In this briefing:
- Trade War/China Strategy/Credit Growth/Bonds/Taiwan
- ECM Weekly (6 April 2019) – Bilibili, Huya, Qutoutiao, Polycab, PNB Metlife, CIMC Vehicle
- Battery Technology- The Key To An Electric Vehicle Future
- ICBC: Opportunity in Disguise
- Shanghai/Shenzhen Connect – Inflow Turned Cautious in March but MSCI Adjustment Ahead
1. Trade War/China Strategy/Credit Growth/Bonds/Taiwan
China News That Matters
- Praying the US-China end-game is near
- What to do about China?
- Stability, phew. Or just a false dawn?
- OTC bonds sell like hot cakes
- Even worse than a trade war…
In my weekly digest China News That Matters, I will give you selected summaries, sourced from a variety of local Chinese-language and international news outlets, and highlight why I think the news is significant. These posts are meant to neither be bullish nor bearish, but help you separate the signal from the noise.
2. ECM Weekly (6 April 2019) – Bilibili, Huya, Qutoutiao, Polycab, PNB Metlife, CIMC Vehicle
Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that have been covered by Smartkarma Insight Providers recently, along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
Placements activity picked up momentum this week as evidenced by the number of follow-on offerings launched by a handful of US-listed Chinese tech companies. It all started with Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US) ‘s follow-on offering, then followed by Bilibili Inc (BILI US)‘s equity + convertible note placement, and ending the week with HUYA Inc (HUYA US)‘s follow-on offering and Baozun Inc. (BZUN US)‘s convertible bond and placement.
On the other hand, Ruhnn Holding Ltd (RUHN US)‘s debut this week had been a total disaster. It closed 37% below its IPO price on the first day. This is the worst first-day performance among Chinese ADRs (deal size >US$100m) in the past six months.
Back in Hong Kong, Dongzheng Automotive Finance (2718 HK) also broke its IPO price on the first day after relaunching at a much lower price. As per our trading update note, considering that there will be greenshoe support, we thought that the risk to reward could be favorable for a trade (from its first day mid-day price of HK$2.57).
As for placements, Ronshine China Holdings (3301 HK) seems to have made its equity raise a yearly affair. The company is back to tap the equity market through a top-up placement and it has done the same in 2017 and 2018. The initial deal size was small, US$122m, but was upsized later on. The share price traded well post-placement, closing 9.5% above its deal price of HK$10.95 on Thursday.
For upcoming IPOs, we heard that Leong Hup International (LEHUP MK) has started pre-marketing and Sumeet Singh had already shared his early thoughts on the company in Leong Hup Pre-IPO – Hard to Pinpoint What’s Going to Be the Revenue Driver Going Forward.
We are also waiting for Shenwan Hongyuan Hk (218 HK) and CIMC Vehicle Group Co Ltd (1706044D HK) to launch their IPO since they already been approved on the HKEX. Ke Yan, CFA, FRM had also analyzed the two companies in his notes:
- Shenwan Hongyuan (申万宏源) A+H: A Commoditized Broker Business
- CIMC Vehicle (中集车辆): Market Leader of Semi-Trailers but Little Growth Ahead
Map Aktif Adiperkasa PT (MAPA IJ) will be closing its bookbuild for its follow-on offering next Tuesday (pricing on Wednesday). We heard that books are already covered as of Thursday.
Accuracy Rate:
Our overall accuracy rate is 72.4% for IPOs and 63.5% for Placements
(Performance measurement criteria is explained at the end of the note)
New IPO filings
- Changliao AKA 派派(Hong Kong, ~US$100m)
Below is a snippet of our IPO tool showing upcoming events for the next week. The IPO tool is designed to provide readers with timely information on all IPO related events (Book open/closing, listing, initiation, lock-up expiry, etc) for all the deals that we have worked on. You can access the tool here or through the tools menu.
News on Upcoming IPOs
- Leong Hup – comeback sunny side up
- Polycab India eyes to raise around Rs 1,345 crore through IPO
- Carlyle-backed Metropolis Healthcare’s IPO nears halfway mark on second day
- Eagle Hospitality Trust eyes Singapore IPO to raise up to US$575m
- Cancer Treatment Firm Plans Hong Kong IPO
- Goldman-Backed Chinese Online Pet Store Boqii Plans IPO
- China drone maker EHang delays IPO plan, eyes private funding-sources
This week Analysis on Upcoming IPO
- Map Aktif Follow-On Offering – Lace up for a Potential Long Run
- Zhongliang (中梁地产) Pre-IPO Review – Incredible Growth Bogged Down by Related Party Transactions
- CIMC Vehicle (中集车辆): Market Leader of Semi-Trailers but Little Growth Ahead
- PNB Metlife Pre-IPO Quick Take – Doesn’t Stack up Well Versus Its Larger Peers
- Polycab India Limited IPO – Probably Near Peak Margins, Improvements Unexplained
3. Battery Technology- The Key To An Electric Vehicle Future
This Insight has been produced jointly by William Keating at Ingenuity and Mio Kato, CFA and Aqila Ali at LightStream Research.
The Insight is structured as follows:
- A. Key Conclusions
- B. Report Highlights
- C.History of Electric Vehicles
- E. History of Rechargeable Battery Technologies And An In-Depth Analysis on Li-ion Batteries
- F. Batteries Beyond Li-ion
- G. Supply Constraints for Key Raw Materials
- H. The Competitive Landscape
A. Key Conclusions
Global sales of EV’s reached 2m units in 2018. As a base case scenario, we expect a combination of improving EV battery cost-effectiveness, increasingly challenging emissions standards and ongoing incentives by various governments to propel unit sales to 8m units annually by 2025. Against this, we consider battery material price increases, a reduction of EV incentives in the US and China and political and environmental risks from the mining of metals used in batteries as downside risks which could delay the growth of the EV market.
Surprisingly, the EV battery technology that will drive us towards that 8m unit goal is still very much a work in progress. While Lithium Ion is the by far the dominant technology, there are striking differences between variants of the technology, battery pack design, battery management systems and manufacturing scale between the leading contenders. Furthermore, while there’s nothing on the horizon to completely displace Lithium Ion within the next decade, it remains unclear whether the technology will be the one to achieve the $100/kWh price target that would make the EV cost-neutral compared to its internal combustion predecessors.
Quite apart from the technology, the EV battery segment faces other significant challenges including increasing costs for core materials such as Cobalt, increasing safety concerns as the mix of that very same cobalt is reduced in the cathode, the growing risk of litigation amidst a fiercely competitive environment and last but not least, the appetite of various governments to maintain a favourable subsidy framework.
4. ICBC: Opportunity in Disguise
ICBC (H) (1398 HK) delivered a robust PH Score of 8.5 – our quantamental value-quality gauge.
A highlight was the trend in cost-control. The bank delivered underlying “jaws” of 420bps. Besides OPEX restraint, including payroll, Efficiency gains were supported by robust underlying top-line expansion as growth in interest income on earning assets, underpinned by moderate credit growth, broadly matched expansion of interest expenses on interest-bearing Liabilities. This combination is not so prevalent in China these days, especially in smaller or medium-sized lenders.
It is well-flagged that the system is grappling with Asset Quality issues and there is a debate about the interrelated property market. ICBC is not immune, similar to other SOEs, from migration of souring loans. However, by China standards, rising asset writedowns which exerted a negative pull on Pre-Tax Profit as a % of pre-impairment Operating Profit, high charge-offs, and swelling (though not exploding) substandard and loss loans look arguably manageable given ICBC‘s sheer scale. The Asset Quality issue here is also not as bad as it was in bygone years (2004 springs to mind) when capital injections, asset transfers, and government-subsidised bad loan disposals were the order of the day. This is a “Big Four” player.
Shares are not expensive. ICBC trades at a P/Book of 0.8x, a Franchise Valuation of 10%, an Earnings Yield of 16.7%, a Dividend Yield of 4.9%, and a Total Return Ratio of 1.6x.
5. Shanghai/Shenzhen Connect – Inflow Turned Cautious in March but MSCI Adjustment Ahead
In our Discover SZ/SH Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of northbound trades via the Shanghai Connect and Shenzhen Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by offshore investors in the past seven days.
We split the stocks eligible for the northbound trade into three groups: those with a market capitalization of above USD 5 billion, and those with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion.
We note that in March, northbound inflows turned more cautious vs strong inflows in February (link to our Feb note) and January (link to our Jan note). Nevertheless we see strong inflows into Healthcare sector, led by Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., (600276 CH). We also highlight Universal Scientific Industrial Shanghai (601231 CH 环旭电子) in the mid cap space that attracted strong northbound inflows.
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