APAC IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Clarence Chu

APAC 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

Alibaba Group Holding  / Equity Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.</li>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/j-t-global-express-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:36819:1" rel="noopener">J&amp;T Global Express (1519 HK)</a> launched its US$500m HK IPO earlier in the week, with more than half of the Offer Shares going to its pre-IPO shareholders.</li>
<li>It was a busy week for placements as well, with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/liontown-resources-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:20488:1" rel="noopener">Liontown Resources (LTR AU)</a>'s stealing the spotlight with its equity/debt raising, after Albemarle withdrew its acquisition bid. </li>
</ul>


Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.

J&amp;T Global Express (1519 HK) launched its US$500m HK IPO earlier in the week, with more than half of the Offer Shares going to its pre-IPO shareholders.
It was a busy week for placements as well, with Liontown Resources (LTR AU)'s stealing the spotlight with its equity/debt raising, after Albemarle withdrew its acquisition bid. 


ECM Weekly (22nd Oct 2023) - J&T, Cuscal, Liontown, Cainiao, ZJLD, Taiwan Cement, Zomato, Hana Micro

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Sumeet Singh

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements

<ul>
<li>Aequitas Reserach puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.</li>
<li>In the IPO space, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kokusai-electric-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:40152:1" rel="noopener">Kokusai Electric (6525 JP)</a> managed to get strong support, even though we remain somewhat unconvinved. </li>
<li>In the placement space,  we looked at the upcoming lockups for <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/rakuten-bank-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:35638:1" rel="noopener">Rakuten Bank (5838 JP)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zomato-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28820:1" rel="noopener">Zomato (ZOMATO IN)</a>, along with the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ingenia-communities-group" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:5495:1" rel="noopener">Ingenia Communities (INA AU)</a> placement.</li>
</ul>


Aequitas Reserach puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
In the IPO space, Kokusai Electric (6525 JP) managed to get strong support, even though we remain somewhat unconvinved. 
In the placement space,  we looked at the upcoming lockups for Rakuten Bank (5838 JP) and Zomato (ZOMATO IN), along with the Ingenia Communities (INA AU) placement.


ECM Weekly (15th Oct 2023) - Kokusai, J&T, Ecopro, Thai Credit, Lalatech, Barito, Rakuten, Zomato

Chief Economist & Political Strategist, CrossASEAN Research

Prasenjit K. Basu

Chief Economist & Political Strategist

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

Macroeconomics

<ul>
<li>In 2022 (the first year with the RCEP fully operational), ASEAN's bilateral trade deficit with China nearly doubled to US$163bn, while China's surpluses with Japan and Korea shrank. </li>
<li>RCEP entailed the reduction in tariffs, but non-tariff barriers (China's primary form of protection for its economy) remained unaffected. Ironically, China has seen big unilateral gains from implementation of RCEP. </li>
<li>The imposition of higher US tariffs since 2019, and tighter export controls since 2022, has shrunk China's bilateral trade surplus with the US, while boosting the rest of Asia's surpluses. </li>
</ul>


In 2022 (the first year with the RCEP fully operational), ASEAN's bilateral trade deficit with China nearly doubled to US$163bn, while China's surpluses with Japan and Korea shrank. 
RCEP entailed the reduction in tariffs, but non-tariff barriers (China's primary form of protection for its economy) remained unaffected. Ironically, China has seen big unilateral gains from implementation of RCEP. 
The imposition of higher US tariffs since 2019, and tighter export controls since 2022, has shrunk China's bilateral trade surplus with the US, while boosting the rest of Asia's surpluses. 


RCEP Is Benefitting China, but Not ASEAN; Latter Gains US Market-Share

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

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One

Periscope Analytics

Periscope Analytics focuses on event-driven trades across Asia Pacific and provides comprehensive, timely and systematic coverage of index changes to major Asia Pacific indices in a structured manner.

The analysis includes forecasted inclusions and exclusions to all major Asian indices that have significant amount of tracking assets, including estimates of passive buy/sell flow on the stocks. The service also provides commentary and impact of market consultations, ground rule changes, and other events (IPOs, spin-offs, M&A) that could lead to index changes and passive flow.

Periscope Analytics works with multi-strategy hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, stat arb trading groups and long-only investors that invest and trade in the Asia Pacific region with the data being used to trade index rebalances, avoid pre-positioning and passive flow, and to time entry into and exit from stocks.

Event-Driven Trades Across Asia Pacific

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>The <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/stock-exchange-of-thailand-set-50-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31493:1" rel="noopener">Stock Exchange of Thailand SET 50 Index (SET50 INDEX)</a> rebalance was implemented at the close on Friday and there were a bunch of review cutoffs on the same day.</li>
<li>Passive Hang Seng trackers need to sell <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/meituan-dianping" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26970:1" rel="noopener">Meituan (3690 HK)</a> at the close on 4 January following <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tencent-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1" rel="noopener">Tencent (700 HK)</a> in-specie distribution.</li>
<li>We take a look at flows to Asian focused ETFs over the course of 2022. A lot of winners in terms of AUM, but a few losers too.</li>
</ul>


The Stock Exchange of Thailand SET 50 Index (SET50 INDEX) rebalance was implemented at the close on Friday and there were a bunch of review cutoffs on the same day.
Passive Hang Seng trackers need to sell Meituan (3690 HK) at the close on 4 January following Tencent (700 HK) in-specie distribution.
We take a look at flows to Asian focused ETFs over the course of 2022. A lot of winners in terms of AUM, but a few losers too.


Index Rebalance & ETF Flow Recap: Meituan, S&P/ASX All Tech, 2022 ETF Flows

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

Cross Asset Strategy

<div>
<p>Not all of the stocks in the benchmark MSCI Asia Ex-Japan index are well liked by active fund managers in the region.  In fact, there a large number of stocks that are avoided by the majority of funds.  In this analysis, we screen for these unloved stocks.</p>
<p>We filter our aggregated stock holdings data across the Asia Ex-Japan region as follows:</p>
</div><div><ol>
<li>Average Active Fund Weight &lt; I Shares MSCI Asia Ex-Japan<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ishares-msci-cntry-asa-jpn-idx-fnd-etf" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:416:1" rel="noopener"></a> ETF Weight (i.e net underweight)</li>
<li>Percentage of Funds Invested &lt; 2% (i.e less than 2% of funds hold each stock).</li>
</ol></div><div>
<p>The list is headed by <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nio-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27399:1" rel="noopener">NIO Inc (NIO US)</a> , a stock owned by just 1% of active Asia Ex-Japan funds at a net underweight of -0.54%.  In total, 577 out of the 1086 stocks in the benchmark meet this criteria.</p>
<p>Does it pay to avoid unloved stocks?  We have backtested a portfolio of Asia Ex-Japan Unloved stocks based on the screening criteria above, rebalanced monthly going back to 2011 and capped at 50 stocks. The performance suggests that Unloved stocks are best avoided, with consistent underperformance vs the I-Shares Asia Ex-Japan ETF since 2011. </p>
<p><em>The analysis uses our Asia Ex-Japan fund data, comprising 97 active long-only Asia Ex-Japan funds with a combined AUM of $70bn.</em></p>
</div>


Not all of the stocks in the benchmark MSCI Asia Ex-Japan index are well liked by active fund managers in the region.  In fact, there a large number of stocks that are avoided by the majority of funds.  In this analysis, we screen for these unloved stocks.
We filter our aggregated stock holdings data across the Asia Ex-Japan region as follows:

Average Active Fund Weight &lt; I Shares MSCI Asia Ex-Japan ETF Weight (i.e net underweight)
Percentage of Funds Invested &lt; 2% (i.e less than 2% of funds hold each stock).

The list is headed by NIO Inc (NIO US) , a stock owned by just 1% of active Asia Ex-Japan funds at a net underweight of -0.54%.  In total, 577 out of the 1086 stocks in the benchmark meet this criteria.
Does it pay to avoid unloved stocks?  We have backtested a portfolio of Asia Ex-Japan Unloved stocks based on the screening criteria above, rebalanced monthly going back to 2011 and capped at 50 stocks. The performance suggests that Unloved stocks are best avoided, with consistent underperformance vs the I-Shares Asia Ex-Japan ETF since 2011. 
The analysis uses our Asia Ex-Japan fund data, comprising 97 active long-only Asia Ex-Japan funds with a combined AUM of $70bn.


United States

iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan ETF is an exchange-traded fund incorporated in the USA. The ETF seeks investment results that correspond to the  price and yield performance of the MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan Index. The MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan Index offers exposure to stocks from Asian countries excluding Japan.

iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan ETF (AAXJ US)

iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan ETF

iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex-Japan ETF (AAXJ US)

ECM Weekly (22nd Oct 2023) - J&T, Cuscal, Liontown, Cainiao, ZJLD, Taiwan Cement, Zomato, Hana Micro

Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.

Clarence Chu

ECM Weekly (15th Oct 2023) - Kokusai, J&T, Ecopro, Thai Credit, Lalatech, Barito, Rakuten, Zomato

Aequitas Reserach puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.

Sumeet Singh

Index Rebalance & ETF Flow Recap: Meituan, S&P/ASX All Tech, 2022 ETF Flows

This recap highlights Insights covering Asian index rebalances (announcements/ forecasts/ IPO Fast Entry/ M&A changes). We also highlight large...

Brian Freitas

Asia's Unloved Stocks

Many stocks in the benchmark MSCI Asia Ex-Japan index are largely avoided by active fund managers. In this analysis, we discover the stocks that...

Steven Holden

ECM Weekly (22nd Oct 2023) - J&T, Cuscal, Liontown, Cainiao, ZJLD, Taiwan Cement, Zomato, Hana Micro

Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.

Clarence Chu

ECM Weekly (15th Oct 2023) - Kokusai, J&T, Ecopro, Thai Credit, Lalatech, Barito, Rakuten, Zomato

Aequitas Reserach puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.

Sumeet Singh

RCEP Is Benefitting China, but Not ASEAN; Latter Gains US Market-Share

ASEAN's trade deficit with China nearly doubled in 2022 (1st year with RCEP implemented), as China's NTBs trumped tariff cuts. But China's surplus...

Prasenjit K. Basu

Index Rebalance & ETF Flow Recap: Meituan, S&P/ASX All Tech, 2022 ETF Flows

This recap highlights Insights covering Asian index rebalances (announcements/ forecasts/ IPO Fast Entry/ M&A changes). We also highlight large...

Brian Freitas

Asia's Unloved Stocks

Many stocks in the benchmark MSCI Asia Ex-Japan index are largely avoided by active fund managers. In this analysis, we discover the stocks that...

Steven Holden