Taiwan Tech Focused Senior Analyst

Patrick Liao

Equity Bottom-Up

ASE Technology Holding   / Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Hope we could be wrong, but the outlook of 1Q22 could be a bit bearish since we believe ASE Holding (ASEH) revenue/GM will reach ~NT$165bn/19.4% and ~NT$150bn/19.5% in 4Q21/1Q22 respectively. </li>
<li>China has massive local efforts on OSAT business because of low entry barrier. In our views, China can exist very well in lower profit margin to compete.</li>
<li>The worldwide OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Testing) companies of scale are majorly centered in Asia Pacific area.</li>
</ul>


Hope we could be wrong, but the outlook of 1Q22 could be a bit bearish since we believe ASE Holding (ASEH) revenue/GM will reach ~NT$165bn/19.4% and ~NT$150bn/19.5% in 4Q21/1Q22 respectively. 
China has massive local efforts on OSAT business because of low entry barrier. In our views, China can exist very well in lower profit margin to compete.
The worldwide OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Testing) companies of scale are majorly centered in Asia Pacific area.


ASE Holding (ASX.US, 3711.TT): The Outlook of 1Q22 Could Be a Bit Bearish as Actionable

Insight Provider, CrossASEAN Research

Nicolas Van Broekhoven

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

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aem-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11019:1" rel="noopener">AEM (AEM SP)</a> reported weak results last week but subsequently announced a 103 million SGD investment by Temasek. </p><p>The Temasek investment comes ahead of an expected strong 2H21 and 2022 but more importantly right ahead of probable new major customer wins. As well documented AEM is highly dependent on <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/intel-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16764:1" rel="noopener">Intel Corp (INTC US)</a> for 80% of its revenues and needs new customers to diversify. Management has quietly been forming new relationships and is in various trial phases with some of the largest semiconductor companies other than Intel. During 1Q21's conf call we first heard of management's growing optimism and this was again reiterated in 2Q21.</p><p>On the 3Q20 call AEM's Chairman Loke Wai San was asked if he would consider a Nasdaq listing. His answer at the time was <em>"once we get to a billion USD market cap we can consider it".</em> The combination of the Temasek investment and the anticipated major new customer wins will likely get us there. In this regard <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/sgx-and-nasdaq-extend-partnership-to-help-firms-access-capital" target="_blank" rel="noopener">please recall</a> that in July 2020 SGX and Nasdaq agreed to make "dual-listings" between both exchanges easier. What better company to kick-off this agreement than AEM?</p><p><strong>Fair Value increases to 8 SGD (20x P/E on 0.40 SGD FY22 EPS)</strong>. Recall, AEM already earned 0.35 SGD EPS in 2020, so assuming new customer wins materialize 0.40 SGD is not a stretch.</p>

AEM (AEM SP) reported weak results last week but subsequently announced a 103 million SGD investment by Temasek. The Temasek investment comes ahead of an expected strong 2H21 and 2022 but more importantly right ahead of probable new major customer wins. As well documented AEM is highly dependent on Intel Corp (INTC US) for 80% of its revenues and needs new customers to diversify. Management has quietly been forming new relationships and is in various trial phases with some of the largest semiconductor companies other than Intel. During 1Q21's conf call we first heard of management's growing optimism and this was again reiterated in 2Q21.On the 3Q20 call AEM's Chairman Loke Wai San was asked if he would consider a Nasdaq listing. His answer at the time was "once we get to a billion USD market cap we can consider it". The combination of the Temasek investment and the anticipated major new customer wins will likely get us there. In this regard please recall that in July 2020 SGX and Nasdaq agreed to make "dual-listings" between both exchanges easier. What better company to kick-off this agreement than AEM?Fair Value increases to 8 SGD (20x P/E on 0.40 SGD FY22 EPS). Recall, AEM already earned 0.35 SGD EPS in 2020, so assuming new customer wins materialize 0.40 SGD is not a stretch.

AEM: Temasek Investment + New Customers = Pre-Cursor to Nasdaq Listing? Fair Value to 8 SGD

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aem-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11019:1" rel="noopener">AEM (AEM SP)</a> posted 1Q21 results which were relatively soft YoY. Management noted that 1Q21 was still much stronger than 1Q19 and 1Q20 was an anomaly. AEM also shared annual guidance between 460-520M SGD for 2021. This was the first time management shared guidance for the year. Given AEM's history we believe this guidance is conservative.</p><p>During the call the CEO and CFO were confident that growth would significantly pick up from 3Q21 as its largest customer <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/intel-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16764:1" rel="noopener">Intel Corp (INTC US)</a> ramps up requirement for its latest test handlers. Longer term the company is hopeful to announce multiple new significant customer wins by 2022. This has been a multi-year process which could now bear fruits next year and would be an important catalyst for the company. We remain convinced AEM also becomes an M&amp;A target at some point which provides downside support to the stock.</p><p>Nothing in 1Q21 results changes the long-term bull thesis on AEM. Fair Value remains unchanged 5 SGD (40% upside). </p>

AEM (AEM SP) posted 1Q21 results which were relatively soft YoY. Management noted that 1Q21 was still much stronger than 1Q19 and 1Q20 was an anomaly. AEM also shared annual guidance between 460-520M SGD for 2021. This was the first time management shared guidance for the year. Given AEM's history we believe this guidance is conservative.During the call the CEO and CFO were confident that growth would significantly pick up from 3Q21 as its largest customer Intel Corp (INTC US) ramps up requirement for its latest test handlers. Longer term the company is hopeful to announce multiple new significant customer wins by 2022. This has been a multi-year process which could now bear fruits next year and would be an important catalyst for the company. We remain convinced AEM also becomes an M&amp;A target at some point which provides downside support to the stock.Nothing in 1Q21 results changes the long-term bull thesis on AEM. Fair Value remains unchanged 5 SGD (40% upside). 

AEM: Temporary Weakness Creates Buying Opportunity Going into New Product Cycle as of 3Q21

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

<p>Our bullish outlook, intact since early November, has been based on the fact that virtually all signals from the market have been consistent with risk-on behavior that we would expect to see in bull markets. Now, the picture is less clear; we are still bullish, just <em>slightly</em> less so than we have been over the past 2-3 months. In today’s report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, Manufacturing, and Technology.</p>

Our bullish outlook, intact since early November, has been based on the fact that virtually all signals from the market have been consistent with risk-on behavior that we would expect to see in bull markets. Now, the picture is less clear; we are still bullish, just slightly less so than we have been over the past 2-3 months. In today’s report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, Manufacturing, and Technology.

U.S. Equity Strategy: Downgrading Manufacturing & Transports

Independent Insight Provider, Japanese equities, LightStream Research

Scott Foster

Independent Insight Provider, Japanese equities

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.

<p>Advantest enters the new year with its share price back to its pre-Lehman Shock high, but lagging Tokyo Electron and other high-flying Japanese semiconductor production equipment (SPE) stocks.</p><p>But orders, sales and profits turned up in 2Q of FY Mar-21 and the medium-to-long-term outlook for both memory and system-on-chip (SoC) test requirements is favorable.</p><p>5G is likely to add about 10% to SoC test demand over the next 2-3 years. Smart-phone complexity, high-performance computing, data traffic, memory and storage requirements, and industrial applications are the underlying drivers of test system demand.</p><div><p>Sales should rise by about 25% and operating profit by nearly 40% in the two and a half years to Mar-23, in our estimation, with operating and net profits regaining and then exceeding the peaks recorded in FY Mar-19 despite substantial investments in new technology.</p></div><p>Valuations have risen, but not radically so, and Japan Analytics calculations indicate that the shares are nowhere near being oversold. SPE comparables suggest potential upside of 30% to ¥10,000-plus. </p><p>The primary threats to Advantest's prospects are macro-economic and political, in our opinion. Risk to the important China market should decline with the departure of Donald Trump. </p><div><div><div><div></div></div></div></div><div><div></div></div>

Advantest enters the new year with its share price back to its pre-Lehman Shock high, but lagging Tokyo Electron and other high-flying Japanese semiconductor production equipment (SPE) stocks.But orders, sales and profits turned up in 2Q of FY Mar-21 and the medium-to-long-term outlook for both memory and system-on-chip (SoC) test requirements is favorable.5G is likely to add about 10% to SoC test demand over the next 2-3 years. Smart-phone complexity, high-performance computing, data traffic, memory and storage requirements, and industrial applications are the underlying drivers of test system demand.Sales should rise by about 25% and operating profit by nearly 40% in the two and a half years to Mar-23, in our estimation, with operating and net profits regaining and then exceeding the peaks recorded in FY Mar-19 despite substantial investments in new technology.Valuations have risen, but not radically so, and Japan Analytics calculations indicate that the shares are nowhere near being oversold. SPE comparables suggest potential upside of 30% to ¥10,000-plus. The primary threats to Advantest's prospects are macro-economic and political, in our opinion. Risk to the important China market should decline with the departure of Donald Trump. 

Advantest (6857 JP): 5G Keeps the Ball Rolling

United States

ON Semiconductor Corporation supplies analog, standard logic, and discrete semiconductors for data and power management. The Company's products include integrated circuits, and analog ICs. ON also offers discrete semiconductors in a variety of surface mount and standard packages.

Skyworks Solutions, Inc., a wireless semiconductor company, designs and manufactures radio frequency and complete semiconductor system solutions for mobile communications applications.  The Company provides front-end modules, radio frequency subsystems, and system solutions to wireless handset and infrastructure customers worldwide.

Onto Innovation Inc. provides process control solutions and inspection systems. The Company offers solutions which primarily used in the fabrication of semiconductors and other solid-state devices, as well as industrial and scientific applications. Onto Innovation serves customers in the United States.

Amkor Technology, Inc. provides semiconductor packaging and test services.  The Company offers deep submicron wafer fabrication, wafer probe testing, integrated circuit packaging assembly and design, final testing, reliability testing, burn-in, and electrical characterization.

Qorvo Inc, designs, develops, manufactures, and markets a variety of high performance analog and mixed signal integrated circuits for the communications markets. The Company's products are used for wireless communications applications such as cellular and PCS, cordless telephony, wireless LANs, industrial radios, wireless security and remote meter reading.

Entegris Inc. provides materials management products and services to the microelectronics industry on a worldwide basis.  The Company provides products such as wafer shippers, wafer transport and process carriers, pods, and work-in-process boxes.  Entegris also provides chemical delivery products such as valves, fittings, tubing, pipe, and containers.

First Solar, Inc. designs and manufactures solar modules.  The Company uses a thin film semiconductor technology to manufacture electricity-producing solar modules.

Axcelis Technologies, Inc. manufactures components for the semiconductor industry. The Company designs, manufactures and services ion implantation, dry strip, thermal processing and curing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. Axcelis Technologies sells their products to semiconductor chip manufacturers worldwide.

MA-COM Technology Solutions Holdings Inc. provides high performance analog semiconductor solutions. The Company supplies semiconductors, active and passive components, and sub-assemblies for use in radio frequency, microwave, and millimeter wave applications. MA-COM Technology Solutions serves customers throughout the United States.

Monolithic Power Systems Inc specializes in high-performance, integrated power solutions. The Company provides small, highly energy efficient, easy-to-use power solutions for systems found in industrial applications, telecom infrastructures, cloud computing, automotive, and consumer applications.

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. offers assembly and testing services. The Company provides outsourced assembly, semiconductor testing, semiconductor packaging, and other related services. ASE Technology Holding operates in Taiwan.

Lasertec Corporation develops, designs, manufactures and markets photomask inspection systems to make semiconductor devices, confocal scanning laser microscopes and liquid crystal display (LCD) inspection systems.

United Microelectronics Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets integrated circuits (ICs) and related electronic products.  The Company's main products are consumer electronic ICs, memory ICs, personal computer peripheral ICs, and communication ICs.

Novatek Microelectronics Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets integrated circuits (ICs).  The Company's products are used in telecommunication, computer peripherals, and LCD (liquid crystal display) drivers.

LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. develops, manufactures and sells silicon rods and silicon wafers. The Company's main products include 6 inch, 6.5 inch and 8 inch monocrystalline silicon rods and wafers.

LONGi Green Energy Technology (601012 CH)

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation operates a semiconductor foundry. The Company provides integrated circuit foundry and technology services including the testing, development, design, manufacturing, packaging, and sale of integrated circuits. Semiconductor Manufacturing International offers its products and services around the world.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) (981 HK)

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC)

Hanmi Semiconductor Co., Ltd. manufactures and develops semiconductor equipment. The Company's products include auto molding system, sawing & placement system, campress trim/form/singulation system, and pick & place system.

DISCO CORPORATION manufactures abrasive and precision industrial machinery for cutting and grinding purposes.  The Company's products are applied in the semiconductor, electronics, and construction industries to produce consumer goods such as personal computers, digital cameras, video game systems, and Digital Video Disc (DVD) players.

Renesas Electronics Corporation researches, develops, designs and manufactures electronic components such as semiconductors and integrated devices.

ADVANTEST CORPORATION produces semiconductor testing devices and electronic measuring instruments.  The Company's products include large-scale integration (LSI) test systems, memory test systems, dynamic test handlers, network analyzers, electronic meters, optical testing devices, and signal sources.

Teradyne, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and supports semiconductor test products and services on a world wide basis. The Company's test equipment products and services include: semiconductor test systems, military/aerospace test instrumentation and systems, circuit-board test and inspection systems and automotive diagnostic and test systems.

Price Gauge
52-week Range	0.00 - 0.00
Market Cap (USDm)	0.00
P/E	0.00
Dividend (Yield)	0.00

Teradyne Inc (TER US)

ASE Holding (ASX.US, 3711.TT): The Outlook of 1Q22 Could Be a Bit Bearish as Actionable

Hope we could be wrong, but the outlook of 1Q22 could be a bit bearish since we believe ASE Holding (ASEH) revenue/GM will reach ~NT$165bn/19.4%...

Patrick Liao

AEM: Temasek Investment + New Customers = Pre-Cursor to Nasdaq Listing? Fair Value to 8 SGD

AEM remains a top pick as it digests the Temasek investment and gets ready to list on Nasdaq in 2022. Major new customer wins are likely as...

Nicolas Van Broekhoven

AEM: Temporary Weakness Creates Buying Opportunity Going into New Product Cycle as of 3Q21

AEM had a weaker quarter but it is very confident that a new growth cycle will start in 3Q21 well into 2022. New customer wins in 2022 could start...

Nicolas Van Broekhoven

U.S. Equity Strategy: Downgrading Manufacturing & Transports

In today’s report we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within Consumer Discretionary, Health Care, Manufacturing, and Technology

Vermilion Research

Advantest (6857 JP): 5G Keeps the Ball Rolling

Orders, sales and profits turned up in 2Q of FY Mar-21 and the outlook is positive as smartphone complexity, 5G and other factors drive IC test...

Scott Foster

Price Gauge

52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)