Consumer Analyst / Channel Surveillance Specialist, Trudence Capital Advisors

Pranav Bhavsar

Consumer Analyst / Channel Surveillance Specialist

Trudence Capital Advisors

Trudence Capital Advisors Private Limited is a SEBI-registered Research Analyst, holding SEBI registration number INH000015747. Our firm is dedicated to providing independent and unbiased research on Indian mid to large-cap companies. Trudence Capital is known for its counter-consensus views, with a focus on forensic research and on-ground primary investigations. Our research approach is thorough, involving detailed analysis of accounting practices and governance, alongside extensive channel checks.

Independent & Unbiased Research

Equity Bottom-Up

<p>In this insight, we present an on-ground narrative based on the channel interactions with dealers of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bajaj-auto-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:3613:1" rel="noopener">Bajaj Auto Ltd (BJAUT IN)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/honda-motor-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:154:1" rel="noopener">Honda Motor (7267 JP)</a> (two-wheelers) and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hero-motocorp-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:2391:1" rel="noopener">Hero Motocorp (HMCL IN)</a> . </p>
<p>The channels we interacted with were based out of Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat. </p>
<h3>
<br>About India Channel Insight</h3>
<div>
<p>Our objective with India Channel Insight is to share snippets from our channel interactions that are part of our research process. These snippets can potentially be signals for larger themes/ideas emerging out of these interactions.  </p>
</div>

In this insight, we present an on-ground narrative based on the channel interactions with dealers of Bajaj Auto Ltd (BJAUT IN), Honda Motor (7267 JP) (two-wheelers) and Hero Motocorp (HMCL IN) . 
The channels we interacted with were based out of Maharashtra, Bihar, Gujarat. 

 About India Channel Insight

Our objective with India Channel Insight is to share snippets from our channel interactions that are part of our research process. These snippets can potentially be signals for larger themes/ideas emerging out of these interactions.  


India Channel Insight | Bajaj, Honda, Hero Motocorp

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$761m 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%. It registered a strong bounce bank in FY21 with 28.4% revenue growth but PAT was flat.</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><p>We have covered the deal background in our earlier note, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/sona-comstar-pre-ipo-inconsistent-growth-patchy-disclosures" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sona Comstar Pre-IPO - Inconsistent growth, patchy disclosures. </a></p><p>In this note, we will talk about the recent updates and run the deal through our ECM framework.</p>

Sona Comstar (Sona) aims to raise around US$761m 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%. It registered a strong bounce bank in FY21 with 28.4% revenue growth but PAT was flat.While the company enjoys a long customer relationship, its largest customers haven’t consistently grown their contribution to revenue over the past few years.We have covered the deal background in our earlier note, Sona Comstar Pre-IPO - Inconsistent growth, patchy disclosures. In this note, we will talk about the recent updates and run the deal through our ECM framework.

Sona Comstar - Has Its Positives, but We Remain Unconvinced

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<h2>Channel Interactions </h2>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bandhan-bank-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26705:1" rel="noopener">Bandhan Bank Ltd (BANDHAN IN)</a>: DSC managers in Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka indicate stress likely to remain for a longer period as COVID spreads in the hinterland. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hero-motocorp-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:2391:1" rel="noopener">Hero Motocorp (HMCL IN)</a>: Dealer health continues to deteriorate. With widespread lockdowns, interest costs for dealers are mounting up. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bata-india-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:3051:1" rel="noopener">Bata India Ltd (BATA IN)</a> : Early expectations of re-opening remain muted. Normalisation still two quarters away. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nestle-india-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13101:1" rel="noopener">Nestle India (NEST IN)</a>: NEST's rural plans may be in trouble. COVID and its impact on premium products could be felt more putting NEST's ambitious plan to expand in rural India. Underperformance unless a major risk-off is likely to continue. </p>
<h2>About India Channel Insight</h2>
</div>
<div>
<p>Our objective with India Channel Insight is to share snippets from our channel interactions that are part of our research process. These snippets can potentially be signals for larger themes/ideas emerging out of these interactions.  </p>
</div>


Channel Interactions 
Bandhan Bank Ltd (BANDHAN IN): DSC managers in Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka indicate stress likely to remain for a longer period as COVID spreads in the hinterland. 
Hero Motocorp (HMCL IN): Dealer health continues to deteriorate. With widespread lockdowns, interest costs for dealers are mounting up. 
Bata India Ltd (BATA IN) : Early expectations of re-opening remain muted. Normalisation still two quarters away. 
Nestle India (NEST IN): NEST's rural plans may be in trouble. COVID and its impact on premium products could be felt more putting NEST's ambitious plan to expand in rural India. Underperformance unless a major risk-off is likely to continue. 
About India Channel Insight


Our objective with India Channel Insight is to share snippets from our channel interactions that are part of our research process. These snippets can potentially be signals for larger themes/ideas emerging out of these interactions.  


India Channel Insight | Bandhan, Hero, Bata, Nestle

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p>EM Autos are the 10th largest industry group weight among active EM managers, with average weights of 1.55%.  The more interesting metric however, is the extent to which Autos have become one of the largest industry level underweights across global EM.  The increased underweight has almost exclusively been driven by two stocks, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nio-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27399:1" rel="noopener">NIO Inc (NIO US)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/byd-co-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:20962:1" rel="noopener">BYD (1211 HK</a>, with both seeing benchmark weights rise on the back of strong price increases.</p><p>Such outright volatility has created a challenge for active managers who are benchmarked to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.   Namely, how do you position yourself in a prominent index component that rises 900% in the space of 12 months?  The temptation might be to add <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nio-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27399:1" rel="noopener">NIO Inc (NIO US)</a> to a portfolio to dampen some of that benchmark risk, and indeed we have seen that happening among managers with low active shares.</p><p>However, so far, high active managers have remained on the sidelines, sticking instead with more established autos stocks of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kia-motors-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:156:1" rel="noopener">Kia Motors Corp (000270 KS)</a> , <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/geely-automobile-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:127:1" rel="noopener">Geely Auto (175 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hero-motocorp-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:2391:1" rel="noopener">Hero Motocorp (HMCL IN)</a>.  Therefore, there is very little peer group risk in avoiding either <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nio-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27399:1" rel="noopener">NIO Inc (NIO US)</a> or <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/byd-co-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:20962:1" rel="noopener">BYD (1211 HK)</a> .  In fact, if a high active manager decides to invest in either stock, it will represent an out-of-consensus long compared to the majority of your active peers.</p>

EM Autos are the 10th largest industry group weight among active EM managers, with average weights of 1.55%.  The more interesting metric however, is the extent to which Autos have become one of the largest industry level underweights across global EM.  The increased underweight has almost exclusively been driven by two stocks, NIO Inc (NIO US) and BYD (1211 HK, with both seeing benchmark weights rise on the back of strong price increases.Such outright volatility has created a challenge for active managers who are benchmarked to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.   Namely, how do you position yourself in a prominent index component that rises 900% in the space of 12 months?  The temptation might be to add NIO Inc (NIO US) to a portfolio to dampen some of that benchmark risk, and indeed we have seen that happening among managers with low active shares.However, so far, high active managers have remained on the sidelines, sticking instead with more established autos stocks of Kia Motors Corp (000270 KS) , Geely Auto (175 HK) and Hero Motocorp (HMCL IN).  Therefore, there is very little peer group risk in avoiding either NIO Inc (NIO US) or BYD (1211 HK) .  In fact, if a high active manager decides to invest in either stock, it will represent an out-of-consensus long compared to the majority of your active peers.

EM Autos Underweight:  Ignore Benchmark Risk and Focus on Peers

<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

India

Hero MotoCorp Ltd. designs, manufactures and distributes motorcycles. The Company's products also include motorcycle parts and accessories.

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Hero Motocorp (HMCL IN)

India Channel Insight | Bajaj, Honda, Hero Motocorp

In this Insight, We present an on-ground narrative based on channel interactions with dealers of Bajaj Auto Ltd (BJAUT IN), Honda Motor (7267 JP)...

Pranav Bhavsar

Sona Comstar - Has Its Positives, but We Remain Unconvinced

Sona Comstar aims to raise around US$761m in its Indian IPO. The company is backed by Blackstone, which held a 66.2% stake prior to listing.

Sumeet Singh

India Channel Insight | Bandhan, Hero, Bata, Nestle

As always channel checks are an important part of our research. In this insight, we bring you primary insight from channels of Bandhan, Hero, Bata,...

Pranav Bhavsar

EM Autos Underweight: Ignore Benchmark Risk and Focus on Peers

EM Autos have become one of the largest industry level underweights across global EM. The increased underweight has almost exclusively been driven...

Steven Holden

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

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