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

Equity Bottom-Up

<p><strong><em>*AGM Leads To More Questions Than Answers:</em></strong> At its recent annual general meeting (AGM), DBS Group Holdings (DBS.SP) [DBS] highlighted several back to the future mainland China strategies and tried to justify its truly dumb acquisition in India. The management team didn’t do itself any favors; and </p><p><strong><em>*Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into: </em></strong>CEO Gupta was completely put back on his heals and left defending its acquisition of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB). Shareholders raised fundamental concerns over financial losses and LVB’s impact on DBS' bottom-line. In our view, without some form of ring-fencing of LVB’s challenged assets it is unclear how this transaction would NOT have a negative material impact on DBS’ earnings and capital ratios over the near-term. </p>

*AGM Leads To More Questions Than Answers: At its recent annual general meeting (AGM), DBS Group Holdings (DBS.SP) [DBS] highlighted several back to the future mainland China strategies and tried to justify its truly dumb acquisition in India. The management team didn’t do itself any favors; and *Another Fine Mess You’ve Gotten Us Into: CEO Gupta was completely put back on his heals and left defending its acquisition of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB). Shareholders raised fundamental concerns over financial losses and LVB’s impact on DBS' bottom-line. In our view, without some form of ring-fencing of LVB’s challenged assets it is unclear how this transaction would NOT have a negative material impact on DBS’ earnings and capital ratios over the near-term. 

DBS Group Holdings – Quickly Losing Credibility

ASEAN Insight Provider, CrossASEAN Research

Angus Mackintosh

ASEAN Insight Provider

CrossASEAN Research

At CrossASEAN Research we strive to produce unbiased and differentiated on the ground insights on companies across South East Asia. Our Research is produced for the most part after face to face meetings and conversations with company management to dig deep into the long term vision and strategy of the companies we cover. We seek to deliver investable and actionable themes on sectors and markets across SE Asia, often in collaboration with other Insight Providers across the region, pooling the vast experience of the analysts within the Smartkarma Ecosystem. We also offer bespoke work and tailor made trips for our clients. 

Insights across South East Asia

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bf-investment-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:9276:1" rel="noopener"></a><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bfi-finance-indonesia-tbk-pt" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8447:1" rel="noopener">BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ)</a> announced its 4Q2020 and FY2020 results recently, which confirmed the continuing "prudent restart" to lending activity in 4Q2020, with a strong rebound in new bookings QoQ with indications of continuing momentum in 2021. It remains one of our top recovery stocks in Indonesia.</p>
<p>In terms of credit quality, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bfi-finance-indonesia-tbk-pt" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8447:1" rel="noopener">BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ)</a> saw a marked improvement in 4Q2020 with the NPL ratio falling significantly as a result of strong risk management efforts by management. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bfi-finance-indonesia-tbk-pt" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8447:1" rel="noopener">BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ)</a> has also significantly increased its Loan Loss Reserves (LLR) to 7.09% in 4Q2020 resulting in an increased in NPL coverage to 4.3% in 4Q2020.</p>
<p>The company also saw its Cost of Credit (COC) decline in 4Q2020  whilst the FY2020 number remained relatively high, partly due to high LLR to increase NPL cover.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bfi-finance-indonesia-tbk-pt" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8447:1" rel="noopener">BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ)</a>'s net interest margin increased to 12.02% in 4Q2020 versus 11.62% in 3Q2020 thanks to an improved yield from new booking activities in 4Q2020, due to a decrease in the cost of funds and better yields on new bookings.</p>
<p>The company achieved a net profit of IDR702bn for FY2020, which was a decline of only -1.4% YoY. This looks like a solid performance given the backdrop of the pandemic together with the fact the company halted all lending activity in 2Q2020.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bfi-finance-indonesia-tbk-pt" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8447:1" rel="noopener">BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ)</a> has raised significant new funding and is well positioned to grow new bookings significantly in 2021, which is already being reflected in the performance in February and March.</p>
<p>It continues to take a prudent approach to new loans, with an increasing focus on credit scoring in its legacy business but also sees huge potential in collateralized productive lending as a growth engine.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bfi-finance-indonesia-tbk-pt" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8447:1" rel="noopener">BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ)</a>'s valuations continue to look appealing with the company trading in 1.4x FY21E PBV with a forecast ROE of 15.1% in FY21E rising to 18.7% in FY22E.</p>

BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ) announced its 4Q2020 and FY2020 results recently, which confirmed the continuing "prudent restart" to lending activity in 4Q2020, with a strong rebound in new bookings QoQ with indications of continuing momentum in 2021. It remains one of our top recovery stocks in Indonesia.
In terms of credit quality, BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ) saw a marked improvement in 4Q2020 with the NPL ratio falling significantly as a result of strong risk management efforts by management. 
BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ) has also significantly increased its Loan Loss Reserves (LLR) to 7.09% in 4Q2020 resulting in an increased in NPL coverage to 4.3% in 4Q2020.
The company also saw its Cost of Credit (COC) decline in 4Q2020  whilst the FY2020 number remained relatively high, partly due to high LLR to increase NPL cover.
BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ)'s net interest margin increased to 12.02% in 4Q2020 versus 11.62% in 3Q2020 thanks to an improved yield from new booking activities in 4Q2020, due to a decrease in the cost of funds and better yields on new bookings.
The company achieved a net profit of IDR702bn for FY2020, which was a decline of only -1.4% YoY. This looks like a solid performance given the backdrop of the pandemic together with the fact the company halted all lending activity in 2Q2020.
BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ) has raised significant new funding and is well positioned to grow new bookings significantly in 2021, which is already being reflected in the performance in February and March.
It continues to take a prudent approach to new loans, with an increasing focus on credit scoring in its legacy business but also sees huge potential in collateralized productive lending as a growth engine.
BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ)'s valuations continue to look appealing with the company trading in 1.4x FY21E PBV with a forecast ROE of 15.1% in FY21E rising to 18.7% in FY22E.

BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ) - More than A Prudent Restart

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

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One

Quantitative Analysis

<div><p>In this Insight, we look at Asian financial pairs that normally trade in a tight band versus each other and are now trading at levels that are close to an extreme, making it likely that there could be a short term reversal. We also recap our earlier ideas and recommend exiting a few positions, especially where there are gains and the price ratios are at turning points.</p></div><div>
<p>These are all large cap financials that trade in excess of US$20m a day, so implementing the strategy should be possible using stock borrow or single stock futures.</p>
<p>These ideas are based purely off the stock price history and we recommend investors use a fundamental overlay to determine if the price action is reflective of changes in the sector that benefit one company at the expense of the other, or benefit one company more than the other.</p>
</div>

In this Insight, we look at Asian financial pairs that normally trade in a tight band versus each other and are now trading at levels that are close to an extreme, making it likely that there could be a short term reversal. We also recap our earlier ideas and recommend exiting a few positions, especially where there are gains and the price ratios are at turning points.
These are all large cap financials that trade in excess of US$20m a day, so implementing the strategy should be possible using stock borrow or single stock futures.
These ideas are based purely off the stock price history and we recommend investors use a fundamental overlay to determine if the price action is reflective of changes in the sector that benefit one company at the expense of the other, or benefit one company more than the other.


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

<div><p>Linklogis, a technology solution provider for supply chain finance in China, is aiming to raise over US$500m in its Hong Kong IPO. Its investors include Tencent, GIC and Standard Chartered Bank.</p></div><div><p>Linklogis’ cloud-native solutions optimize the payment cycle of supply chain transactions and digitalize the entire workflow of supply chain finance. As per CIC, Linklogis was the leader among technology solution providers in China in terms of supply chain finance transactions processed over 9M20, accounting for 20.5% market share.</p></div><div><p>Linklogis overall revenue grew by 83% YoY in FY19 and was up another 52% over 9M20. While its core function of Supply Chain finance has been registering strong growth of 64.4% YoY in FY19 and 53.8% in 9M20, revenue from its Emerging solutions was up nearly 6x in FY19 and grew by another 38% over 9M20.</p></div><div><p>We have covered the positive aspects of the deal in our earlier insights, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/linklogis-pre-ipo-the-positives-fast-growing-blockchain-driven-supply-chain-financier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Linklogis Pre-IPO - The Positives - Fast Growing Blockchain Driven Supply Chain Financier </a>and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/linklogis-pre-ipo-the-negatives-inconsistent-growth-and-margins-well-funded-competitors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Linklogis Pre-IPO - The Negatives - Inconsistent Growth and Margins, Well Funded Competitors</a>. In this note, we'll talk about earnings forecast and valuations.</p></div>

Linklogis, a technology solution provider for supply chain finance in China, is aiming to raise over US$500m in its Hong Kong IPO. Its investors include Tencent, GIC and Standard Chartered Bank.Linklogis’ cloud-native solutions optimize the payment cycle of supply chain transactions and digitalize the entire workflow of supply chain finance. As per CIC, Linklogis was the leader among technology solution providers in China in terms of supply chain finance transactions processed over 9M20, accounting for 20.5% market share.Linklogis overall revenue grew by 83% YoY in FY19 and was up another 52% over 9M20. While its core function of Supply Chain finance has been registering strong growth of 64.4% YoY in FY19 and 53.8% in 9M20, revenue from its Emerging solutions was up nearly 6x in FY19 and grew by another 38% over 9M20.We have covered the positive aspects of the deal in our earlier insights, Linklogis Pre-IPO - The Positives - Fast Growing Blockchain Driven Supply Chain Financier and Linklogis Pre-IPO - The Negatives - Inconsistent Growth and Margins, Well Funded Competitors. In this note, we'll talk about earnings forecast and valuations.

Linklogis Pre-IPO - Earnings Forecast, Peer Comparison and First Stab at Valuation

<p><strong><em>*Positive Spin: </em></strong>HDFC Bank (HDFCB.IN) {HDFCB] management held a call with a competitor, where a positive spin was placed on nearly every aspect of its business. HDFCB highlighted lending had reached pre-COVID-19 levels during December and is attributed to pent-up demand. Management also contends that its NIM should remain in the guided range of 4.0%-4.5% given the improving loan mix and the reduction in excess liquidity; and</p>
<p><strong><em>*Credit Still Breaking Down Ex-Supreme Court Ruling: </em></strong>On an apples-to-apples basis, we find that HDFCB’s stated gross NPLs increased 18.1% linked quarter. Inclusive of NCOs of INR 34 bn, however, we calculate that net new NPLs actually increased INR 65 bn or 151% on an annualized basis. Provisions barely cover NCOs – down from 2.4x in FY 3Q21. We would be more comfortable if HDFCB was a bit more aggressive with its provisions – especially during periods when volatile sources of fee revenues give HDFCB a gift to build reserves. By our calculation, reserves are currently short by nearly INR 328 bn or over a year of core operating results based on FY 3Q21 results.   </p>

*Positive Spin: HDFC Bank (HDFCB.IN) {HDFCB] management held a call with a competitor, where a positive spin was placed on nearly every aspect of its business. HDFCB highlighted lending had reached pre-COVID-19 levels during December and is attributed to pent-up demand. Management also contends that its NIM should remain in the guided range of 4.0%-4.5% given the improving loan mix and the reduction in excess liquidity; and
*Credit Still Breaking Down Ex-Supreme Court Ruling: On an apples-to-apples basis, we find that HDFCB’s stated gross NPLs increased 18.1% linked quarter. Inclusive of NCOs of INR 34 bn, however, we calculate that net new NPLs actually increased INR 65 bn or 151% on an annualized basis. Provisions barely cover NCOs – down from 2.4x in FY 3Q21. We would be more comfortable if HDFCB was a bit more aggressive with its provisions – especially during periods when volatile sources of fee revenues give HDFCB a gift to build reserves. By our calculation, reserves are currently short by nearly INR 328 bn or over a year of core operating results based on FY 3Q21 results.   

HDFC Bank – Story Appears Different From Reality

Singapore

DBS Group Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries provide a variety of financial services.  The Company offers services including mortgage financing, lease and hire purchase financing, nominee and trustee, funds management, corporate advisory and brokerage .  DBS Group also acts as the primary dealer in Singapore government securities.

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DBS (DBS SP)

DBS Group Holdings – Quickly Losing Credibility

DBS GROUP HOLDINGS: At its recent AGM, DBS highlighted several back to the future mainland China strategies and tried to justify its acquisition in...

Thomas J. Monaco

BFI Finance Indonesia (BFIN IJ) - More than A Prudent Restart

BFI Finance continues to grow its new bookings, having seen some recovery in 2H2020, revealed in its recent results, with the potential for a...

Angus Mackintosh

Pair Trading Ideas - Asian Financials

Pair trades on large cap Asian financials that trade in excess of US$20m a day. These pairs trade in bands versus each other and currently offer...

Brian Freitas

Linklogis Pre-IPO - Earnings Forecast, Peer Comparison and First Stab at Valuation

Linklogis, a technology solution provider for supply chain finance in China, is aiming to raise over US$500m in its Hong Kong IPO. Its investors...

Sumeet Singh

HDFC Bank – Story Appears Different From Reality

HDFC BANK: HDFCB recently put a positive spin on nearly every aspect of its business. However, credit quality and provision realities are far...

Thomas J. Monaco

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