1%. However, its revenue fell by 14.5% in FY20, although it still managed to grow its PAT by 4%. In addition, its 9M21 performance was propped by a single EV customer. </p><p>While the company enjoys a long customer relationship, its largest customers haven’t consistently grown their contribution to revenue over the past few years.</p>

Sona Comstar (Sona) aims to raise around US$800m in its Indian IPO. The company is backed by Blackstone, which held a 66.2% stake prior to listing.Sona is an automotive technology company, designing, manufacturing and supplying highly engineered, mission critical automotive systems and components to automotive OEMs across US, Europe, India and China, for both electrified and non-electrified powertrain segments.Sona delivered a steady performance in 2019 with revenue up 16.6% and PAT up 24.1%. However, its revenue fell by 14.5% in FY20, although it still managed to grow its PAT by 4%. In addition, its 9M21 performance was propped by a single EV customer. While the company enjoys a long customer relationship, its largest customers haven’t consistently grown their contribution to revenue over the past few years.

Sona Comstar Pre-IPO - Inconsistent Growth, Patchy Disclosures

Telco/Internet specialist

Kirk Boodry

Redex Research

<p>Rakuten Mobile announced it will start to sell the iPhone from April 30<sup>th</sup>. This is a big deal! <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/apple-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:666:1" rel="noopener">Apple Inc (AAPL US)</a> 's  iPhone accounts for roughly half of all smartphones in Japan and its popularity is on the rise again as the recent steep mobile price reductions have freed up a greater proportion of monthly user budgets that can be spent on handsets</p>

Rakuten Mobile announced it will start to sell the iPhone from April 30th. This is a big deal! Apple Inc (AAPL US) 's  iPhone accounts for roughly half of all smartphones in Japan and its popularity is on the rise again as the recent steep mobile price reductions have freed up a greater proportion of monthly user budgets that can be spent on handsets

Rakuten Group - IPhone Adoption Boosts Consumer Offering Now that Funding Is Secured

Event-Driven

<p>On 13th Apr 2021, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/grabtaxi-holdings-pte-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26950:1" rel="noopener">Grab (0967655D SP)</a> announced that it plans to go public in the US in partnership with Altimeter Growth Corp (AGC US) at an equity valuation of US$39.6bn. It will raise around US$4.5bn cash through the transaction. </p><p>In this note, I'll take a quick look at the numbers and implied valuations.</p>

On 13th Apr 2021, Grab (0967655D SP) announced that it plans to go public in the US in partnership with Altimeter Growth Corp (AGC US) at an equity valuation of US$39.6bn. It will raise around US$4.5bn cash through the transaction. In this note, I'll take a quick look at the numbers and implied valuations.

Grab SPAC Listing - High on Ambition, Very High on Valuation

<div>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/prosus-nv-75c7a0c4-16ff-4433-a40f-25ae5b24077d" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28498:1" rel="noopener">Prosus NV (PROSY US)</a> aims to raise around US$14.5bn via selling a 2% stake in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tencent-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1" rel="noopener">Tencent Holdings (700 HK)</a> overnight in Hong Kong.</p>
<p>We spoke about the placement in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/tencent-placement-another-reluctant-but-well-flagged-sell-down-lifting-the-us-14-5bn-overhang" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tencent Placement - Another Reluctant but Well-Flagged Sell Down, Lifting the US$14.5bn Overhang.</a></p>
</div><div><p>We have been covering the lock-up expiry since Feb 2021 in:</p></div><div><ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/tencent-placement-lock-up-expiry-us-10bn-block-and-buyback-linked-holdco-trade" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tencent Placement Lock-Up Expiry - US$10bn+ Block and Buyback Linked Holdco Trade, and</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/tencent-placement-lock-up-expiry-block-and-buyback-linked-holdco-trade-update" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tencent Placement Lock-Up Expiry -  Block and Buyback Linked Holdco Trade Update</a></li>
</ul></div><div><p>While the overall cash being raised should be positive for Prosus and Naspers, not all aspects of the deal will be viewed positively. </p></div>


Prosus NV (PROSY US) aims to raise around US$14.5bn via selling a 2% stake in Tencent Holdings (700 HK) overnight in Hong Kong.
We spoke about the placement in Tencent Placement - Another Reluctant but Well-Flagged Sell Down, Lifting the US$14.5bn Overhang.
We have been covering the lock-up expiry since Feb 2021 in:
Tencent Placement Lock-Up Expiry - US$10bn+ Block and Buyback Linked Holdco Trade, and
Tencent Placement Lock-Up Expiry -  Block and Buyback Linked Holdco Trade Update
While the overall cash being raised should be positive for Prosus and Naspers, not all aspects of the deal will be viewed positively. 

Tencent Placement and the Holdco Implications - Deal Almost Done, Now What?

United States

Apple Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets smartphones, personal computers, tablets, wearables and accessories, and sells a variety of related accessories. The Company also offers payment, digital content, cloud and advertising services. Apple Inc.'s customers are primarily in consumer, small & mid-sized business, education, enterprise and government markets worldwide.

Price Gauge
52-week Range	0.00 - 0.00
Market Cap (USDm)	0.00
P/E	0.00
Dividend (Yield)	0.00

Apple (AAPL US)

Coursera: Back to School

Coursera, an online education platform will see its business model decelerate faster than expected. Downside risks around regulation and...

Aaron Gabin

Sona Comstar Pre-IPO - Inconsistent Growth, Patchy Disclosures

Sona Comstar (Sona) aims to raise around US$800m in its Indian IPO. The company is backed by Blackstone, which held a 66.2% stake prior to listing.

Sumeet Singh

Rakuten Group - IPhone Adoption Boosts Consumer Offering Now that Funding Is Secured

Rakuten has secured the iPhone for its mobile service which removes a key differentiating factor although the largest one, coverage, will take...

Kirk Boodry

Grab SPAC Listing - High on Ambition, Very High on Valuation

On 13th Apr 2021, Grab announced that it plans to go public in the US in partnership with Altimeter Growth Corp at an equity valuation of...

Sumeet Singh

Tencent Placement and the Holdco Implications - Deal Almost Done, Now What?

Prosus NV aims to raise around US$14.5bn via selling a 2% stake in Tencent. While the overall raising should be positive for Prosus and Naspers,...

Sumeet Singh

Price Gauge

52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)