Japan Specialist

Mark Chadwick

Equity Bottom-Up

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/freee-kk" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28424:1" rel="noopener">freee (4478 JP)</a>  provides cloud-based accounting software for small businesses and individuals.  Freee serves over 220,000 clients with an annualized recurring revenue of around $80m.  In the year ended June, revenue grew 53% YoY. There is a huge opportunity to grow in the nascent cloud accounting market in Japan. With a strong and well-incentivised management team, Freee is well placed to build a strong moat around its business. At 68x TTM revenue, the valuation is way up in the clouds.  <section class="figure"><section class="figure"><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/165/623/original/Annual-Recurring-Revenue-ARR_chartbuilder.png?1602902386" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="165623"></figure></section></section>

freee (4478 JP)  provides cloud-based accounting software for small businesses and individuals.  Freee serves over 220,000 clients with an annualized recurring revenue of around $80m.  In the year ended June, revenue grew 53% YoY. There is a huge opportunity to grow in the nascent cloud accounting market in Japan. With a strong and well-incentivised management team, Freee is well placed to build a strong moat around its business. At 68x TTM revenue, the valuation is way up in the clouds.  

Small Cap Growth: Freee (4478) - Counting Clouds

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<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/money-forward-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:25919:1" rel="noopener">Money Forward (3994 JP)</a> provides online accounting software for Japan's SMEs, providing all of the time-saving tools that small business owners need to grow. It is the Japanese version of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/xero-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:390:1" rel="noopener">Xero Ltd (XRO AU)</a> or Quickbooks by <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/intuit-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8235:1" rel="noopener">Intuit Inc (INTU US)</a> </li>
<li>Money Forward (MF) and its domestic peer <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/freee-kk" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:28424:1" rel="noopener">freee (4478 JP)</a> dominate the Japanese online market, which is growing in the region of 60-70% YoY.</li>
<li>There is a huge addressable market with low online penetration. MF has the potential to build a strong competitive moat, in the absence of the global majors.</li>
<li>Today, MF looks similar to Xero in 2013. If MF follows the same growth trajectory, investors could be looking at a 9-bagger.  </li>
</ul>



Money Forward (3994 JP) provides online accounting software for Japan's SMEs, providing all of the time-saving tools that small business owners need to grow. It is the Japanese version of Xero Ltd (XRO AU) or Quickbooks by Intuit Inc (INTU US) 
Money Forward (MF) and its domestic peer freee (4478 JP) dominate the Japanese online market, which is growing in the region of 60-70% YoY.
There is a huge addressable market with low online penetration. MF has the potential to build a strong competitive moat, in the absence of the global majors.
Today, MF looks similar to Xero in 2013. If MF follows the same growth trajectory, investors could be looking at a 9-bagger.  


Small Cap Growth: Money Forward (3994) - Be Audit You Can Be

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.

In my previous insight <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/xero-a-beautiful-business-but-not-pricing-in-much-in-the-way-of-an-sme-rout" target="_blank" rel="noopener">XERO: A Beautiful Business but Not Pricing in Much in the Way of an SME Rout,</a> I mentioned that  XRO mostly caters to small business owners in Australia, NZ, and UK, along with other geographies. With the COVID-19 ravaging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across its main markets, its questionable if the company can deliver on near term growth.  In this insight, I'll take a look at the company's FY20 results (year ending Mar 20) which were reported earlier today.

In my previous insight XERO: A Beautiful Business but Not Pricing in Much in the Way of an SME Rout, I mentioned that  XRO mostly caters to small business owners in Australia, NZ, and UK, along with other geographies. With the COVID-19 ravaging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across its main markets, its questionable if the company can deliver on near term growth.  In this insight, I'll take a look at the company's FY20 results (year ending Mar 20) which were reported earlier today.

Xero Results Update: Good Results, Tepid Outlook. Earnings Cut Making It Even More Expensive

<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/xero-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:390:1" rel="noopener">Xero Ltd (XRO AU)</a> (Mcap: US$6bn, ADV: US$35m) is as its tagline says a "beautiful business". The company is a classic SaaS business offering cloud based accounting. It was set up in New Zealand in 2006 and was listed in 2007, raising a total of NZ$15m. The business is today worth US$6bn. However, XRO mostly caters to small business owners in Australia, NZ, and UK, along with other geographies. With the COVID-19 ravaging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across its main markets, its questionable if the company can deliver on near term growth.  If the crisis lasts a few months, its growth over the next 2-3 years might be put in question as well.While the recurring revenue will keep the business running, the valuation isn't really factoring in a slowdown.

Xero Ltd (XRO AU) (Mcap: US$6bn, ADV: US$35m) is as its tagline says a "beautiful business". The company is a classic SaaS business offering cloud based accounting. It was set up in New Zealand in 2006 and was listed in 2007, raising a total of NZ$15m. The business is today worth US$6bn. However, XRO mostly caters to small business owners in Australia, NZ, and UK, along with other geographies. With the COVID-19 ravaging small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across its main markets, its questionable if the company can deliver on near term growth.  If the crisis lasts a few months, its growth over the next 2-3 years might be put in question as well.While the recurring revenue will keep the business running, the valuation isn't really factoring in a slowdown.

XERO: A Beautiful Business but Not Pricing in Much in the Way of an SME Rout

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

Despite negative recent developments, we have remained steadfast in our belief that weakness in May has presented an attractive time to add exposure. In our June International Strategy, we highlight various themes which lead to this belief, along with areas of the market where we see actionable opportunities within our favorite Groups, spanning the Consumer Staples, Technology, Consumer Discretionary, Services, Health Care, and Financial Sectors.

Despite negative recent developments, we have remained steadfast in our belief that weakness in May has presented an attractive time to add exposure. In our June International Strategy, we highlight various themes which lead to this belief, along with areas of the market where we see actionable opportunities within our favorite Groups, spanning the Consumer Staples, Technology, Consumer Discretionary, Services, Health Care, and Financial Sectors.

Global Ex-U.S. Equity Strategy: Cautiously Optimistic Outlook Intact

United Kingdom

The Sage Group plc is a software publishing company. The Group develops, publishes and distributes accounting and payroll software for personal computer systems. Via its subsidiaries, Sage also maintains a registered user database which provides a market for their related products and services, including computer forms, software support contracts, program upgrades and training.

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Sage Group (SGE LN)

Small Cap Growth: Freee (4478) - Counting Clouds

Small Cap Growth: Freee is Japan's number one provider of cloud accounting software. Early stage growth with large TAM. Visionary management team;...

Mark Chadwick

Small Cap Growth: Money Forward (3994) - Be Audit You Can Be

Money Forward (3994 JP) is the Japanese

Mark Chadwick

Xero Results Update: Good Results, Tepid Outlook. Earnings Cut Making It Even More Expensive

In my previous insight XERO: A Beautiful Business but Not Pricing in Much in the Way of an SME Rout, I mentioned that XRO mostly caters to small...

Sumeet Singh

XERO: A Beautiful Business but Not Pricing in Much in the Way of an SME Rout

Xero Ltd (XRO AU) (Mcap: US$6bn, ADV: US$35m) is as its tagline says a "beautiful business". The company is a classic SaaS business offering cloud...

Sumeet Singh

Global Ex-U.S. Equity Strategy: Cautiously Optimistic Outlook Intact

Despite negative recent developments, we have remained steadfast in our belief that weakness in May has presented an attractive time to add...

Vermilion Research

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