Global TMT analyst with Asia ex-Japan focus.

Mitchell Kim

Equity Bottom-Up

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/coupang" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28425:1" rel="noopener">Coupang (CPNG US) </a>is set for IPO on 11 March 2021 at a revised-up range of USD32-34.  This is one of the blockbuster listings among the Korean companies and thrusting Coupang to the five largest companies in Korea.  There have been healthy debates on this IPO with a consensus that the valuation is very expensive, yet, Coupang appears to be set to fetch close to USD50 billion valuation.</p><p><strong>We are on the “expensive” camp and willing to wait for a better entry price.</strong> We arrived at this conclusion by focusing on direct head-to-head growth and valuation comparisons with its peer, JD.com, instead of comparing with a broad base of peers. Simply put, would you rather have JD.com or Coupang shares?  They are both mostly online retailers with nearly 90% of revenues from retail.     </p><p><strong>Coupang’s market value is priced at 67% premium to JD.com’s market value in 2015</strong> when the latter was in a similar growth stage but with higher upside potential for online consumption outlook.  The only explanation is the outlook for better growth and other considerations we discuss in this report.   </p><p>In this report, we highlight the following:</p><ol>
<li>How does Coupang stack up against JD.com at the past similar growth stage?</li>
<li>Is Coupang expensive?  Yes, on most multiples including EV/Sales and EV/Gross Profit.</li>
<li>How can the market justify paying such a premium? High growth expectation.</li>
<li>Is Coupang’s growth in 2020 sustainable?  Unlikely.</li>
</ol>

Coupang (CPNG US) is set for IPO on 11 March 2021 at a revised-up range of USD32-34.  This is one of the blockbuster listings among the Korean companies and thrusting Coupang to the five largest companies in Korea.  There have been healthy debates on this IPO with a consensus that the valuation is very expensive, yet, Coupang appears to be set to fetch close to USD50 billion valuation.We are on the “expensive” camp and willing to wait for a better entry price. We arrived at this conclusion by focusing on direct head-to-head growth and valuation comparisons with its peer, JD.com, instead of comparing with a broad base of peers. Simply put, would you rather have JD.com or Coupang shares?  They are both mostly online retailers with nearly 90% of revenues from retail.     Coupang’s market value is priced at 67% premium to JD.com’s market value in 2015 when the latter was in a similar growth stage but with higher upside potential for online consumption outlook.  The only explanation is the outlook for better growth and other considerations we discuss in this report.   In this report, we highlight the following:
How does Coupang stack up against JD.com at the past similar growth stage?
Is Coupang expensive?  Yes, on most multiples including EV/Sales and EV/Gross Profit.
How can the market justify paying such a premium? High growth expectation.
Is Coupang’s growth in 2020 sustainable?  Unlikely.


Coupang (CPNG US): Going Mano E Mano with JD.com

Telco/Internet specialist

Kirk Boodry

Redex Research

<p>It has been a roller-coaster week for Vision Fund performance with Coupang pricing its IPO at a premium to already heady valuations whilst at the opposite end of the spectrum fintech investee Greensill has completed a rather quick move to insolvency. Markets seems to have taken both in stride as Softbank shares continues to hover above the ¥10,000 level whilst the corresponding discount to underlying public values remains at c. 20%. Since Softbank reported Q3 results, tech shares in the US have weakened and Vision Fund portfolio companies are down 14%/$7bn. Whilst expectations of further IPOs (Grab and or Didi) are supportive, share price performance will rely heavily on US tech sentiment going forward. </p><p><strong>Highlights</strong></p><p><strong>Coupang has reportedly priced its IPO at $35, which is well ahead of our fair value but not surprising in a frothy market. </strong>Coupang’s recent growth acceleration and move towards profitability make the stock attractive despite the premium valuation. The reported price implies a 3.1x EV/FY21e sales which is much higher than a direct peer group that includes Amazon (2.8x sales).</p><p><strong>Greensill has collapsed with Vision Fund exposure of up to $2bn. </strong>That is a lot of money but Coupang upside will outshine the impact on Vision Fund performance when quarterly numbers come out. What is worrisome is that this marks the second time a Softbank-backed financial firm has failed following Wirecard last summer. In addition, Greensill reportedly provided funding to four or five Vision Fund companies (Katerra, Oyo, View, Fair, Guazi) and without any disclosure it is not known whether Greensill’s demise would have a knock-on effect.</p><p><strong>Vision Fund’s public portfolio is down 14% since Q3 results</strong>. The volatility in tech valuations in the US has had an impact on Vision Fund’s public portfolio which is down 14% (or $6.9bn) since 9 February led by a 28% decline in DoorDash and a 19% decline in Beike (in VF 2).  That excludes any losses that may come at the cash management subsidiary Northstar which had $22bn invested in liquid tech assets at the end of Dec. AT Q3 results, Softbank said a $1bn loss at the end of the quarter had inverted to a c. $1bn gain by 9 February and that easily could have inflected again.   </p>

It has been a roller-coaster week for Vision Fund performance with Coupang pricing its IPO at a premium to already heady valuations whilst at the opposite end of the spectrum fintech investee Greensill has completed a rather quick move to insolvency. Markets seems to have taken both in stride as Softbank shares continues to hover above the ¥10,000 level whilst the corresponding discount to underlying public values remains at c. 20%. Since Softbank reported Q3 results, tech shares in the US have weakened and Vision Fund portfolio companies are down 14%/$7bn. Whilst expectations of further IPOs (Grab and or Didi) are supportive, share price performance will rely heavily on US tech sentiment going forward. HighlightsCoupang has reportedly priced its IPO at $35, which is well ahead of our fair value but not surprising in a frothy market. Coupang’s recent growth acceleration and move towards profitability make the stock attractive despite the premium valuation. The reported price implies a 3.1x EV/FY21e sales which is much higher than a direct peer group that includes Amazon (2.8x sales).Greensill has collapsed with Vision Fund exposure of up to $2bn. That is a lot of money but Coupang upside will outshine the impact on Vision Fund performance when quarterly numbers come out. What is worrisome is that this marks the second time a Softbank-backed financial firm has failed following Wirecard last summer. In addition, Greensill reportedly provided funding to four or five Vision Fund companies (Katerra, Oyo, View, Fair, Guazi) and without any disclosure it is not known whether Greensill’s demise would have a knock-on effect.Vision Fund’s public portfolio is down 14% since Q3 results. The volatility in tech valuations in the US has had an impact on Vision Fund’s public portfolio which is down 14% (or $6.9bn) since 9 February led by a 28% decline in DoorDash and a 19% decline in Beike (in VF 2).  That excludes any losses that may come at the cash management subsidiary Northstar which had $22bn invested in liquid tech assets at the end of Dec. AT Q3 results, Softbank said a $1bn loss at the end of the quarter had inverted to a c. $1bn gain by 9 February and that easily could have inflected again.   

Softbank Group - Vision Fund Ups and Downs: Coupang and Greensill

IPOs and Catalysts/Events, Global Equity Research Ltd

Arun George

IPOs and Catalysts/Events

Uncompromised, Independent, Conflict-Free Research

Global Equity Research Ltd

Global Equity Research was started in 2017 by a group of experienced research professionals. It was founded on a passionate belief in the importance and the need for uncompromised, independent, conflict-free research. We aim to provide differentiated and actionable primary and bottom up fundamental research.

Equity Capital Markets

<div><p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/coupang" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28425:1" rel="noopener">Coupang (CPNG US)</a> is the largest e-commerce platform in South Korea, according to Euromonitor. Coupang is best known for Rocket Delivery, which provides free, next-day delivery for orders placed any time of the day.</p></div><div><p>Coupang has priced its IPO at $35 per share, above the previously upsized IPO price range of $32-34 per share. The number of the offer shares has increased from 120 million to 130 million shares due to a 10 million shares increase in the secondary tranche. At the final IPO price of $35 per share, Coupang will have a market cap of $60 billion. </p></div><div><p>In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-ipo-initiation-delivering-the-goods" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:48125" rel="noopener">Coupang IPO Initiation: Delivering the Goods</a>, we opined that Coupang's fundamentals tick all the right boxes and worth a look, in our view. In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-ipo-valuation-insights" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:48708" rel="noopener">Coupang IPO: Valuation Insights</a> we noted was attractively priced for its growth potential vs global e-commerce peers at the original IPO price range of $27-30 per share. In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-ipo-upsized-deal-size" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:48991" rel="noopener">Coupang IPO: Upsized Deal Size</a>, Coupang remained attractive at the upsized IPO price range of $32-34 per share.</p></div><div><div class="content-highlight"><p>Updating for the final IPO net raise, our base-case DCF derived price target of $39.46 per share. As DCF-based target prices are subject to a wide range of variability, we present a sensitivity table to help investors gauge where target prices could head. Our DCF sensitivity analysis shows that the IPO price has reasonable upside potential. </p></div></div>

Coupang (CPNG US) is the largest e-commerce platform in South Korea, according to Euromonitor. Coupang is best known for Rocket Delivery, which provides free, next-day delivery for orders placed any time of the day.Coupang has priced its IPO at $35 per share, above the previously upsized IPO price range of $32-34 per share. The number of the offer shares has increased from 120 million to 130 million shares due to a 10 million shares increase in the secondary tranche. At the final IPO price of $35 per share, Coupang will have a market cap of $60 billion. In Coupang IPO Initiation: Delivering the Goods, we opined that Coupang's fundamentals tick all the right boxes and worth a look, in our view. In Coupang IPO: Valuation Insights we noted was attractively priced for its growth potential vs global e-commerce peers at the original IPO price range of $27-30 per share. In Coupang IPO: Upsized Deal Size, Coupang remained attractive at the upsized IPO price range of $32-34 per share.Updating for the final IPO net raise, our base-case DCF derived price target of $39.46 per share. As DCF-based target prices are subject to a wide range of variability, we present a sensitivity table to help investors gauge where target prices could head. Our DCF sensitivity analysis shows that the IPO price has reasonable upside potential. 

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.

<div><p>Coupang, one of the largest product e-commerce players in Korea, raised around US$4.2bn in its US listing via a mix of selling primary and secondary shares. </p></div><div><p>In our previous note, links to which are below, we have spoke about various aspects of the deal. In this note, talk about the trading dynamics and provide a valuation table at different  share price levels.</p></div><div><p>We've covered various aspects of the deal in our earlier insights: </p></div><div><ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-pre-ipo-the-positives-fast-growth-sticky-customers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coupang Pre-IPO - The Positives - Fast Growth, Sticky Customers</a>, </li>
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-pre-ipo-the-negatives-horrendous-data-disclosures-including-no-mention-of-ott-launch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coupang Pre-IPO - The Negatives - Horrendous Data Disclosures, Including No Mention of OTT Launch</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-pre-ipo-fair-bit-of-competition-but-it-s-doing-better-than-most-local-peers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coupang Pre-IPO - Fair Bit of Competition but It’s Doing Better than Most Local Peers</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-pre-ipo-earnings-forecast-and-valuation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coupang Pre-IPO - Earnings Forecast and Valuation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-ipo-momentum-play-unequal-lock-up-index-inclusion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coupang IPO - Momentum Play, Unequal Lock-Up, Index Inclusion</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/coupang-ipo-quick-note-peers-move-down-range-moves-up-ripe-for-trading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Coupang IPO - Quick Note - Peers Move Down, Range Moves Up. Ripe for Trading.</a></li>
</ul></div>

Coupang, one of the largest product e-commerce players in Korea, raised around US$4.2bn in its US listing via a mix of selling primary and secondary shares. In our previous note, links to which are below, we have spoke about various aspects of the deal. In this note, talk about the trading dynamics and provide a valuation table at different  share price levels.We've covered various aspects of the deal in our earlier insights: 

Coupang Pre-IPO - The Positives - Fast Growth, Sticky Customers, 
Coupang Pre-IPO - The Negatives - Horrendous Data Disclosures, Including No Mention of OTT Launch
Coupang Pre-IPO - Fair Bit of Competition but It’s Doing Better than Most Local Peers
Coupang Pre-IPO - Earnings Forecast and Valuation
Coupang IPO - Momentum Play, Unequal Lock-Up, Index Inclusion
Coupang IPO - Quick Note - Peers Move Down, Range Moves Up. Ripe for Trading.


Coupang IPO Trading - Most Hit near Term Peak on the First Day - Key Trading/Lock-Up Dates

Equity Analyst, LightStream Research

Oshadhi Kumarasiri

Equity Analyst

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.

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/coupang" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28425:1" rel="noopener">Coupang (CPNG US)</a>, the largest e-commerce company in South Korea filled an updates S-1 yesterday, which saw the offer price rage increasing from $27.0-30.0 per share to $30.0-32.0 per share.</p><p>Previously, we said that the IPO valuation of Coupang was extremely expensive and the revised offer price range makes it even more expensive with new market cap and post money EV of $54.9-58.3bn (previously $46.1-51.2bn) and $51.6-54.8bn (previously $43.3-48.1bn) respectively.</p><p>Nonetheless, the demand for the IPO of this South Korean e-commerce giant seems strong, despite the obvious signs of weakening investor enthusiasm on the overall e-commerce sector.</p><p>Like most of the high profile tech IPOs in the recent past, we could expect shares to open trading at a significant premium to the IPO price. However, the changing market sentiment on e-commerce pose huge risks and momentum trading needs to be carefully thought out. We suggest short term IPO investors should consider cashing out earlier than usual.</p><div style="text-align: left;" class="content-caption">Even though we expect the share price to pop immediately following the IPO, the insight is labelled bearish as we consider Coupang is overvalued on a long term basis.</div>

Coupang (CPNG US), the largest e-commerce company in South Korea filled an updates S-1 yesterday, which saw the offer price rage increasing from $27.0-30.0 per share to $30.0-32.0 per share.Previously, we said that the IPO valuation of Coupang was extremely expensive and the revised offer price range makes it even more expensive with new market cap and post money EV of $54.9-58.3bn (previously $46.1-51.2bn) and $51.6-54.8bn (previously $43.3-48.1bn) respectively.Nonetheless, the demand for the IPO of this South Korean e-commerce giant seems strong, despite the obvious signs of weakening investor enthusiasm on the overall e-commerce sector.Like most of the high profile tech IPOs in the recent past, we could expect shares to open trading at a significant premium to the IPO price. However, the changing market sentiment on e-commerce pose huge risks and momentum trading needs to be carefully thought out. We suggest short term IPO investors should consider cashing out earlier than usual.Even though we expect the share price to pop immediately following the IPO, the insight is labelled bearish as we consider Coupang is overvalued on a long term basis.

Coupang Ups Offer Price Range by 13-19%, As Investors Seem to Ignore The Company's 1P Exposure

South Korea

Coupang, Inc. operates as an e-commerce company. The Company offers dynamic end-to-end e-commerce and logistic solutions. Coupang serves customers worldwide.

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Coupang (CPNG US)

Coupang (CPNG US): Going Mano E Mano with JD.com

Coupang (CPNG US) is set for IPO on 11 March 2021 at a revised-up range of USD32-34. Our unique one-on-one comparison with JD.com should help...

Mitchell Kim

Softbank Group - Vision Fund Ups and Downs: Coupang and Greensill

Vision Fund is having an interesting week: Coupang's IPO priced at a premium (+2.8bn in incremental gains) but portfolio company Greensill has...

Kirk Boodry

Coupang IPO: Trading Debut

Coupang has priced its IPO at $35 per share, above the previously upsized IPO price range of $32-34 per share. Our DCF sensitivity analysis shows...

Arun George

Coupang IPO Trading - Most Hit near Term Peak on the First Day - Key Trading/Lock-Up Dates

Coupang, one of the largest product e-commerce players in Korea, raised around US$4.2bn in its US listing via a mix of selling primary and...

Sumeet Singh

Coupang Ups Offer Price Range by 13-19%, As Investors Seem to Ignore The Company's 1P Exposure

The demand for the Coupang IPO is strong, but the changing market sentiment on e-commerce pose huge risks and momentum trading needs to be...

Oshadhi Kumarasiri

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