Daily China: Xiaomi (1810 HK): Dead Money and more

In this briefing:

1. Xiaomi (1810 HK): Dead Money
2. Ping An No Longer the Safe Haven – Call for New Lows in Progress
3. Meituan Dianping: Core Business Progress Toward Profitability an Overlooked Story?
4. Chinese Stimulus Vs. A Weak Australian Housing Market
5. Debt Ratios Do Matter

1. Xiaomi (1810 HK): Dead Money

Xiaomi Corp (1810 HK)’s shares are around 43% below the IPO price partly due to the recent well-documented selling of shares following the end of a lock-up period. Ultimately, every share has a “right” value and the investors buying into the recent share placement presumably have the view that the shares are attractive at current levels.

2. Ping An No Longer the Safe Haven – Call for New Lows in Progress

68.30 long entry was recommended to close at the 77-80 area with 80 acting as the macro bull/bear line in our insight Ping An Long Pair Working – Risk of New Lows . The rejection call at 80 was expected to usher in selling pressure to press on new lows.

Ping An’s safe haven status has evaporated and does exhibit future vulnerabilities in HK’s underlying cycle (late Q1 into Q2). In our last insight we outlined that Ping An shows increasing risk that its safer have position will come under pressure and so it has.

New lows are still targeted. The current bounce is knocking on formidable resistance that should be used to sell stale long positions or even take a short bet.

3. Meituan Dianping: Core Business Progress Toward Profitability an Overlooked Story?

• Our deep-dive segment profitability analysis reveals that Meituan Dianping’s (3690 HK) core business (combined food delivery and in-store, hotel & travel) has made good progress toward profitability.
• The ballooning consolidated operating losses mainly stem from new initiatives (particularly car hailing and Mobike).
• Furthermore, lower S&M expenses to sales ratio plus food delivery’s higher take rate suggests that competition with Ele.me is more manageable than anticipated.
• Our SOTP yields intrinsic value of HK$61.07/share, that represents 37% upside potential. 

4. Chinese Stimulus Vs. A Weak Australian Housing Market

The multipronged stimulus policy announcement in China appears significant and should help Chinese investor and economic confidence recover.  The market is probably braced for weaker Chinese December activity reports next week and should look forward with some increased confidence in Chinese equities.  This is likely to contribute to a firmer outlook for the EUR that has suffered from a slump in its industrial activity that appears to reflect weaker demand from China.  The AUD has been highly correlated with Chinese equities in the last year, and it may also respond positively to prospects for some recovery in China.  However, its upside may be hampered by the increasing concern over more rapidly falling house prices in Australia, weaker construction activity and fears that households may have slowed spending.  RBA rate cut expectations have increased and Australian rates have lagged the recent rebound in US rates.

5. Debt Ratios Do Matter

Monetary diarrhoea has inflated the debt structure.

The death of the Bretton Woods monetary system in 1971 paved the way for unbridled money printing. The resulting Great Inflation inflicted huge negative real returns on bondholders and stockholders until 1982. Thereafter, many countries, especially EMs, linked their exchange rates to the dollar, resulting in the fastest ever-growth in global foreign exchange reserves. In addition, central bank puts and then extraordinary fiscal and monetary policies turned it into the most virulent asset bubble in history, despite monetary mayhem, exemplified by numerous banking crises and three big stock market drawdowns.