Smartkarma Daily Briefs

• Following an Staits Times article this week – or perhaps just a coincidence – property play Wing Tai Holdings (WINGT SP) popped 8%. 
• Yesterday’s close of S$1.47/share, compares to its book value of S$4.24 (as at 31 Dec 2023). Cash on hand is S$684mn against borrowings of ~S$770mn.
• And the Cheng family has been buying up shares, almost every day since last September. That stake is currently 61.45%. Another Wing Tai Malaysia (WING MK) privatisation in the making?

• AEM (AEM SP) reported FY23 results which showed a decline of 45% in annual revenues and a small loss on the net income line. Guidance is only given for 1H24.
• Senior management will forego all bonuses, the CFO departs and the old CEO is coming back as a consultant. AEM’s stock closed down 20% after the FY23 results publication.
• A potential new Trump presidency would push an “America First” agenda likely benefiting Intel and indirectly AEM in a big way.

For our next Corporate Webinar we are glad to welcome iFAST’s Executive Director and Director of Corporate Communications, Mr Jean Paul Wong. 

In the upcoming webinar, Jean will share a short company presentation after which, he will engage in a fireside chat with Smartkarma Insight Provider, Alec Tseung.

Alec will also be providing an industry overview, featuring landscape commentary and returns analysis. The Corporate Webinar will include a live Q&A session.

In the spirit of giving back to our community, one of the attendees will also be awarded an Amazon Kindle as part of our exclusive lucky draw. 

The Corporate Webinar will be hosted on Thursday, 7 March 2024, 19:00 SGT.

About iFAST Corporation 

iFAST Corp (stock code: AIY) is a wealth management Fintech platform, with assets under administration (AUA) of S$19.83 billion as at 31 December 2023. Incorporated in the year 2000 in Singapore and listed on the SGX-Mainboard in December 2014, the Group is also present in Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, and UK. Through the years, the Group has built a well-established Fintech ecosystem connecting its product providers and clients. iFAST Corp holds the requisite licences in the various jurisdictions it operates in to provide a wide range of products and services.

As at end December 2023, the Group offers access to over 21,000 investment products including over 13,000 funds from over 320 fund houses, over 2,400 bonds, stocks and ETFs listed on the Singapore, Hong Kong, US, Malaysia, UK, and China A stock exchanges, as well as services including pension administration solutions, online discretionary portfolio management services, research and investment seminars, Fintech solutions, and investment administration and transaction services.

• In this insight, we discuss the alpha generation through companies that announced share buybacks in Korea in January and February 2024.
• We provide a list of 22 stocks in the Korean stock market that have announced share buyback programs in the past two months.
• Major companies that have announced share buybacks in Korea in the past two months include Shinhan Financial, Hyundai Mobis, and Samick Musical Instruments. All three have outperformed the market. 

• Teikoku, a stable disaster equipment leader, is undervalued due to excessive cash and cross-holdings.  
• Regulatory pressure, industry trends, and potential Hulic asset sales create an opportunity to unlock hidden value.
• Despite fair current pricing, potential share repurchases and improved capital allocation offer up to 40% upside.

• Competition in the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) space is intensifying; Micron shares have rallied after it announced HBM3e mass production; SK Hynix has outperformed since its earnings release.
• Nvidia’s H200, its most advanced chip for generative AI, leans heavily on HBM3e memory for its increased performance vs. the previous H100 generation. Memory leaders are key for Nvidia’s success.
• Taiwan’s Nanya Tech appears to be watching HBM competition between Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung from the sidelines; can its shares get back into the game?

• Vietnam now accounts for more than 50% of production replacing China
• China production is less than 25% of overall capacity in 2023
• Reshoring and production of higher end “Athleisure” shoes is increasing margins for Stella International (1836 HK)
  

• Mediatek Top Performer; Showcasing New AI Capabilities at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
• Memory Monitor: Competition Is Hotting Up for Key Memory Chips Nvidia Depends On; Nanya Left Out?
• Novatek (3034.TT): It Has Been Qualified by the IPhone 16 for OLED Driver IC

• GoTo held a public expose at the IDX to update investors on latest developments including the Tokopedia sale but also to outline its key strategies for 2024. 
• GoTo will start to receive the service fee from Tokopedia from 1st February despite that monitoring is ongoing by the Ministry of Trade although that is now 75% complete.
• GoTo’s focus will be on affordable products, some new premium offerings, and increasing higher take rate lending products through GoPay, with incoming fees from Tokopedia providing additional funding going forward.  

• Plover Bay Technologies (1523 HK) reported an 8.5%/ 24YoY increase in revenue/profits (%). Profits increased due to a net margin expansion of 370 bps to 29.8%. 
• The company had positive news in January when Peplink announced that it had agreed with SpaceX’s Starlink to become an authorized technology provider using Peplink SD-WAN routers.
• Trading at 11x/10x PE FY23/FY24e, with an 8.2% trailing dividend yield and ~60% ROE, this is another growth/dividend gem worth exploring.