Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Equity Bottom-Up

GS Engineering & Construction / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>We argue that the top 20 listed construction companies in Korea are likely to underperform KOSPI in 2024 mainly due to the excessive risks in the housing/commercial real estate sectors.</li>
<li>We expect the share prices of these 20 domestic construction companies to fall by at least 15%-20%+ on average in the next 6-12 months. </li>
<li>On 2 January 2024, Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced that there will be new reporting requirements for PF loans of Korean construction companies starting 2023 annual reports.</li>
</ul>


We argue that the top 20 listed construction companies in Korea are likely to underperform KOSPI in 2024 mainly due to the excessive risks in the housing/commercial real estate sectors.
We expect the share prices of these 20 domestic construction companies to fall by at least 15%-20%+ on average in the next 6-12 months. 
On 2 January 2024, Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced that there will be new reporting requirements for PF loans of Korean construction companies starting 2023 annual reports.


Top 20 Korean Construction Companies: Off-Balance Sheet Contingent Liabilities To Drive Lower Prices

Asia Pac IPO & Placement Research, China biotech, Aequitas Research

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

Asia Pac IPO & Placement Research, China biotech

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.

Quantitative Analysis

<ul>
<li>We analyzed the changes in short interest of KRX Stocks as of Dec 15th which has an aggregated short interest worth USD10.4bn.</li>
<li>We tabulate league table for top short by value and short as multiple of ADT, as well as weekly increases &amp; decreases in short value, short as multiple of ADT.</li>
<li>We highlight short interest changes in Hlb, Lg Electronics, Samsung C&amp;T, Samsung Electron, Posco Holdings I, Sk Hynix.</li>
</ul>


We analyzed the changes in short interest of KRX Stocks as of Dec 15th which has an aggregated short interest worth USD10.4bn.
We tabulate league table for top short by value and short as multiple of ADT, as well as weekly increases &amp; decreases in short value, short as multiple of ADT.
We highlight short interest changes in Hlb, Lg Electronics, Samsung C&amp;T, Samsung Electron, Posco Holdings I, Sk Hynix.


KRX Short Interest Weekly (Dec 15th): HLB, Lg Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung Electron

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>There has been a sharp increase in unsold housing units in Korea. There were 68k unsold housing units in Korea at the end of 2022, up 278% YoY</li>
<li>Unsold housing units is likely to get worse in Korea in the coming months driven by higher housing units supply, stubbornly high interest rates, and increasing probability of global recession. </li>
<li>We believe there is a sound trading opportunity of shorting a basket of large construction stocks including Hyundai E&amp;C, GS E&amp;C, and Daewoo E&amp;C over the next 6-12 months.</li>
</ul>


There has been a sharp increase in unsold housing units in Korea. There were 68k unsold housing units in Korea at the end of 2022, up 278% YoY
Unsold housing units is likely to get worse in Korea in the coming months driven by higher housing units supply, stubbornly high interest rates, and increasing probability of global recession. 
We believe there is a sound trading opportunity of shorting a basket of large construction stocks including Hyundai E&amp;C, GS E&amp;C, and Daewoo E&amp;C over the next 6-12 months.


A Sharp Increase in Unsold Housing Units in Korea: A Trading Opportunity

ESG Intelligence RA, Who's Good

Yujin Oh

ESG Intelligence RA

ASIA’S FIRST AI-DRIVEN ESG INSIGHT PROVIDER

Who's Good

Using AI technologies and public data, Who’s Good provides objective and up-to-date corporate ESG insights on Asian companies.

WHY WHO'S GOOD

* Time-sensitive: Time is the essence in finance. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can process vast amount of information in a short span of time. Our powerful algorithm offers real-time in-depth corporate ESG analysis with out compromising its quality.
* Objective: We turned to public big data and news big data as source to base our analysis on and to preserve impartiality. We leverage 350 public big data sources and 93 news data sources in Korea to uncover insights.
* Insightful: Who’s Good ESG analysis coverage extends to all listed and non-listed companies in Korea. This allows us to provide a comprehensive insight into the Korean market.
* Global approach to ESG: Our ESG research framework is built on international standards and principles including UN Global Compact, ISO 26000, ICGN and CFA Guidelines on Corporate Governance to meet the global standards.

HDC Hyundai Development Co-Engineering & Construction / ESG

HDC Hyundai Development Co-Engineering & Construction

<ul>
<li>The result of analyzing 23,940 news articles on 2,722 Korean listed companies released between 1 January and 31 December 2022, reveal that 565 companies (20.7%) had ESG risks.</li>
<li>Companies with ESG risks has decreased compared to 2021, which is the first time a decrease trend has been recorded since Who's Good began conducting ESG analysis in 2015.</li>
<li>Social risk ranked as the highest risk among ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) with the highest ranking ESG issue being 'Supply Chain Management'.</li>
</ul>


The result of analyzing 23,940 news articles on 2,722 Korean listed companies released between 1 January and 31 December 2022, reveal that 565 companies (20.7%) had ESG risks.
Companies with ESG risks has decreased compared to 2021, which is the first time a decrease trend has been recorded since Who's Good began conducting ESG analysis in 2015.
Social risk ranked as the highest risk among ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) with the highest ranking ESG issue being 'Supply Chain Management'.


South Korea's Top ESG Risk Trend in 2022: Analysis of News Articles on More than 2,000 Entities

Korea / Special Sits, Pairs, Index Rebalancing, Clepsydra Capital

Sanghyun Park

Korea / Special Sits, Pairs, Index Rebalancing

Clepsydra Capital

Investigate special situations, pairs, and index rebalancing trades in Korea.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>The market seems to be focusing more on the cost risk increase than on Hyundai E&amp;C's sales growth following the top-line expansion of the urban renewal market.</li>
<li>Instead, the market is looking forward to the possibility that Hyundai E&amp;C's leap forward as a nuclear power solution provider will lead to a growth premium for the share price. </li>
<li>The trading point should be to target this risk when the price is peaking out from the nuclear power theme. Specifically, we need to consider a sector pair long/short setup.</li>
</ul>


The market seems to be focusing more on the cost risk increase than on Hyundai E&amp;C's sales growth following the top-line expansion of the urban renewal market.
Instead, the market is looking forward to the possibility that Hyundai E&amp;C's leap forward as a nuclear power solution provider will lead to a growth premium for the share price. 
The trading point should be to target this risk when the price is peaking out from the nuclear power theme. Specifically, we need to consider a sector pair long/short setup.


Hyundai Engineering & Construction (000720 KS): Trading Points

South Korea

Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. is a general engineering constructor.  The Company's projects include architectural works, such as commercial buildings, public facilities, schools, hospitals, and civil works, such as highways, ports, tunnels, railways, and dams.  Daewoo Engineering & Construction also constructs power plants, and residential buildings.

Daewoo Engineering & Construction (047040 KS)

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Daewoo Engineering & Construction (047040 KS)

Top 20 Korean Construction Companies: Off-Balance Sheet Contingent Liabilities To Drive Lower Prices

Lotte Chemical (011170 KS)'s share price declined by 9.1% YTD. Lotte Chemical has a 44.02% stake in Lotte Construction whose PF loan balance as...

Douglas Kim

KRX Short Interest Weekly (Dec 15th): HLB, Lg Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung Electron

We analyzed KRX short interest report for the past week and highlight short interest changes in Hlb, Lg Electronics, Samsung C&T, Samsung Electron,...

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

A Sharp Increase in Unsold Housing Units in Korea: A Trading Opportunity

We believe there is a sound trading opportunity of shorting a basket of large construction stocks including Hyundai E&C, GS E&C, and Daewoo E&C...

Douglas Kim

South Korea's Top ESG Risk Trend in 2022: Analysis of News Articles on More than 2,000 Entities

Presenting insights into various ESG incidents of Korean companies in 2022, and analysis on trending ESG issue of the year. The analysis is based...

Yujin Oh

Hyundai Engineering & Construction (000720 KS): Trading Points

This post discusses the trading points, particularly the viability of a sector peer long/short setup, for Hyundai Engineering and Construction.

Sanghyun Park

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