Equity Analyst, LightStream Research

Chacko Jacob

Equity Analyst

Long-Short Analysis on Japan, Asia and the World

LightStream Research

LightStream conducts quantitatively rigorous and data-driven analysis with a focus on Japan and Asia.

We consistently cover the Tech, Consumer and Industrial sectors, and provide ECM and Events coverage more broadly.

We supplement traditional qualitative insights from company relationships with a robust quantitative foundation that examines as much historical data as is available.
We further refine the accuracy of our insights and calls through the use of alternative data to flesh out current trends, and through a valuation framework that emphasises non-superficial peer group selection and a proper attempt to understand the metrics and changes that have driven security valuations in the past.

Equity Bottom-Up

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/6246" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:6246:1">Unicharm Corp (8113 JP)</a> is a Japanese consumer goods company that manufactures hygiene products for adults and infants. The company has a presence in 18 countries globally and is the market leader in Asia for baby and feminine products. Unicharm's overseas segment currently accounts for 60% of consolidated revenue and continues to buoy its growth story. In this report, we take a look at the Unicharm's operations and strategy in India and China specifically. We also look at the company's valuation which, at current levels, we think might have already priced in future growth and appears overvalued. The stock has already retreated 13% since touching the overbought line in September 2018 and could drop further.</p>

Unicharm Corp (8113 JP) is a Japanese consumer goods company that manufactures hygiene products for adults and infants. The company has a presence in 18 countries globally and is the market leader in Asia for baby and feminine products. Unicharm's overseas segment currently accounts for 60% of consolidated revenue and continues to buoy its growth story. In this report, we take a look at the Unicharm's operations and strategy in India and China specifically. We also look at the company's valuation which, at current levels, we think might have already priced in future growth and appears overvalued. The stock has already retreated 13% since touching the overbought line in September 2018 and could drop further.

Unicharm (8113 JP): High Valuation Overshadows Steady Growth Story

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

<ul>
<li>
<strong>There have been increasing news and social media accounts in the past two days about the Chinese government increasingly cracking down on overseas travelers coming back to China with excessive amounts of luxury goods, especially cosmetics and women's bags. </strong>This has devastated share prices of global luxury goods makers including <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/5718" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:5718:1">Shiseido Co Ltd (4911 JP)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/20854" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:20854:1">Amorepacific Corp (090430 KS)</a>, and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/6501" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:6501:1">Lg Household &amp; Health Care (051900 KS)</a>, whose share prices are down 7.4%, 15.3%, and 9.9%, respectively in the past two days.</li>
<li>The news about the apparent crackdown on the Chinese daigou who bring excessive amounts of luxury goods to China came out at a similar time to the re-appearance of China's famous star Fan Bingbing, who has been fined nearly US$70 million on tax evasion. Was this just a coincidence? We think not. Most likely, given the superstar status of Fan Bingbing, the Chinese government probably wanted to set an example for the entire entertainment and the tourism industries that the Chinese government is ready to become more strict in tax collections and bringing excessive amounts of luxury items illegally to China. </li>
<li>In terms of trade, we like the long <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/6501" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:6501:1">Lg Household &amp; Health Care (051900 KS)</a> and short <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/5718" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:5718:1">Shiseido Co Ltd (4911 JP)</a> idea. We put a report on this called<strong> <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/post-2q18-earnings-lg-h-h-or-shiseido" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:22419">Post 2Q18 Earnings, LG H&amp;H or Shiseido?</a> </strong>Basically, even with these new crackdown on border controls and daigou, they are not really specific to any one country such as Japan or South Korea.  </li>
</ul>



There have been increasing news and social media accounts in the past two days about the Chinese government increasingly cracking down on overseas travelers coming back to China with excessive amounts of luxury goods, especially cosmetics and women's bags. This has devastated share prices of global luxury goods makers including Shiseido Co Ltd (4911 JP), Amorepacific Corp (090430 KS), and Lg Household &amp; Health Care (051900 KS), whose share prices are down 7.4%, 15.3%, and 9.9%, respectively in the past two days.
The news about the apparent crackdown on the Chinese daigou who bring excessive amounts of luxury goods to China came out at a similar time to the re-appearance of China's famous star Fan Bingbing, who has been fined nearly US$70 million on tax evasion. Was this just a coincidence? We think not. Most likely, given the superstar status of Fan Bingbing, the Chinese government probably wanted to set an example for the entire entertainment and the tourism industries that the Chinese government is ready to become more strict in tax collections and bringing excessive amounts of luxury items illegally to China. 
In terms of trade, we like the long Lg Household &amp; Health Care (051900 KS) and short Shiseido Co Ltd (4911 JP) idea. We put a report on this called Post 2Q18 Earnings, LG H&amp;H or Shiseido? Basically, even with these new crackdown on border controls and daigou, they are not really specific to any one country such as Japan or South Korea.  


China's Stricter Border Controls and Efforts to Crack Down on Daigou?

'Quantamental' Japan Specialist, LightStream Research

Campbell Gunn

'Quantamental' Japan Specialist

ja research

ja research is an independent research platform focused exclusively on Japanese equities. Leveraging data and graphic analysis provided by Japan Analytics, we provide insights on small and medium-sized companies that have been ignored by the sell-side as well as challenging conventional wisdom on larger companies. We also offer analyst and corporate access, the latter with translation if required. 

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>APATHY STRIKES AGAIN</strong></p><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/064/686/original/2018-09-23_17-11-57.png?1537690346" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="64686"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source: Japan Analytics</div><p><strong>THE APATHY INDICATOR - </strong>Our Fortnightly Update for 26th August highlighted the lack of market activity after the end of the results announcements over the previous six weeks. In recent years, similar periods of apathy had coincided with market turning points, usually to the upside. After an initial rally the following week, our 'apathy indicator' added another three signals before the market subsequently bottomed out on 7th September. Since then, Total Market Value has risen by 6.7%, TOPIX has had its best week in almost two years, both the 50 and 200-day moving averages were surpassed and, on Friday, the Value Traded Ratio had its fifth-best day of the year. Its 'party-time' here indeed.</p><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/064/690/original/2018-09-23_17-44-03.png?1537692262" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="64690"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source: Japan Analytics</div><p><strong>BREAKOUT</strong> - Much fanfare was also made over the fact that the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/22909" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22909:1">Nikkei 225 (NKY INDEX)</a> reached a 26-year high and broke out of nine-month and 22-year trading ranges. Although such positive news is always welcome for us Japan-only 'diehards', both TOPIX and TOPIX-US$ reached new 26-year highs in January, only to later fade away for the next seven months. New highs for both these indices are required to confirm that the December 1989 high is indeed again the target.</p><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/064/701/original/2018-09-05_19-59-32.png?1537698981" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="64701"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source: Japan Analytics</div><p><strong>GAIJIN WRONGFOOTED</strong> - As <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/profiles/25" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="accounts:25">Travis Lundy</a> noted on 2nd September - <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/japan-flow-redux-foreign-investor-flows-still-matter-and-they-are-still-cyclical" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:23654">Foreign Investor Flows (Still) Matter, and They Are (Still) Cyclical</a>, foreign investor flows have recently been at 'the lower end of the cycle' and foreign investors tend to be pro-cyclical price-takers chasing returns on a net exposure basis driven by the relative performance of the US$TOPIX/S&amp;P 500 ratio. As we also noted in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/japan-seasonality-sell-in-july-and-say-goodbye-please-come-back-on-culture-day" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:23682">Japan: Seasonality</a>, historically September is the second-worst performing month in the Japanese market calendar with October being the fourth-worst. Add some concerns over trade and auto tariffs to the mix and a portfolio underweighting of Japan at the start of this quarter was not going to alarm any trustees. Given all of the above and with a holiday this Monday, some sharp short-covering was also in evidence towards to end of last week in anticipation of more leisurely-timed long-only fund flows to come.</p><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/064/704/original/2018-09-23_20-08-06.png?1537700901" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="64704"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source: Japan Analytics</div><p><strong>CHEAP + UPSIDE TO FORECASTS</strong> - The last two weeks have taken the total market cap (ex REITs) to back above ¥700t, however, the trailing-twelve-month (TTM) PER is still below 15x. In aggregate the current forecasts for current year's Net Income are nearly ¥2t behind the TTM data, leaving scope for some market-boosting upward revisions in November as the (mostly interim) results are announced. Assuming upward revisions bring forecasts in line with our estimate the November TTM aggregate Net Income of ¥50t, the market PE at the January peak capitalisation would still be below 15x.  </p><p><strong>CAVEATS</strong> - Curbing the enthusiasm in the last paragraph are some macro caveats. Industrial production has slowed to nearly zero in recent months, and higher wage income is being mostly channelled into increased savings. For the first time in the post-WWII era, both profit's share and labour's share of GDP exceed 12%. Both cannot continue to rise in tandem indefinitely, and we would expect the former to turn down before the latter. </p><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/064/705/original/2018-09-23_20-19-16.png?1537701582" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="64705"></figure><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/064/707/original/2018-09-23_20-34-21.png?1537702506" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="64707"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source: Japan Analytics</div><p><strong>OUTLOOK</strong> - After a hectic four-day week and another shortened week to come, a pause would be welcome. The 5-day Relative Strength Index at 91 is at its highest level since 8th November 2017 and is in the first percentile of occurrences over the last three years. The 25-day Toraku advance-decline indicator is also nearing '120'. Although this is far from perfect as an indicator, recent peaks and troughs have coincided with Toraku outliers. Two weeks ago, we suggested the market would rise and Yen would fall 'into the month end absent any adverse developments on the trade front'. With newly-re-elected PM Abe in New York this week, we expect another quiet week for the continuing (now sector-specific) Japan-US trade negotiations. Further Yen weakness would limit any short-term profit-taking, and there are still enough global portfolios underweight Japan to buy the coming dip and support rolling our forecast forward until month-end.</p><p><strong>SECTOR RECOMMENDATIONS</strong> - Our sector recommendations have fared less well over the last two weeks. Our most-preferred marginally out-performed our least-preferred with the gains in <strong>Energy</strong> and <strong>Telecoms</strong> offsetting 'losses' from underweights in<strong> Utilities</strong>, <strong>Machinery</strong>, <strong>Real Estate</strong> and <strong>Autos</strong> and overweights in <strong>Information Technology</strong> and <strong>Other Commercial Products</strong>. </p><p><strong>COMPANIES</strong> - Our results, revisions and stock performance reviews below contain short comments on <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/11720" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11720:1">Kikkoman (2801 JP)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/4102" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:4102:1">Nissan Chemical (4021 JP)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/1496" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1496:1">Showa Denko (4004 JP)</a>.</p>

APATHY STRIKES AGAINSource: Japan AnalyticsTHE APATHY INDICATOR - Our Fortnightly Update for 26th August highlighted the lack of market activity after the end of the results announcements over the previous six weeks. In recent years, similar periods of apathy had coincided with market turning points, usually to the upside. After an initial rally the following week, our 'apathy indicator' added another three signals before the market subsequently bottomed out on 7th September. Since then, Total Market Value has risen by 6.7%, TOPIX has had its best week in almost two years, both the 50 and 200-day moving averages were surpassed and, on Friday, the Value Traded Ratio had its fifth-best day of the year. Its 'party-time' here indeed.Source: Japan AnalyticsBREAKOUT - Much fanfare was also made over the fact that the Nikkei 225 (NKY INDEX) reached a 26-year high and broke out of nine-month and 22-year trading ranges. Although such positive news is always welcome for us Japan-only 'diehards', both TOPIX and TOPIX-US$ reached new 26-year highs in January, only to later fade away for the next seven months. New highs for both these indices are required to confirm that the December 1989 high is indeed again the target.Source: Japan AnalyticsGAIJIN WRONGFOOTED - As Travis Lundy noted on 2nd September - Foreign Investor Flows (Still) Matter, and They Are (Still) Cyclical, foreign investor flows have recently been at 'the lower end of the cycle' and foreign investors tend to be pro-cyclical price-takers chasing returns on a net exposure basis driven by the relative performance of the US$TOPIX/S&amp;P 500 ratio. As we also noted in Japan: Seasonality, historically September is the second-worst performing month in the Japanese market calendar with October being the fourth-worst. Add some concerns over trade and auto tariffs to the mix and a portfolio underweighting of Japan at the start of this quarter was not going to alarm any trustees. Given all of the above and with a holiday this Monday, some sharp short-covering was also in evidence towards to end of last week in anticipation of more leisurely-timed long-only fund flows to come.Source: Japan AnalyticsCHEAP + UPSIDE TO FORECASTS - The last two weeks have taken the total market cap (ex REITs) to back above ¥700t, however, the trailing-twelve-month (TTM) PER is still below 15x. In aggregate the current forecasts for current year's Net Income are nearly ¥2t behind the TTM data, leaving scope for some market-boosting upward revisions in November as the (mostly interim) results are announced. Assuming upward revisions bring forecasts in line with our estimate the November TTM aggregate Net Income of ¥50t, the market PE at the January peak capitalisation would still be below 15x.  CAVEATS - Curbing the enthusiasm in the last paragraph are some macro caveats. Industrial production has slowed to nearly zero in recent months, and higher wage income is being mostly channelled into increased savings. For the first time in the post-WWII era, both profit's share and labour's share of GDP exceed 12%. Both cannot continue to rise in tandem indefinitely, and we would expect the former to turn down before the latter. Source: Japan AnalyticsOUTLOOK - After a hectic four-day week and another shortened week to come, a pause would be welcome. The 5-day Relative Strength Index at 91 is at its highest level since 8th November 2017 and is in the first percentile of occurrences over the last three years. The 25-day Toraku advance-decline indicator is also nearing '120'. Although this is far from perfect as an indicator, recent peaks and troughs have coincided with Toraku outliers. Two weeks ago, we suggested the market would rise and Yen would fall 'into the month end absent any adverse developments on the trade front'. With newly-re-elected PM Abe in New York this week, we expect another quiet week for the continuing (now sector-specific) Japan-US trade negotiations. Further Yen weakness would limit any short-term profit-taking, and there are still enough global portfolios underweight Japan to buy the coming dip and support rolling our forecast forward until month-end.SECTOR RECOMMENDATIONS - Our sector recommendations have fared less well over the last two weeks. Our most-preferred marginally out-performed our least-preferred with the gains in Energy and Telecoms offsetting 'losses' from underweights in Utilities, Machinery, Real Estate and Autos and overweights in Information Technology and Other Commercial Products. COMPANIES - Our results, revisions and stock performance reviews below contain short comments on Kikkoman (2801 JP), Nissan Chemical (4021 JP) and Showa Denko (4004 JP).

<p><strong>RELATIVE PRICE SCORE</strong> - The Relative Price Score (RPS) measures stock price performance relative to TOPIX and is calculated by comparing the current deviation with the mean absolute deviation of monthly and daily relative share prices. As all companies are, as a result, on a comparable scale, 'overbought' and 'oversold' outliers and changes in scoring can reveal short-term and longer-term trading opportunities. This insight updates our list of overbought and oversold companies reviews the best and worst performing companies by RPS over the last month and makes some specific long and short stock recommendations.</p><p><strong>COMPANY RPS STATISTICS</strong> - The Company 'outlier' thresholds are set to "+4" for overbought and "-2" for oversold. We have excluded the first twelve months of trading for newly-listed companies to remove the distortion created by the initial over-pricing of most public offerings in Japan of which <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/27149" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27149:1">Mercari (4385 JP)</a> is the latest example. Currently, 123 companies are 'overbought', and 116 are 'oversold' - 3.3% and 3.2% of the 3,672 listed companies for which monthly data is available.  The current numbers and percentages are the largest in many years. Overbought and oversold states account for 0.7% and 1.2%, respectively of the 837,586 months of data covered since October 1990. The average 'overbought persistence' is four months with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/16576" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16576:1">Lion (4912 JP)</a> holding the record for the longest period at 24 months from September 2016 to date. The average 'oversold persistence' is 7.5 months with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/9013" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:9013:1">Nippon Sheet Glass (5202 JP)</a> holding the record having been in that state for the 45 months since January 2015. </p><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/063/937/original/2018-09-15_16-41-44.png?1536997320" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="63937"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source: Japan Analytics</div><p><strong>OUTLIER EXTREMES</strong> - Currently, the percentage of companies that are positive outliers (&gt;4) it is a 26-year high, while the percentage of negative outliers (&lt;-2) is at a 17-year high. In the past and unsurprisingly, increases in the ratio of positive and negative outliers have been bullish and bearish, respectively. It is highly unusual for both positive and negative outliers to be rising sharply at the same time. The only similar period in the last thirty years was during the 'tech bubble'. In February 2000 the overbought and oversold percentages peaked at 2.4% and 20.5%, respectively. </p><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/064/123/original/2018-09-18_11-05-49.png?1537236390" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="64123"></figure><div class="content-caption">Source: Japan Analytics</div><p><strong>MARKET TIMING TEMPTATION</strong> - It is always appealing to attempt to derive trading strategies from such data - a temptation we shall resist except for the observations that the oversold ratio rises into market peaks but that a decline in the overbought ratio of at least one percentage point is required to confirm a peak. At present, only the former condition is fulfilled.  </p><p><strong>COMPANY RECOMMENDATIONS</strong> - Recommendations and comments are provided below on <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/5718" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:5718:1">Shiseido (4911 JP)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/4126" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:4126:1">Lasertec (6920 JP)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/10020" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:10020:1">Sakai Moving Service (9039 JP)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/8029" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8029:1">Milbon (4919 JP)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/8467" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8467:1">Workman (7564 JP)</a> as well as new entrants and potential additions to the long and short Relative Price Score Portfolios.</p>

RELATIVE PRICE SCORE - The Relative Price Score (RPS) measures stock price performance relative to TOPIX and is calculated by comparing the current deviation with the mean absolute deviation of monthly and daily relative share prices. As all companies are, as a result, on a comparable scale, 'overbought' and 'oversold' outliers and changes in scoring can reveal short-term and longer-term trading opportunities. This insight updates our list of overbought and oversold companies reviews the best and worst performing companies by RPS over the last month and makes some specific long and short stock recommendations.COMPANY RPS STATISTICS - The Company 'outlier' thresholds are set to "+4" for overbought and "-2" for oversold. We have excluded the first twelve months of trading for newly-listed companies to remove the distortion created by the initial over-pricing of most public offerings in Japan of which Mercari (4385 JP) is the latest example. Currently, 123 companies are 'overbought', and 116 are 'oversold' - 3.3% and 3.2% of the 3,672 listed companies for which monthly data is available.  The current numbers and percentages are the largest in many years. Overbought and oversold states account for 0.7% and 1.2%, respectively of the 837,586 months of data covered since October 1990. The average 'overbought persistence' is four months with Lion (4912 JP) holding the record for the longest period at 24 months from September 2016 to date. The average 'oversold persistence' is 7.5 months with Nippon Sheet Glass (5202 JP) holding the record having been in that state for the 45 months since January 2015. Source: Japan AnalyticsOUTLIER EXTREMES - Currently, the percentage of companies that are positive outliers (&gt;4) it is a 26-year high, while the percentage of negative outliers (&lt;-2) is at a 17-year high. In the past and unsurprisingly, increases in the ratio of positive and negative outliers have been bullish and bearish, respectively. It is highly unusual for both positive and negative outliers to be rising sharply at the same time. The only similar period in the last thirty years was during the 'tech bubble'. In February 2000 the overbought and oversold percentages peaked at 2.4% and 20.5%, respectively. Source: Japan AnalyticsMARKET TIMING TEMPTATION - It is always appealing to attempt to derive trading strategies from such data - a temptation we shall resist except for the observations that the oversold ratio rises into market peaks but that a decline in the overbought ratio of at least one percentage point is required to confirm a peak. At present, only the former condition is fulfilled.  COMPANY RECOMMENDATIONS - Recommendations and comments are provided below on Shiseido (4911 JP), Lasertec (6920 JP), Sakai Moving Service (9039 JP), Milbon (4919 JP) and Workman (7564 JP) as well as new entrants and potential additions to the long and short Relative Price Score Portfolios.

Japan: Most Overbought and Oversold - Relative Price Score Update - Companies

Founder and Strategist, Entext Economics & Strategy

Sean Maher

Founder and Strategist

Entext Economics & Strategy

Entext provides institutional investors with distinctive, actionable asset allocation and thematic research, which typically challenges the market consensus. Our clients range from credit, equity and multi-asset hedge and pension funds to family offices and sovereign funds. 
 
We focus on identifying key inflection points in macro data and relative asset performance amid the 'groupthink'  and confirmation bias that characterizes most investment bank analysis.

Macro Driven Investment Insight

<div style="text-align: left;" class="content-caption"><blockquote><p><em>‘“I try to use a facial pack every night,” says Mr. Kim, 28 years old, who now works at an office in Seoul. “It’s been a daily routine since my time in the military.” South Korea is a force in the global beauty industry and its carefully groomed pop idols have become global stars. And for many guys here, the gateway to face serums and 10 step skin care regimens is their time as military conscripts. During his service, Mr. Kim developed a routine while posted at an observation post along the barbed wire fences of the inter-Korean demilitarized zone.’ </em></p></blockquote></div><div class="content-remarks"><p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-to-surviving-military-service-moisturizer-foam-cleanser-cucumber-face-mask-1535034194" target="_blank">WSJ article</a> on the elaborate skincare rituals of S. Korean men</p></div><blockquote>
<em>“Fiscal year 2018 was an outstanding year for our company. By focusing on strategic priorities and investing in our multiple engines of growth, we delivered double-digit sales and earnings per share gains in all four quarters. In constant currency full year sales rose 13%, nearly twice the rate of global prestige beauty and diluted EPS increased 24%. What made our performance particularly strong were our over achievements in Asia and in Skin Care globally. </em><em>” </em>
</blockquote><div class="content-remarks"><p>Fabrizio Freda, CEO Estee Lauder</p></div><div class="content-remarks">
<blockquote><p><em>‘But the market and gender norms are changing, with cosmetics no longer seen as exclusively for women and male celebrities showing that it is OK for men to dab on a bit of blush. Jiang says a firm that manages bloggers pays him about 5,000 yuan (US$730) per month to feature products from cosmetics companies. Increasingly, foreign firms like La Mer and Aesop work with video bloggers such as Lan Haoyi, to promote their products to his nearly 1.4 million followers.</em>’</p></blockquote>
<p>From a recent SCMP article</p>
</div>

‘“I try to use a facial pack every night,” says Mr. Kim, 28 years old, who now works at an office in Seoul. “It’s been a daily routine since my time in the military.” South Korea is a force in the global beauty industry and its carefully groomed pop idols have become global stars. And for many guys here, the gateway to face serums and 10 step skin care regimens is their time as military conscripts. During his service, Mr. Kim developed a routine while posted at an observation post along the barbed wire fences of the inter-Korean demilitarized zone.’ WSJ article on the elaborate skincare rituals of S. Korean men
“Fiscal year 2018 was an outstanding year for our company. By focusing on strategic priorities and investing in our multiple engines of growth, we delivered double-digit sales and earnings per share gains in all four quarters. In constant currency full year sales rose 13%, nearly twice the rate of global prestige beauty and diluted EPS increased 24%. What made our performance particularly strong were our over achievements in Asia and in Skin Care globally. ” 
Fabrizio Freda, CEO Estee Lauder
‘But the market and gender norms are changing, with cosmetics no longer seen as exclusively for women and male celebrities showing that it is OK for men to dab on a bit of blush. Jiang says a firm that manages bloggers pays him about 5,000 yuan (US$730) per month to feature products from cosmetics companies. Increasingly, foreign firms like La Mer and Aesop work with video bloggers such as Lan Haoyi, to promote their products to his nearly 1.4 million followers.’
From a recent SCMP article


Korean Men Leading Next Asian Skincare Boom

Japan

Shiseido Company, Limited manufactures cosmetic and toiletry products. The Company offers an array of makeup and skin-care products, toiletries, beauty salon, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, and fine chemicals.

Price Gauge
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Shiseido Company (4911 JP)

Unicharm (8113 JP): High Valuation Overshadows Steady Growth Story

Unicharm Corp (8113 JP) is a Japanese consumer goods company that manufactures hygiene products for adults and infants. The company has a presence...

Chacko Jacob

China's Stricter Border Controls and Efforts to Crack Down on Daigou?

There have been increasing news and social media accounts in the past two days about the Chinese government increasingly cracking down on...

Douglas Kim

Japan Fortnightly Update: Celebration

APATHY STRIKES AGAINTHE APATHY INDICATOR - Our Fortnightly Update for 26th August highlighted the lack of market activity after the end of the...

Campbell Gunn

Japan: Most Overbought and Oversold - Relative Price Score Update - Companies

RELATIVE PRICE SCORE - The Relative Price Score (RPS) measures stock price performance relative to TOPIX and is calculated by comparing the current...

Campbell Gunn

Korean Men Leading Next Asian Skincare Boom

WSJ article on the elaborate skincare rituals of S. Korean men “Fiscal year 2018 was an outstanding year for our company. By focusing on strategic...

Sean Maher

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