Last Friday, Hitachi (6501) was reported to be considering selling Hitachi Chemical (4217), according to media sources over the weekend. This has sent Hitachi Chemical and its parent into a frenzy with Hitachi Chemical ADR up 13% last Friday. We believe this news is relevant for Hitachi High Tech because both subsidiaries are 51-52% consolidated by the parent Hitachi, and both have arguably businesses with little synergy with the parent. We believe that Hitachi High Tech is also rumored to be on the block for sale or spin-off. Media sources say that Hitachi is considering a sale of Hitachi Chemical and would reap Y300bn. The current value of their 51% ownership in Hitachi Chemical is Y211bn, and thus there is 42% implied upside if the Y300bn figure is achieved.
To recap Q3 results for Hitachi High Tech from January 31, 2019, the numbers were decent with earnings above consensus forecasts by 33% for Q3 (Y15.8bn OP versus Y13.8bn forecast). The profit rise was due to improved margins in medical and continued strength in process semiconductor equipment. The shares are up 20% year-to-date, outperforming the Nikkei by 15%. Some of the fears of a sharp slowdown in semiconductor have been nullified by the continued strength in logic chip investments as well as the improved profitability in medical clinical analyzers. Medical profits soared 46% YoY in Q3 to Y7.6bn on a 13% YoY increase in revenues. OP margin improved from 12.3% to 15.8% YoY.
Friday 8 March after the close, the Nikkei announced that because the third party share sale of Pioneer Corp (6773 JP) had been completed, it would be deleted from the Nikkei 225 Average (and the Nikkei 500 Index). Omron Corp (6645 JP) will replace Pioneer in the Nikkei 225 Average, with a deemed par value of 50 yen per share.
The date for this index deletion and inclusion event is the 15th of March, as per the schedule of the February 19th announcement as to how the Pioneer event would be treated.
This affords special sits/events followers a couple of different events to look at.
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NTT Docomo Inc (9437 JP) recently announced it would sell its 25% stake in Hutchinson Telecom Hong Kong’s ( Hutchison Telecommunications Hk Hld (215 HK) mobile unit for US$60mn with closing expected at the end of May. This ends a 20-year association with Hutchinson forged in the initial excitement over 3G in 1999 but it hasn’t been a good ride for DoCoMo which lost close to 90% on its Hutchison investments and its other international forays were not much better. On a related note, the HK mobile sale follows soon after DoCoMo’s exit from its credit card joint venture with Sumitomo Mitsui but we would not read anything into this beyond a rationalization of its non-core investments.
Rakuten Inc (4755 JP) investee Pinterest Inc (PINS US) has filed its IPO prospectus implying a lower valuation than its last venture round but a robust increase in value since Rakuten led the Series C round in May 2012. We think an initial ¥4bn investment could be worth ¥25-30bn at the midpoint of the suggested IPO range.
As with Lyft, the absolute value again and shift to greater liquidity are positive as it gives Rakuten more financial flexibility as it ramps up investments in the mobile business.
Unlike Lyft, the Pinterest IPO value is down from the latest funding round which impacts paper profits that provide cover for spending on mobile albeit at a fraction of the upside from Lyft.
Pinterest doesn’t generate the same headlines as Lyft but a second IPO of a Rakuten investment as its cash needs expand can only be good news
AGC Inc (5201 JP) plans to raise US$215m (including over allotment) via a secondary offering of share, this represents 2.9% of the outstanding shares.
The deal scores a mixed score on our framework, aided by its cheaper valuation while it scoring is hampered by its under performance versus it regional peers. However, the shares have been correcting since the deal was announced and the deal represents just a few days of ADV.
Japan has been a favored pair short bet against the likes of China. The standout chart feature is the rising wedge break of support and reaction rise to test the elevated underside of this trendline (backswing resistance). Very often backswing resistance points are not surpassed and act as a cycle turn point. Yesterday’s Nikkei price reversal favors this outcome.
We anticipate risk appetite to exhaust for US equities and the China complex once a trade deal is locked in (with drawn out conditions for the market to digest). This would leave the fragile Nikkei technical posture vulnerable to a hard correction cycle. The overall major trend still remains down for Japan (and Korea) unlike China.
A higher conviction USD/JPY peak will unfold at noted RSI and MACD resistance points that are expected to make peaks and a bearish turn cycle.
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Last Friday, Hitachi (6501) was reported to be considering selling Hitachi Chemical (4217), according to media sources over the weekend. This has sent Hitachi Chemical and its parent into a frenzy with Hitachi Chemical ADR up 13% last Friday. We believe this news is relevant for Hitachi High Tech because both subsidiaries are 51-52% consolidated by the parent Hitachi, and both have arguably businesses with little synergy with the parent. We believe that Hitachi High Tech is also rumored to be on the block for sale or spin-off. Media sources say that Hitachi is considering a sale of Hitachi Chemical and would reap Y300bn. The current value of their 51% ownership in Hitachi Chemical is Y211bn, and thus there is 42% implied upside if the Y300bn figure is achieved.
To recap Q3 results for Hitachi High Tech from January 31, 2019, the numbers were decent with earnings above consensus forecasts by 33% for Q3 (Y15.8bn OP versus Y13.8bn forecast). The profit rise was due to improved margins in medical and continued strength in process semiconductor equipment. The shares are up 20% year-to-date, outperforming the Nikkei by 15%. Some of the fears of a sharp slowdown in semiconductor have been nullified by the continued strength in logic chip investments as well as the improved profitability in medical clinical analyzers. Medical profits soared 46% YoY in Q3 to Y7.6bn on a 13% YoY increase in revenues. OP margin improved from 12.3% to 15.8% YoY.
Friday 8 March after the close, the Nikkei announced that because the third party share sale of Pioneer Corp (6773 JP) had been completed, it would be deleted from the Nikkei 225 Average (and the Nikkei 500 Index). Omron Corp (6645 JP) will replace Pioneer in the Nikkei 225 Average, with a deemed par value of 50 yen per share.
The date for this index deletion and inclusion event is the 15th of March, as per the schedule of the February 19th announcement as to how the Pioneer event would be treated.
This affords special sits/events followers a couple of different events to look at.
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
Last Friday, Hitachi (6501) was reported to be considering selling Hitachi Chemical (4217), according to media sources over the weekend. This has sent Hitachi Chemical and its parent into a frenzy with Hitachi Chemical ADR up 13% last Friday. We believe this news is relevant for Hitachi High Tech because both subsidiaries are 51-52% consolidated by the parent Hitachi, and both have arguably businesses with little synergy with the parent. We believe that Hitachi High Tech is also rumored to be on the block for sale or spin-off. Media sources say that Hitachi is considering a sale of Hitachi Chemical and would reap Y300bn. The current value of their 51% ownership in Hitachi Chemical is Y211bn, and thus there is 42% implied upside if the Y300bn figure is achieved.
To recap Q3 results for Hitachi High Tech from January 31, 2019, the numbers were decent with earnings above consensus forecasts by 33% for Q3 (Y15.8bn OP versus Y13.8bn forecast). The profit rise was due to improved margins in medical and continued strength in process semiconductor equipment. The shares are up 20% year-to-date, outperforming the Nikkei by 15%. Some of the fears of a sharp slowdown in semiconductor have been nullified by the continued strength in logic chip investments as well as the improved profitability in medical clinical analyzers. Medical profits soared 46% YoY in Q3 to Y7.6bn on a 13% YoY increase in revenues. OP margin improved from 12.3% to 15.8% YoY.
Friday 8 March after the close, the Nikkei announced that because the third party share sale of Pioneer Corp (6773 JP) had been completed, it would be deleted from the Nikkei 225 Average (and the Nikkei 500 Index). Omron Corp (6645 JP) will replace Pioneer in the Nikkei 225 Average, with a deemed par value of 50 yen per share.
The date for this index deletion and inclusion event is the 15th of March, as per the schedule of the February 19th announcement as to how the Pioneer event would be treated.
This affords special sits/events followers a couple of different events to look at.
Gross capital flows lead World shipping activity by 4 months
Capital flows have been slowly rising since June 2018: in February they jumped
Reinforces out pro-Asia and pro-China investment message
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Rakuten Inc (4755 JP) investee Pinterest Inc (PINS US) has filed its IPO prospectus implying a lower valuation than its last venture round but a robust increase in value since Rakuten led the Series C round in May 2012. We think an initial ¥4bn investment could be worth ¥25-30bn at the midpoint of the suggested IPO range.
As with Lyft, the absolute value again and shift to greater liquidity are positive as it gives Rakuten more financial flexibility as it ramps up investments in the mobile business.
Unlike Lyft, the Pinterest IPO value is down from the latest funding round which impacts paper profits that provide cover for spending on mobile albeit at a fraction of the upside from Lyft.
Pinterest doesn’t generate the same headlines as Lyft but a second IPO of a Rakuten investment as its cash needs expand can only be good news
AGC Inc (5201 JP) plans to raise US$215m (including over allotment) via a secondary offering of share, this represents 2.9% of the outstanding shares.
The deal scores a mixed score on our framework, aided by its cheaper valuation while it scoring is hampered by its under performance versus it regional peers. However, the shares have been correcting since the deal was announced and the deal represents just a few days of ADV.
Japan has been a favored pair short bet against the likes of China. The standout chart feature is the rising wedge break of support and reaction rise to test the elevated underside of this trendline (backswing resistance). Very often backswing resistance points are not surpassed and act as a cycle turn point. Yesterday’s Nikkei price reversal favors this outcome.
We anticipate risk appetite to exhaust for US equities and the China complex once a trade deal is locked in (with drawn out conditions for the market to digest). This would leave the fragile Nikkei technical posture vulnerable to a hard correction cycle. The overall major trend still remains down for Japan (and Korea) unlike China.
A higher conviction USD/JPY peak will unfold at noted RSI and MACD resistance points that are expected to make peaks and a bearish turn cycle.
Hoya will continue to refresh its lineup of endoscopes this year as the company introduces new models once in every five to six years and we believe the company’s existing endoscope systems are nearing the end of their life cycles. We believe, this should result in growth in revenues for the company.
Hoya was the first company to introduce its Disposable Injector Development system which is one of the fastest growing businesses for Hoya. The global intraocular market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 5.4% until 2024 resulting in growth in top-line for Hoya which has been gradually taking share in this market.
The Luxottica/Essilor merger could pose a significant long-term threat to Hoya and will have a knock-on effect on the rest of the spectacle and eyewear manufacturers due to their market domination. That being said, we forecast the eyeglass and contact lenses to continue to witness growth due to Hoya’s strong presence in the markets in which it operates and a tailwind in the short-term as customers switch to Hoya for diversification reasons. The company’s acquisition of the eyewear business of 3M will also add to the revenue growth.
Hoya holds a monopoly in the glass HDD substrates market and the market is currently underpenetrated. The superior features of glass substrates compared to aluminum should shift the demand towards glass, which is sold at twice the price of aluminum.
Hoya Corporation is currently trading at a 1-year forward EV/EBIT multiple of 16.75x, which is close to its 52-week high of 16.79x. When compared with 5 year forward EBIT multiples there is still room for some multiple expansion in the short-term leading to price appreciation.
Get Straight to the Source on Smartkarma
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
Friday 8 March after the close, the Nikkei announced that because the third party share sale of Pioneer Corp (6773 JP) had been completed, it would be deleted from the Nikkei 225 Average (and the Nikkei 500 Index). Omron Corp (6645 JP) will replace Pioneer in the Nikkei 225 Average, with a deemed par value of 50 yen per share.
The date for this index deletion and inclusion event is the 15th of March, as per the schedule of the February 19th announcement as to how the Pioneer event would be treated.
This affords special sits/events followers a couple of different events to look at.
SOUTHBOUND – The upside we anticipated two weeks ago turned out to be only ¥6t before the harsh realities of some weak macro data intervened and sent the market 3% lower over the last two trading days suggesting the bear market rally is now over. After peaking at 48%, the market-value-based percentage above the weighted sum of moving averages has now retreated to 33%.
– SECTORS –
LEGEND: The ‘sparklines’ show the three-year trend in the weighted percentage above moving average relative to the Market Composite and the ‘STDev’ column is a measure of the variability of that relative measure. The table also provides averages for the breaks above and breaks below and the positive and negative crossovers.
SECTOR BREAKDOWN – The top six sectors remain domestic and defensive and are unchanged from two weeks ago with REITs, the clear leader. Equally predictable is the bottom half-dozen – Banks, Non-Bank Finance, Retail, Autos, and Metals remain from two weeks ago, with Machinery replacing Construction. Banks stay at the bottom, and the sector had its largest volume ‘day’ as measured by our Volume Score since September 21st, 2018 on Friday although many other sectors were ‘active.’
Source: Japan Analytics
– COMPANIES –
COMPANY MOVING AVERAGE OUTLIERS – As with the Market Composite and Sectors, the Moving Average Outlier indicator uses a weighted sum of each company’s share price relative to its 5-day, 20-day, 60-day, 120-day and 240-day moving averages. ‘Extreme’ values are weighted sums greater than 100% and less than -100%. We would caution that this indicator is best used for timing shorter-term reversals and, in many cases, higher highs and lower lows will be seen.
In the DETAIL section below, we highlight the current top and bottom twenty-five large capitalisation outliers, as well as those companies that have seen the most significant positive and negative changes in their outlier percentage in the last two weeks and provide short comments on companies of particular note.
Our most extreme positive outlier two weeks ago, Pksha Technology (3993 JP) declined by 8% and ‘tops’ our most negative two-week change list, while the most negative outlierSanBio (4592 JP)rose by 3%. Leopalace21 (8848 JP)which was also featured recovered by 9%.
AnGes (4563 JP) is currently the most extreme large cap positive outlier having peaked at ‘492’ on 26th February up from a ‘trough’ of -132 in December. Biotechnology peer SanBio (4592 JP) is, for the third time this year, the most extreme negative outlier, having topped the 13th January and 24th February positive outlier lists and is another ’round-tripper’.
JAPAN CORPORATE CASH FLOW UPDATE – This insight updates our previous Insight with data from all of the most recent quarterly reports. Our market composite cash flow model reformulates disclosed cash flows into four categories which sum to Change in Cash: –
Operating Cash Flow
Investing Cash Flow (which includes Inventory Cash Flow)
Free Cash Flow (Operating Cash Flow less Investing Cash Flow)
Financing Cash Flow
Shareholder Cash Flow (Equity Cash Flow and Dividend Cash Flow)
= Change in Cash (including Minorities Cash Flow)
OCF COLLAPSES – In the last three months, Japan’s non-financial companies generated only ¥2.1t in Operating Cash Flow (OCF), ¥10.1t less than the previous quarter. ¥2.1t is the lowest quarterly OCF since 2016-Q2, and the quarter-on-quarter decline is the largest since 2009 and represents a substantial ‘red flag’ for the market.
FCF NEGATIVE – Aggregate spending on fixed assets shrunk by ¥4.5t qoq to ¥4.6t resulting in Free Cash Flow for the quarter of -¥2.5t, the first negative Free Cash Flow quarter since 2012-Q4. Softbank Group (9984 JP), NTT Docomo (9437 JP) and Fast Retailing (9983 JP) together generated ¥3.3t in positive Free Cash Flow for the quarter. Excluding these three companies, the aggregate total quarterly FCF was -¥5.8t, equivalent to an annualised Free Cash Flow yield of -4.3% for the universe of listed non-financial companies.
BACK TO BORROWING – To finance ¥4.5t in dividend payments, Japanese non-financial companies borrowed ¥4.8t in new debt, sold investment securities worth ¥1.9t (the most significant reduction since 2016-Q2) and raised 0.28t in new equity net of share buybacks. This increase in financing cash flow was the largest in any quarter since 2009.
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
AGC Inc (5201 JP) plans to raise US$215m (including over allotment) via a secondary offering of share, this represents 2.9% of the outstanding shares.
The deal scores a mixed score on our framework, aided by its cheaper valuation while it scoring is hampered by its under performance versus it regional peers. However, the shares have been correcting since the deal was announced and the deal represents just a few days of ADV.
Japan has been a favored pair short bet against the likes of China. The standout chart feature is the rising wedge break of support and reaction rise to test the elevated underside of this trendline (backswing resistance). Very often backswing resistance points are not surpassed and act as a cycle turn point. Yesterday’s Nikkei price reversal favors this outcome.
We anticipate risk appetite to exhaust for US equities and the China complex once a trade deal is locked in (with drawn out conditions for the market to digest). This would leave the fragile Nikkei technical posture vulnerable to a hard correction cycle. The overall major trend still remains down for Japan (and Korea) unlike China.
A higher conviction USD/JPY peak will unfold at noted RSI and MACD resistance points that are expected to make peaks and a bearish turn cycle.
Hoya will continue to refresh its lineup of endoscopes this year as the company introduces new models once in every five to six years and we believe the company’s existing endoscope systems are nearing the end of their life cycles. We believe, this should result in growth in revenues for the company.
Hoya was the first company to introduce its Disposable Injector Development system which is one of the fastest growing businesses for Hoya. The global intraocular market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 5.4% until 2024 resulting in growth in top-line for Hoya which has been gradually taking share in this market.
The Luxottica/Essilor merger could pose a significant long-term threat to Hoya and will have a knock-on effect on the rest of the spectacle and eyewear manufacturers due to their market domination. That being said, we forecast the eyeglass and contact lenses to continue to witness growth due to Hoya’s strong presence in the markets in which it operates and a tailwind in the short-term as customers switch to Hoya for diversification reasons. The company’s acquisition of the eyewear business of 3M will also add to the revenue growth.
Hoya holds a monopoly in the glass HDD substrates market and the market is currently underpenetrated. The superior features of glass substrates compared to aluminum should shift the demand towards glass, which is sold at twice the price of aluminum.
Hoya Corporation is currently trading at a 1-year forward EV/EBIT multiple of 16.75x, which is close to its 52-week high of 16.79x. When compared with 5 year forward EBIT multiples there is still room for some multiple expansion in the short-term leading to price appreciation.
Almost 150 years ago in 1871, a modern postal service was established in Japan by the new Meiji government. The following year, a government-sponsored nationwide network of postal services was launched. Postal money orders started in 1875 and other money and payment services started in the following two decades. In the first decade of the 20th century, domestic money transfers and pension payment receipt were launched. In 1916 postal life insurance sales began. Life annuity sales began a decade later. The Japanese postal system of teigaku deposits started in 1941. In 1949, postal operations were established as the Ministry of Posts alongside the Ministry of Electric Communications (Telecommunications), and eventually both were subsumed into the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications. In 2001, the business of the Japanese postal system was separated into the Japan Postal Agency, a short-lived entity set up under “central government restructuring” which took place that year. In 2003, the postal system was set up as the Japan Post Corporation under a law which established it as a statutory public corporation (in England, the Bank of England, the BBC, and the Civil Aviation Authority are such companies).
The issue of privatisation – i.e. making it responsible for its own accounts, which would take things one step further rather than being a government budget item – had long been mooted but constantly rejected because it might cost jobs and reduce services. Finally after several Lower House LDP politicians voted against Koizumi’s proposal to split the Japan Post Corporation into four parts in summer 2005 and the Upper House knocked it down, Koizumi dissolved both houses of the Diet and called a snap election saying that it was a referendum on postal privatization. He won easily and the bill was passed a month later. Things were iffy as a privatized company for a few years until after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, after which the government needed to find sources of extra funds to finance reconstruction. In 2012, the government announced it would sell shares to the public within three years.
Three years ago and change, the government of Japan launched the promised public offering for Japan Post Holdings (6178 JP) (“JPH”), which acted as a holding company for Japan Post Bank (7182 JP) (“JPB”), and affiliated insurance arm Japan Post Insurance (7181 JP) (“JPI”). At the time, the triple-IPO at ¥1.4 trillion was the largest one-day offering in almost two decades, and the situation created some significant and interesting short-term trading opportunities.
In the end, there was always going to be “overhang” because the explicit goal of the privatization policy was to get JPH’s ownership of JPB and JPI below 50%. In doing so, the bank and insurance operations could then go out and compete with other banks and insurers; currently they are to a large extent restricted from offering new products and entering new markets.
Japan Post Insurance announced on April 4th after the close that JPH would offer 168.1mm shares of Japan Post Insurance to the public, with another 16.9mm shares offered in an over-allotment. This is big news as it is almost 31% of the shares outstanding of Japan Post Insurance and will dramatically increase its float.
One can say it is a big deal – ¥450bn (~US$4bn) of stock and at announcement it was equivalent to the last 477 days of traded volume. More importantly, this ALMOST like an IPO in that the placement is almost 3x the original IPO size (66mm shares) and will get a lot of foreign investor attention.
In addition, JPI announced it would conduct a buyback for up to 50 million shares (with a spending limit of ¥100 billion) on the ToSTNeT-3 off-hours auction-like trading system on days between April 8th and April 12th.
JPH announced in its “Intention To Sell shares” announcement (end of section 1 on p2) that if it sold shares in the ToSTNeT-3 trade, it would likely reduce the number of shares it offered.
The stock rallied very sharply Friday, rising 3% at the open and ending the morning session up 3% but rising much further in the afternoon to end up 9.9%.
After the close Friday, the company announced it would spend ¥100bn to buy up to 37.411mm shares pre-open on ToSTNeT-3 on Monday morning. That was 6.2% of shares outstanding.
The dynamics of this ToSTNeT-3 buyback were discussed in Japan Post Insurance – The ToSTNeT-3 Buyback. The ToSTNeT-3 buyback was, at its basest, an interesting garbitrage trade for a limited number of traders but the resulting dynamics are important. They influence the supply in the Offering, the dynamics of demand, and may influence trading patterns into pricing.
There are several things going on here. There is a huge offering, a buyback, earnings accretion, a float change, substantial sale to foreigners this time, and index changes. Sooner and later, it will mean a substantial move towards getting closer to 50%, and the fact that this is now investable for lots of institutional investors.
It is worth looking at these aspects independently to better understand demand for the offering as a whole.
I’ve covered some of the background and index weightage impact in my earlier insight: Japan Post Insurance Placement – 3x the IPO Size – Basics and Index Impact. For people interested in reading more about the history and background, I’ve covered the IPO and JPH sell down in the below series of insights:
In this insight, I’ll run the deal through our framework and analyze the performance of some of the other sizeable deals in the recent past.
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SOUTHBOUND – The upside we anticipated two weeks ago turned out to be only ¥6t before the harsh realities of some weak macro data intervened and sent the market 3% lower over the last two trading days suggesting the bear market rally is now over. After peaking at 48%, the market-value-based percentage above the weighted sum of moving averages has now retreated to 33%.
– SECTORS –
LEGEND: The ‘sparklines’ show the three-year trend in the weighted percentage above moving average relative to the Market Composite and the ‘STDev’ column is a measure of the variability of that relative measure. The table also provides averages for the breaks above and breaks below and the positive and negative crossovers.
SECTOR BREAKDOWN – The top six sectors remain domestic and defensive and are unchanged from two weeks ago with REITs, the clear leader. Equally predictable is the bottom half-dozen – Banks, Non-Bank Finance, Retail, Autos, and Metals remain from two weeks ago, with Machinery replacing Construction. Banks stay at the bottom, and the sector had its largest volume ‘day’ as measured by our Volume Score since September 21st, 2018 on Friday although many other sectors were ‘active.’
Source: Japan Analytics
– COMPANIES –
COMPANY MOVING AVERAGE OUTLIERS – As with the Market Composite and Sectors, the Moving Average Outlier indicator uses a weighted sum of each company’s share price relative to its 5-day, 20-day, 60-day, 120-day and 240-day moving averages. ‘Extreme’ values are weighted sums greater than 100% and less than -100%. We would caution that this indicator is best used for timing shorter-term reversals and, in many cases, higher highs and lower lows will be seen.
In the DETAIL section below, we highlight the current top and bottom twenty-five large capitalisation outliers, as well as those companies that have seen the most significant positive and negative changes in their outlier percentage in the last two weeks and provide short comments on companies of particular note.
Our most extreme positive outlier two weeks ago, Pksha Technology (3993 JP) declined by 8% and ‘tops’ our most negative two-week change list, while the most negative outlierSanBio (4592 JP)rose by 3%. Leopalace21 (8848 JP)which was also featured recovered by 9%.
AnGes (4563 JP) is currently the most extreme large cap positive outlier having peaked at ‘492’ on 26th February up from a ‘trough’ of -132 in December. Biotechnology peer SanBio (4592 JP) is, for the third time this year, the most extreme negative outlier, having topped the 13th January and 24th February positive outlier lists and is another ’round-tripper’.
JAPAN CORPORATE CASH FLOW UPDATE – This insight updates our previous Insight with data from all of the most recent quarterly reports. Our market composite cash flow model reformulates disclosed cash flows into four categories which sum to Change in Cash: –
Operating Cash Flow
Investing Cash Flow (which includes Inventory Cash Flow)
Free Cash Flow (Operating Cash Flow less Investing Cash Flow)
Financing Cash Flow
Shareholder Cash Flow (Equity Cash Flow and Dividend Cash Flow)
= Change in Cash (including Minorities Cash Flow)
OCF COLLAPSES – In the last three months, Japan’s non-financial companies generated only ¥2.1t in Operating Cash Flow (OCF), ¥10.1t less than the previous quarter. ¥2.1t is the lowest quarterly OCF since 2016-Q2, and the quarter-on-quarter decline is the largest since 2009 and represents a substantial ‘red flag’ for the market.
FCF NEGATIVE – Aggregate spending on fixed assets shrunk by ¥4.5t qoq to ¥4.6t resulting in Free Cash Flow for the quarter of -¥2.5t, the first negative Free Cash Flow quarter since 2012-Q4. Softbank Group (9984 JP), NTT Docomo (9437 JP) and Fast Retailing (9983 JP) together generated ¥3.3t in positive Free Cash Flow for the quarter. Excluding these three companies, the aggregate total quarterly FCF was -¥5.8t, equivalent to an annualised Free Cash Flow yield of -4.3% for the universe of listed non-financial companies.
BACK TO BORROWING – To finance ¥4.5t in dividend payments, Japanese non-financial companies borrowed ¥4.8t in new debt, sold investment securities worth ¥1.9t (the most significant reduction since 2016-Q2) and raised 0.28t in new equity net of share buybacks. This increase in financing cash flow was the largest in any quarter since 2009.
Smartkarma supports the world’s leading investors with high-quality, timely, and actionable Insights. Subscribe now for unlimited access, or request a demo below.
Japan has been a favored pair short bet against the likes of China. The standout chart feature is the rising wedge break of support and reaction rise to test the elevated underside of this trendline (backswing resistance). Very often backswing resistance points are not surpassed and act as a cycle turn point. Yesterday’s Nikkei price reversal favors this outcome.
We anticipate risk appetite to exhaust for US equities and the China complex once a trade deal is locked in (with drawn out conditions for the market to digest). This would leave the fragile Nikkei technical posture vulnerable to a hard correction cycle. The overall major trend still remains down for Japan (and Korea) unlike China.
A higher conviction USD/JPY peak will unfold at noted RSI and MACD resistance points that are expected to make peaks and a bearish turn cycle.
Hoya will continue to refresh its lineup of endoscopes this year as the company introduces new models once in every five to six years and we believe the company’s existing endoscope systems are nearing the end of their life cycles. We believe, this should result in growth in revenues for the company.
Hoya was the first company to introduce its Disposable Injector Development system which is one of the fastest growing businesses for Hoya. The global intraocular market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 5.4% until 2024 resulting in growth in top-line for Hoya which has been gradually taking share in this market.
The Luxottica/Essilor merger could pose a significant long-term threat to Hoya and will have a knock-on effect on the rest of the spectacle and eyewear manufacturers due to their market domination. That being said, we forecast the eyeglass and contact lenses to continue to witness growth due to Hoya’s strong presence in the markets in which it operates and a tailwind in the short-term as customers switch to Hoya for diversification reasons. The company’s acquisition of the eyewear business of 3M will also add to the revenue growth.
Hoya holds a monopoly in the glass HDD substrates market and the market is currently underpenetrated. The superior features of glass substrates compared to aluminum should shift the demand towards glass, which is sold at twice the price of aluminum.
Hoya Corporation is currently trading at a 1-year forward EV/EBIT multiple of 16.75x, which is close to its 52-week high of 16.79x. When compared with 5 year forward EBIT multiples there is still room for some multiple expansion in the short-term leading to price appreciation.
Almost 150 years ago in 1871, a modern postal service was established in Japan by the new Meiji government. The following year, a government-sponsored nationwide network of postal services was launched. Postal money orders started in 1875 and other money and payment services started in the following two decades. In the first decade of the 20th century, domestic money transfers and pension payment receipt were launched. In 1916 postal life insurance sales began. Life annuity sales began a decade later. The Japanese postal system of teigaku deposits started in 1941. In 1949, postal operations were established as the Ministry of Posts alongside the Ministry of Electric Communications (Telecommunications), and eventually both were subsumed into the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications. In 2001, the business of the Japanese postal system was separated into the Japan Postal Agency, a short-lived entity set up under “central government restructuring” which took place that year. In 2003, the postal system was set up as the Japan Post Corporation under a law which established it as a statutory public corporation (in England, the Bank of England, the BBC, and the Civil Aviation Authority are such companies).
The issue of privatisation – i.e. making it responsible for its own accounts, which would take things one step further rather than being a government budget item – had long been mooted but constantly rejected because it might cost jobs and reduce services. Finally after several Lower House LDP politicians voted against Koizumi’s proposal to split the Japan Post Corporation into four parts in summer 2005 and the Upper House knocked it down, Koizumi dissolved both houses of the Diet and called a snap election saying that it was a referendum on postal privatization. He won easily and the bill was passed a month later. Things were iffy as a privatized company for a few years until after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, after which the government needed to find sources of extra funds to finance reconstruction. In 2012, the government announced it would sell shares to the public within three years.
Three years ago and change, the government of Japan launched the promised public offering for Japan Post Holdings (6178 JP) (“JPH”), which acted as a holding company for Japan Post Bank (7182 JP) (“JPB”), and affiliated insurance arm Japan Post Insurance (7181 JP) (“JPI”). At the time, the triple-IPO at ¥1.4 trillion was the largest one-day offering in almost two decades, and the situation created some significant and interesting short-term trading opportunities.
In the end, there was always going to be “overhang” because the explicit goal of the privatization policy was to get JPH’s ownership of JPB and JPI below 50%. In doing so, the bank and insurance operations could then go out and compete with other banks and insurers; currently they are to a large extent restricted from offering new products and entering new markets.
Japan Post Insurance announced on April 4th after the close that JPH would offer 168.1mm shares of Japan Post Insurance to the public, with another 16.9mm shares offered in an over-allotment. This is big news as it is almost 31% of the shares outstanding of Japan Post Insurance and will dramatically increase its float.
One can say it is a big deal – ¥450bn (~US$4bn) of stock and at announcement it was equivalent to the last 477 days of traded volume. More importantly, this ALMOST like an IPO in that the placement is almost 3x the original IPO size (66mm shares) and will get a lot of foreign investor attention.
In addition, JPI announced it would conduct a buyback for up to 50 million shares (with a spending limit of ¥100 billion) on the ToSTNeT-3 off-hours auction-like trading system on days between April 8th and April 12th.
JPH announced in its “Intention To Sell shares” announcement (end of section 1 on p2) that if it sold shares in the ToSTNeT-3 trade, it would likely reduce the number of shares it offered.
The stock rallied very sharply Friday, rising 3% at the open and ending the morning session up 3% but rising much further in the afternoon to end up 9.9%.
After the close Friday, the company announced it would spend ¥100bn to buy up to 37.411mm shares pre-open on ToSTNeT-3 on Monday morning. That was 6.2% of shares outstanding.
The dynamics of this ToSTNeT-3 buyback were discussed in Japan Post Insurance – The ToSTNeT-3 Buyback. The ToSTNeT-3 buyback was, at its basest, an interesting garbitrage trade for a limited number of traders but the resulting dynamics are important. They influence the supply in the Offering, the dynamics of demand, and may influence trading patterns into pricing.
There are several things going on here. There is a huge offering, a buyback, earnings accretion, a float change, substantial sale to foreigners this time, and index changes. Sooner and later, it will mean a substantial move towards getting closer to 50%, and the fact that this is now investable for lots of institutional investors.
It is worth looking at these aspects independently to better understand demand for the offering as a whole.
I’ve covered some of the background and index weightage impact in my earlier insight: Japan Post Insurance Placement – 3x the IPO Size – Basics and Index Impact. For people interested in reading more about the history and background, I’ve covered the IPO and JPH sell down in the below series of insights:
At noon Sydney time Lynas Corp Ltd (LYC AU) held an investor briefing by webcast regarding comments made by the Malaysian Prime Minister in his first cabinet press conference on Friday 5 April 2019. Those comments were noted in the ASX regulatory update.
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SOUTHBOUND – The upside we anticipated two weeks ago turned out to be only ¥6t before the harsh realities of some weak macro data intervened and sent the market 3% lower over the last two trading days suggesting the bear market rally is now over. After peaking at 48%, the market-value-based percentage above the weighted sum of moving averages has now retreated to 33%.
– SECTORS –
LEGEND: The ‘sparklines’ show the three-year trend in the weighted percentage above moving average relative to the Market Composite and the ‘STDev’ column is a measure of the variability of that relative measure. The table also provides averages for the breaks above and breaks below and the positive and negative crossovers.
SECTOR BREAKDOWN – The top six sectors remain domestic and defensive and are unchanged from two weeks ago with REITs, the clear leader. Equally predictable is the bottom half-dozen – Banks, Non-Bank Finance, Retail, Autos, and Metals remain from two weeks ago, with Machinery replacing Construction. Banks stay at the bottom, and the sector had its largest volume ‘day’ as measured by our Volume Score since September 21st, 2018 on Friday although many other sectors were ‘active.’
Source: Japan Analytics
– COMPANIES –
COMPANY MOVING AVERAGE OUTLIERS – As with the Market Composite and Sectors, the Moving Average Outlier indicator uses a weighted sum of each company’s share price relative to its 5-day, 20-day, 60-day, 120-day and 240-day moving averages. ‘Extreme’ values are weighted sums greater than 100% and less than -100%. We would caution that this indicator is best used for timing shorter-term reversals and, in many cases, higher highs and lower lows will be seen.
In the DETAIL section below, we highlight the current top and bottom twenty-five large capitalisation outliers, as well as those companies that have seen the most significant positive and negative changes in their outlier percentage in the last two weeks and provide short comments on companies of particular note.
Our most extreme positive outlier two weeks ago, Pksha Technology (3993 JP) declined by 8% and ‘tops’ our most negative two-week change list, while the most negative outlierSanBio (4592 JP)rose by 3%. Leopalace21 (8848 JP)which was also featured recovered by 9%.
AnGes (4563 JP) is currently the most extreme large cap positive outlier having peaked at ‘492’ on 26th February up from a ‘trough’ of -132 in December. Biotechnology peer SanBio (4592 JP) is, for the third time this year, the most extreme negative outlier, having topped the 13th January and 24th February positive outlier lists and is another ’round-tripper’.
JAPAN CORPORATE CASH FLOW UPDATE – This insight updates our previous Insight with data from all of the most recent quarterly reports. Our market composite cash flow model reformulates disclosed cash flows into four categories which sum to Change in Cash: –
Operating Cash Flow
Investing Cash Flow (which includes Inventory Cash Flow)
Free Cash Flow (Operating Cash Flow less Investing Cash Flow)
Financing Cash Flow
Shareholder Cash Flow (Equity Cash Flow and Dividend Cash Flow)
= Change in Cash (including Minorities Cash Flow)
OCF COLLAPSES – In the last three months, Japan’s non-financial companies generated only ¥2.1t in Operating Cash Flow (OCF), ¥10.1t less than the previous quarter. ¥2.1t is the lowest quarterly OCF since 2016-Q2, and the quarter-on-quarter decline is the largest since 2009 and represents a substantial ‘red flag’ for the market.
FCF NEGATIVE – Aggregate spending on fixed assets shrunk by ¥4.5t qoq to ¥4.6t resulting in Free Cash Flow for the quarter of -¥2.5t, the first negative Free Cash Flow quarter since 2012-Q4. Softbank Group (9984 JP), NTT Docomo (9437 JP) and Fast Retailing (9983 JP) together generated ¥3.3t in positive Free Cash Flow for the quarter. Excluding these three companies, the aggregate total quarterly FCF was -¥5.8t, equivalent to an annualised Free Cash Flow yield of -4.3% for the universe of listed non-financial companies.
BACK TO BORROWING – To finance ¥4.5t in dividend payments, Japanese non-financial companies borrowed ¥4.8t in new debt, sold investment securities worth ¥1.9t (the most significant reduction since 2016-Q2) and raised 0.28t in new equity net of share buybacks. This increase in financing cash flow was the largest in any quarter since 2009.
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