Equity Analyst, LightStream Research

Supun Walpola

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/zozo-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:18379:1" rel="noopener">ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)</a>’s growth has quickly returned to its decelerating trend post-lockdowns and we believe this will become more evident from 3Q FY03/21 when the impact of the stay-at-home demand further subsides. The underlying reasons for this collapsing growth such as, the saturation of the under-25 segment, weak penetration among the middle-aged demographic, and falling average price levels, does not seem to be improving, hence, we believe ZOZO’s consignment business growth should not be much higher than the overall online fashion market growth of 5%-10% going forward.</p><p>In the meantime, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding ZOZO’s longer-term growth drivers such as the new ZOZOSUIT 2 and the private label business which are still in their experimental phase. ZOZO is already down 20% from early October, however, we believe a further correction is required to justify ZOZO’s single-digit growth in the medium-term, until the new initiatives start making meaningful contributions to the results.</p>

ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)’s growth has quickly returned to its decelerating trend post-lockdowns and we believe this will become more evident from 3Q FY03/21 when the impact of the stay-at-home demand further subsides. The underlying reasons for this collapsing growth such as, the saturation of the under-25 segment, weak penetration among the middle-aged demographic, and falling average price levels, does not seem to be improving, hence, we believe ZOZO’s consignment business growth should not be much higher than the overall online fashion market growth of 5%-10% going forward.In the meantime, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding ZOZO’s longer-term growth drivers such as the new ZOZOSUIT 2 and the private label business which are still in their experimental phase. ZOZO is already down 20% from early October, however, we believe a further correction is required to justify ZOZO’s single-digit growth in the medium-term, until the new initiatives start making meaningful contributions to the results.

2021 High Conviction: ZOZO – Good Times Are Zo Far Away

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

Travis Lundy

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Quiddity Advisors

Quantitative Analysis

<p>Long-time Japan strategist Jonathan Allum, most recently of SMBC Nikko, put a guest post titled <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a97cf336-518d-45dd-8092-ec0363c18725" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Takeaways from 30 years of Covering the Japanese Market</em></a> in the Financial Times on 26 November (Thanksgiving) which is well worth a read.</p><p>He points out that foreign investors in 2020 are likely going to be net dis-investors in Japan for the fourth year in five, fifth year in six, and increasing the net selldown which has occurred since the monster year in 2013. </p><section class="figure"><section class="figure"><section class="figure"><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/174/956/original/Screenshot%202020-11-29%20at%203.07.23%20PM.png?1606633655" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="174956"></figure></section><p>This data is compiled from the weekly data which shows each investor category. On a net basis across all investor categories, it will be flat because while it shows buybacks on market, crediting the "Business Corporations" category, it does not show the data of investors selling into Tender Offers or the data of investors buying from IPOs.</p></section><p>Of course, the data is not that clean because investing doesn't always happen according to calendar year decisions. </p>
<section class="figure"><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/174/969/original/Screenshot%202020-11-29%20at%203.40.57%20PM.png?1606635676" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="174969"></figure></section><p>It just so happens that the last two really big selloffs in dollar terms (both exceeding ¥6trln on a rolling 52wk basis) did not happen to see start and end points coincide with those of the Gregorian calendar.</p>
<p>There has been an interesting confluence of "lack of participation in the market" this year. After lifting ETF buys in March 2020, the BOJ has slowed down its ETF buying considerably in the past six months (the current 6-month total is near the lower end of the range seen in the past four years), buybacks are down this year as companies slowed their activity in the face of covid-19-induced uncertainty, and foreigners are net sellers. </p>
<p>Of course Japanese insurers are on the verge of extending what will be a 12-year streak of net sells to a 13th year, and it looks like Japanese banks will be extending their net selling to a 14th year in a row. Trust Banks will be net buyers for the sixth year in seven this year, but for at least the fourth year in a row it will be less than the net buying of ETFs by the BOJ so ex-BOJ trust banks will have been net sellers for several years. </p>
<p>Business corporations are up ¥1.335trln year-to-date through the 20th of November, and will almost certainly extend their streak to ten years on the buy side. The interesting net flow this year is the "Proprietary" flow at brokers. This is now positive for ten years in a row, and there are particular reasons for this, as discussed below.</p>
<p>Because of the noise around recent articles about the BOJ and foreign activity, I decided to once again dust off the long-term analytics on Japan investor class flows, and present them here. Because flows net off to close to zero (i.e. there are a certain number of shares, and if some investor class is a net seller, other investor classes must be net buyer(s)), deriving a model for behavior is useful.  Long ago, in roles in fixed income and equity derivatives strategy, I built models of net foreign buying, and they uniformly showed that foreign investors chase/push/drive performance. My final model is a multi-input model which provides a simple combination of two factors they chase.</p>
<p>This insight discusses those behavior models, investor class flow dynamics, cycles, and trends and pressures near-term.</p>
<p>The combination of the investor class flows, and the model which drives net foreign activity, is interesting. I think it helps because the top-down aspect matters for understanding allocation flow.</p>
<p>Read on for the nitty gritty (as usual, we start with Conclusions First).</p></section>

Long-time Japan strategist Jonathan Allum, most recently of SMBC Nikko, put a guest post titled Takeaways from 30 years of Covering the Japanese Market in the Financial Times on 26 November (Thanksgiving) which is well worth a read.He points out that foreign investors in 2020 are likely going to be net dis-investors in Japan for the fourth year in five, fifth year in six, and increasing the net selldown which has occurred since the monster year in 2013. This data is compiled from the weekly data which shows each investor category. On a net basis across all investor categories, it will be flat because while it shows buybacks on market, crediting the "Business Corporations" category, it does not show the data of investors selling into Tender Offers or the data of investors buying from IPOs.Of course, the data is not that clean because investing doesn't always happen according to calendar year decisions. 
It just so happens that the last two really big selloffs in dollar terms (both exceeding ¥6trln on a rolling 52wk basis) did not happen to see start and end points coincide with those of the Gregorian calendar.
There has been an interesting confluence of "lack of participation in the market" this year. After lifting ETF buys in March 2020, the BOJ has slowed down its ETF buying considerably in the past six months (the current 6-month total is near the lower end of the range seen in the past four years), buybacks are down this year as companies slowed their activity in the face of covid-19-induced uncertainty, and foreigners are net sellers. 
Of course Japanese insurers are on the verge of extending what will be a 12-year streak of net sells to a 13th year, and it looks like Japanese banks will be extending their net selling to a 14th year in a row. Trust Banks will be net buyers for the sixth year in seven this year, but for at least the fourth year in a row it will be less than the net buying of ETFs by the BOJ so ex-BOJ trust banks will have been net sellers for several years. 
Business corporations are up ¥1.335trln year-to-date through the 20th of November, and will almost certainly extend their streak to ten years on the buy side. The interesting net flow this year is the "Proprietary" flow at brokers. This is now positive for ten years in a row, and there are particular reasons for this, as discussed below.
Because of the noise around recent articles about the BOJ and foreign activity, I decided to once again dust off the long-term analytics on Japan investor class flows, and present them here. Because flows net off to close to zero (i.e. there are a certain number of shares, and if some investor class is a net seller, other investor classes must be net buyer(s)), deriving a model for behavior is useful.  Long ago, in roles in fixed income and equity derivatives strategy, I built models of net foreign buying, and they uniformly showed that foreign investors chase/push/drive performance. My final model is a multi-input model which provides a simple combination of two factors they chase.
This insight discusses those behavior models, investor class flow dynamics, cycles, and trends and pressures near-term.
The combination of the investor class flows, and the model which drives net foreign activity, is interesting. I think it helps because the top-down aspect matters for understanding allocation flow.
Read on for the nitty gritty (as usual, we start with Conclusions First).

JAPAN FLOW:  Foreign Investor Flows Still Matter (Redux, Reduxed) - Playing Catchup

Pan-Asia Index Flows & Special Situations, Quiddity Advisors

Janaghan Jeyakumar, CFA

Pan-Asia Index Flows & Special Situations

<p>There are currently ~1,500 stocks listed in the Mothers, JASDAQ, and Second Sections of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As time passes, some of these stocks will "graduate" to the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE1), triggering inclusion into the TOPIX Index causing passive funds tracking TOPIX to buy them on an inclusion event. This presents various trading opportunities in several phases of this event timeline.  </p><p>Being able to identify such candidates at a "Pre-event" phase (before the TSE reassignment is confirmed) can unlock great value for speculative bets as we recently witnessed in the case of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/topix-inclusion-4931-jp-shinnihonseiyaku" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:45660" rel="noopener">TOPIX Inclusion (4931 JP): Shinnihonseiyaku</a> where the stock gained 90%+ in the ~5 months leading to the TSE1-reassignment announcement. </p><p>However, in July 2020, TSE introduced more stringent new Section Transfer Requirements and TSE1 Listing Criteria adding a new layer of complexity to this prediction process, especially during the period of transition from the old rules to the new rules. </p><p>In this insight, we take a look at how some of the potential TSE1 candidates will fare against these New Section Transfer Requirements and evaluate their attractiveness at the Pre-event phase. </p><hr><div class="content-remarks"><p>This insight is an update to <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/topix-inclusion-pre-events-who-is-ready" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:41091" rel="noopener">TOPIX Inclusion Pre-Events: Who Is Ready?</a>. Please refer to that insight for more information on the approach used in the below analysis. Note that some assumptions used in the analysis have changed since then. </p></div>

There are currently ~1,500 stocks listed in the Mothers, JASDAQ, and Second Sections of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. As time passes, some of these stocks will "graduate" to the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE1), triggering inclusion into the TOPIX Index causing passive funds tracking TOPIX to buy them on an inclusion event. This presents various trading opportunities in several phases of this event timeline.  Being able to identify such candidates at a "Pre-event" phase (before the TSE reassignment is confirmed) can unlock great value for speculative bets as we recently witnessed in the case of TOPIX Inclusion (4931 JP): Shinnihonseiyaku where the stock gained 90%+ in the ~5 months leading to the TSE1-reassignment announcement. However, in July 2020, TSE introduced more stringent new Section Transfer Requirements and TSE1 Listing Criteria adding a new layer of complexity to this prediction process, especially during the period of transition from the old rules to the new rules. In this insight, we take a look at how some of the potential TSE1 candidates will fare against these New Section Transfer Requirements and evaluate their attractiveness at the Pre-event phase. This insight is an update to TOPIX Inclusion Pre-Events: Who Is Ready?. Please refer to that insight for more information on the approach used in the below analysis. Note that some assumptions used in the analysis have changed since then. 

TOPIX Inclusions:  New Regulations! Who Is READY? 2.0

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets, JapanConsuming

Michael Causton

Expert on Japan Retail and Consumer Markets

Real Insight on Japanese Consumer Markets

JapanConsuming

JapanConsuming is a specialist research firm producing intelligence on Japanese retail and consumer markets. Founded in 2000, JapanConsuming has become the leading provider of insights on Japanese retailers and consumer trends to retailers, brands, government agencies and investors. As well as a highly regarded monthly report on the market, JapanConsuming produces in-depth reports on retail sectors, seminars on key trends and telephone consulting to investors on trends and retailers.

JapanConsuming was founded by Michael Causton and Roy Larke. 

<p>Zozo’s new business model as a brand producer was off to a strong start last month with most of the new 18 private brands selling out.</p>
<p>The online platform also re-launched the Zozosuit, suggesting a revival of the Zozo brand may be on the cards.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zozo-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:18379:1" rel="noopener">ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)</a> needs these new initiatives if it is to successfully transition to becoming a still distinctive but much more volume-based mall, a medium-term project that should lead to improving growth rates and profitability.</p>

Zozo’s new business model as a brand producer was off to a strong start last month with most of the new 18 private brands selling out.
The online platform also re-launched the Zozosuit, suggesting a revival of the Zozo brand may be on the cards.
ZOZO Inc (3092 JP) needs these new initiatives if it is to successfully transition to becoming a still distinctive but much more volume-based mall, a medium-term project that should lead to improving growth rates and profitability.

<p>Seven &amp; I had a dismal first half at almost all of its chains. On the plus side, e-commerce sales improved but, even here, results could have been better when compared to what some rivals have achieved online. At least Nissen, the acquired catalogue company, finally returned to profit.</p>

Seven &amp; I had a dismal first half at almost all of its chains. On the plus side, e-commerce sales improved but, even here, results could have been better when compared to what some rivals have achieved online. At least Nissen, the acquired catalogue company, finally returned to profit.

Japan

LY Corporation operates as an internet search engine "Yahoo! JAPAN". The Company provides electronic commerce and settlement finance services for small medium enterprises and individuals. LY also operates media business including search linked advertising and display advertising services.

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LY (4689 JP)

2021 High Conviction: ZOZO – Good Times Are Zo Far Away

ZOZO is already down 20% from early October, however, we believe a further correction is required to justify ZOZO’s single-digit growth in the...

Supun Walpola

JAPAN FLOW: Foreign Investor Flows Still Matter (Redux, Reduxed) - Playing Catchup

The Japanese market has unusual flow cyclicality. Foreigners take price. They have been net sellers. They buy when USD-denom TOPIX outperforms....

Travis Lundy

TOPIX Inclusions: New Regulations! Who Is READY? 2.0

The TSE has new Listing Rules and Criteria for TSE1 listing and promotion. That means new analysis on what pre-event trades. One TOP PICK to trade...

Janaghan Jeyakumar, CFA

Zozo Transitions, Zozosuit Returns

Zozo continues its transition from fashion premium mall to lifestyle mall for all. This will take time but the spate of new projects are promising...

Michael Causton

Seven & I: Still Floundering

Seven & I has tried and failed to gain a foothold in digital markets but looks to be retreating from online food just at a time when competitors...

Michael Causton

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