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

Equity Bottom-Up

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sea-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8509:1" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd (SE US)</a> announced its 1Q2021 results which look like a blowout set of numbers with +147% growth in total GAAP revenues with +117% growth in digital bookings for digital entertainment and +250% YoY growth in e-commerce GAAP revenues.</p>
<p>Gross Profit increased a staggering +212% YoY to US$645.4m in 1Q2021 and the company booked a positive EBITDA of US$88.1m versus a (US$69.9m) loss in 1Q2020.</p>
<p>The gross profit margin increased from 28% in 1Q2020 to 36% in 1Q2021, which is a testament to the fact that the company is moving along the path to profitability. Digital entertainment saw higher margins, while-commerce saw falling EBITDA loss per order.</p>
<p>In Digital Entertainment (DE) division continues to see strong growth in its user base with +61% YoY growth in quarterly active users (QAU) to 648.6m but more importantly quarterly paying users saw growth of +12.3% YoY to 79.8m signifying a higher level of monetization on its self-developed game <em>Free Fire.</em></p>
<p>The company continues to successfully expand its gaming business to new geographies, with India being the latest growth engine and players are spending more time on Free Fire and spending more. It continues to add new content and characters to increase the appeal and stickiness of <em>Free Fire</em>. It is also seeing huge response in the eSports arena for <em>Free Fire.</em></p>
<p>Shopee ranked number one in the shopping category by monthly active users and time spent in app in 1Q2021 for both South East Asia and Taiwan, according to App Annie. E-commerce continues to show supercharged growth and especially in the core market of Indonesia.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sea-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8509:1" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd (SE US)</a>'s move into digital payments in South -East Asia under SeaMoney and ShopeePay in Indonesia continues to see strong momentum.  The mobile wallet total payment volume saw total payment volume triple in 1Q2021 to US$3.4bn. </p>
<p>The company is also expanding the offline use-cases for ShopeePay most recently extending use to Indomaret in Indonesia, the largest mini-market operator in the country.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sea-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8509:1" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd (SE US)</a>'s move into food delivery through ShopeeFood and evidence suggests that it has already had a strong reception to its launch in Jakarta, with growth similar to that in other categories.</p>
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<p>This latest set of results provides further proof of the success of the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sea-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8509:1" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd (SE US)</a> growth model which generates huge EBITDA from gaming and reinvests that money into growing the company's e-commerce and digital finance businesses, whilst maintaining the investment momentum into the gaming cash cow, buy pushing out into new geographies such as India.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sea-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8509:1" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd (SE US)</a> continues to standout as the best way to play the explosive growth in e-commerce in South East Asia, funded by the popularity of its self developed game <em>Free Fire </em>and its gaming business, together with its move into digital payments a third leg to future growth.</p>
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<section class="figure"><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sea-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8509:1" rel="noopener">Sea Ltd (SE US)</a> valuations are higher than its listed peers on 13x and 9x EV/Sales for FY21E and FY22E respectively but it is growing at more than twice the pace in terms of sales to justify this. The market is also paying a premium for its unique financing plus its market leadership and strong track record on execution, with 11 consecutive quarters of triple-digit growth.</section>
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Sea Ltd (SE US) announced its 1Q2021 results which look like a blowout set of numbers with +147% growth in total GAAP revenues with +117% growth in digital bookings for digital entertainment and +250% YoY growth in e-commerce GAAP revenues.
Gross Profit increased a staggering +212% YoY to US$645.4m in 1Q2021 and the company booked a positive EBITDA of US$88.1m versus a (US$69.9m) loss in 1Q2020.
The gross profit margin increased from 28% in 1Q2020 to 36% in 1Q2021, which is a testament to the fact that the company is moving along the path to profitability. Digital entertainment saw higher margins, while-commerce saw falling EBITDA loss per order.
In Digital Entertainment (DE) division continues to see strong growth in its user base with +61% YoY growth in quarterly active users (QAU) to 648.6m but more importantly quarterly paying users saw growth of +12.3% YoY to 79.8m signifying a higher level of monetization on its self-developed game Free Fire.
The company continues to successfully expand its gaming business to new geographies, with India being the latest growth engine and players are spending more time on Free Fire and spending more. It continues to add new content and characters to increase the appeal and stickiness of Free Fire. It is also seeing huge response in the eSports arena for Free Fire.
Shopee ranked number one in the shopping category by monthly active users and time spent in app in 1Q2021 for both South East Asia and Taiwan, according to App Annie. E-commerce continues to show supercharged growth and especially in the core market of Indonesia.
Sea Ltd (SE US)'s move into digital payments in South -East Asia under SeaMoney and ShopeePay in Indonesia continues to see strong momentum.  The mobile wallet total payment volume saw total payment volume triple in 1Q2021 to US$3.4bn. 
The company is also expanding the offline use-cases for ShopeePay most recently extending use to Indomaret in Indonesia, the largest mini-market operator in the country.

Sea Ltd (SE US)'s move into food delivery through ShopeeFood and evidence suggests that it has already had a strong reception to its launch in Jakarta, with growth similar to that in other categories.

This latest set of results provides further proof of the success of the Sea Ltd (SE US) growth model which generates huge EBITDA from gaming and reinvests that money into growing the company's e-commerce and digital finance businesses, whilst maintaining the investment momentum into the gaming cash cow, buy pushing out into new geographies such as India.



Sea Ltd (SE US) continues to standout as the best way to play the explosive growth in e-commerce in South East Asia, funded by the popularity of its self developed game Free Fire and its gaming business, together with its move into digital payments a third leg to future growth.

Sea Ltd (SE US) valuations are higher than its listed peers on 13x and 9x EV/Sales for FY21E and FY22E respectively but it is growing at more than twice the pace in terms of sales to justify this. The market is also paying a premium for its unique financing plus its market leadership and strong track record on execution, with 11 consecutive quarters of triple-digit growth.

















Overseas Chinese Equities, Aequitas Research

Ming Lu

Overseas Chinese Equities

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.

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<li>The main business, game, continued to slow down in 1Q20.</li>
<li>We believe NTES is losing brand advantage, because the game industry has changed.</li>
<li>We believe the operating margin will decline when non-game businesses account for a larger proportion of total revenues.</li>
<li>We set a downside of 17%.</li>
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The main business, game, continued to slow down in 1Q20.
We believe NTES is losing brand advantage, because the game industry has changed.
We believe the operating margin will decline when non-game businesses account for a larger proportion of total revenues.
We set a downside of 17%.


NetEase (NTES): 1Q21, Game Slowing Down as Game Industry Has Changed

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

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

Asia Pac IPO & Placement Research, China biotech

Quantitative Analysis

<p>Hong Kong SFC reported aggregate short position as of Apr 30. The aggregate short value for equities decreased by $-468m (-0.7%) WoW and decreased by $105m (-0.1%) over the preceding four weeks.</p><p>Most shorted stocks by aggregate short value of positions are Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd./2318 HK($7,024m, -9.0% WoW), Tencent Holdings Limited/700 HK($1,938m, -1.8% WoW), Meituan/3690 HK($1,566m, -6.8% WoW), Zhongsheng Group Holdings Limited/881 HK($1,521m, +3.7% WoW), China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd./3968 HK($1,429m, +0.5% WoW).</p><section class="figure"><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/205/381/original/Hong_Kong_Market_Short_Position_Value_%28line%29_and_1W_Changes_%28bar%29_%28%24m%292021-05-11+12_19_46.png?1620706921" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="205381"></figure></section>

Hong Kong SFC reported aggregate short position as of Apr 30. The aggregate short value for equities decreased by $-468m (-0.7%) WoW and decreased by $105m (-0.1%) over the preceding four weeks.Most shorted stocks by aggregate short value of positions are Ping An Insurance (Group) Company Of China, Ltd./2318 HK($7,024m, -9.0% WoW), Tencent Holdings Limited/700 HK($1,938m, -1.8% WoW), Meituan/3690 HK($1,566m, -6.8% WoW), Zhongsheng Group Holdings Limited/881 HK($1,521m, +3.7% WoW), China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd./3968 HK($1,429m, +0.5% WoW).

HK Short Interest: Baba, Xiaomi, Netease Short Increased

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

Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/ Events/ Delta One

<p>After outperforming its global peers over the last year, the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hang-seng-tech-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31367:1" rel="noopener">Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH INDEX)</a> has had a big drawdown that has brought its performance closer to its peers. Today's drop has closed the gap even further.</p><p>With a backdrop of heightened US-China tensions, increased regulatory pressure from the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and an increased focus on monopolies (or perceived monopolies), investors have been happy to sell first given the gains they were sitting on, plus the valuation premium.</p><p>With valuations now lining up with their global peers, Hang Seng Indexes has announced that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) had approved 7 ETFs and 1 Index Fund that will track the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hang-seng-tech-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31367:1" rel="noopener">Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH INDEX)</a>. The mainland ETFs could garner a large amount of assets quickly given that most index members are household names. Additionally, stocks like <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/alibaba-group" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28434:1" rel="noopener">Alibaba Group (9988 HK)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/baidu-inc-a55ca720-5968-48f0-8194-ac94390d065c" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:32212:1" rel="noopener">Baidu (9888 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/jd-com-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:29043:1" rel="noopener">JD.com Inc. (9618 HK)</a> are not eligible for Southbound Stock Connect and the ETFs will offer investors access to those names.</p><p>With the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hang-seng-tech-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31367:1" rel="noopener">Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH INDEX)</a> (or the "NASDAQ of the East" as it is called) underperforming the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nasdaq-100-stock-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26197:1" rel="noopener">Nasdaq-100 Stock Index (NDX INDEX)</a> (of the West) over the last few months, there could be an opportunity to buy the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hang-seng-tech-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:31367:1" rel="noopener">Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH INDEX)</a> futures and hedge with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/nasdaq-100-stock-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26197:1" rel="noopener">Nasdaq-100 Stock Index (NDX INDEX)</a> futures.</p>

After outperforming its global peers over the last year, the Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH INDEX) has had a big drawdown that has brought its performance closer to its peers. Today's drop has closed the gap even further.With a backdrop of heightened US-China tensions, increased regulatory pressure from the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and an increased focus on monopolies (or perceived monopolies), investors have been happy to sell first given the gains they were sitting on, plus the valuation premium.With valuations now lining up with their global peers, Hang Seng Indexes has announced that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) had approved 7 ETFs and 1 Index Fund that will track the Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH INDEX). The mainland ETFs could garner a large amount of assets quickly given that most index members are household names. Additionally, stocks like Alibaba Group (9988 HK), Baidu (9888 HK) and JD.com Inc. (9618 HK) are not eligible for Southbound Stock Connect and the ETFs will offer investors access to those names.With the Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH INDEX) (or the "NASDAQ of the East" as it is called) underperforming the Nasdaq-100 Stock Index (NDX INDEX) (of the West) over the last few months, there could be an opportunity to buy the Hang Seng Tech Index (HSTECH INDEX) futures and hedge with Nasdaq-100 Stock Index (NDX INDEX) futures.

Hang Seng TECH Index: How Much Lower Can It Go? CSRC Approves 7 ETFs

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Equity Capital Markets

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ximalaya-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:33232:1" rel="noopener">Ximalaya (XIMA US), which</a> is backed by <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tencent-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1" rel="noopener">Tencent (700 HK)</a>, is getting ready to complete its IPO in the United States in the next several weeks. Ximalaya is the largest online audio platform in China in terms of MAU. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chinese-podcast-startup-ximalaya-files-us-ipo-2021-04-30/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ximalaya</a> was last valued at $3.7 billion in July 2018. The main underwriters of the IPO include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and CICC. </p><p>The company generated sales of 4.1 billion RMB (up 51.3% YoY) and gross profit of 2.0 billion RMB (up 70.3% YoY). From 2018 to 2020, the company's sales increased by 65.7% CAGR. The company's sales continued to accelerate by 65.2% YoY in 1Q 2021. The increasing sales growth has been accompanied by improving profit margins.</p>

Ximalaya (XIMA US), which is backed by Tencent (700 HK), is getting ready to complete its IPO in the United States in the next several weeks. Ximalaya is the largest online audio platform in China in terms of MAU. Ximalaya was last valued at $3.7 billion in July 2018. The main underwriters of the IPO include Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, and CICC. The company generated sales of 4.1 billion RMB (up 51.3% YoY) and gross profit of 2.0 billion RMB (up 70.3% YoY). From 2018 to 2020, the company's sales increased by 65.7% CAGR. The company's sales continued to accelerate by 65.2% YoY in 1Q 2021. The increasing sales growth has been accompanied by improving profit margins.

Ximalaya IPO Preview - Creating the Joe Rogans of China

China

NetEase, Inc. operates as an leading internet technology company providing online services including content, community, communication, and commerce. The Company develops and operates online games, electronic commerce, internet media, innovative business, and other businesses. NetEase expands its businesses to Japan, North American, and other other international markets.

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NetEase (9999 HK)

Sea Ltd - Supercharged

Sea Ltd (SE US) is the best way to proxy for the explosive growth in e-commerce in South East Asia, funded by its gaming revenue, with its move...

Angus Mackintosh

NetEase (NTES): 1Q21, Game Slowing Down as Game Industry Has Changed

The main business, game, continued to slow down in 1Q20. We believe NTES is losing brand advantage, because the game industry has changed.

Ming Lu

HK Short Interest: Baba, Xiaomi, Netease Short Increased

We would like to highlight short increases for Alibaba (9988 HK), Xiaomi (1810 HK) and Netease (9999 HK) from the recent SFC short position report.

Ke Yan, CFA, FRM

Hang Seng TECH Index: How Much Lower Can It Go? CSRC Approves 7 ETFs

The Hang Seng TECH Index has had a large drawdown over the last couple of months on regulatory pressure and stretched valuations. With new ETFs...

Brian Freitas

Ximalaya IPO Preview - Creating the Joe Rogans of China

Ximalaya is the largest online audio platform in China which is getting ready to complete its IPO in the next several weeks.

Douglas Kim

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