Daily Brief Consumer: Genting Singapore, Jubilant Foodworks, S.M.Entertainment Co, Premier Anti-Aging, The Walt Disney Co, Tokyo Stock Exchange Tokyo Price Index Topix, Starbucks Corp, Accor SA, Askul Corp and more

• In a surprise move, Genting Bhd (GENT MK) – or Genting Malaysia (GENM MK) – has joined the six incumbents in bidding for new casino licences in Macau.
• The bidding process follows Macau’s record low monthly gaming revenue in July after casinos were closed for 12 days in response to a Covid outbreak.
• Casinos have re-opened, yet there is little to cheer about as business remains muted. The six winners are expected to be announced by the end of November or early December.

• Jubilant Foodworks (JUBI IN) is India’s largest food service company. In hindsight, CEO’s exit in March 2022 under a high inflationary environment was just “NOISE”.
• Industry drivers are favourable, JUBI’s renewed focus on growth, additional brands and a new CEO, all put JUBI back on track to deliver robust growth. 
• Currently trading at 68.5x NTM, JUBI is available at a 22% discount compared to it’s 3Y mean, considering the growth prospects discussed below, this discount is attractive.

• After the market close today, S.M.Entertainment announced that its Chairman Lee Soo Man will end the contract with Like Planning, a contents producing company owned by Lee Soo Man.
• We estimate that S.M.Entertainment has paid more than 160 billion won to Like Planning in the past 10 years.
• By ending the relationship between Chairman Lee Soo Man and Like Planning, this should have a major positive impact on S.M.Entertainment shares in the coming weeks. 

• Japan’s number one skin cleansing balm, DUO seems to be in big trouble with monthly sales volume falling by almost 40% over the last 12 months.
• However, Premier Anti-Aging (4934 JP) is making progress with the development of other brands to reduce its dependence on DUO.
• Despite the depressed margins in the near-term, we are quite positive about Premier Anti-Aging’s medium-long term outlook with new brands like CANADEL and clayance showing promising signs for the future.

• Activist Dan Loeb recently backed down from his request that Disney spin out ESPN…something we thought was foolish, and glad is off the table. 
• Disney is still trapped by the “rock and the hard place” choice of trading higher margin cable subscribers for lower margin (higher churning) streaming subs.
• Bob Chapek is a poor choice for Disney CEO…not alot of good options. This company is strategically boxed in. Parks’s overearning will dissipate, will be a good short next year. 

• While 90% of the companies listed on the prime market translate some documents into English, very few companies listed on other markets translate their disclosure documents into English.
• There is a mismatch between the documents that prime market listed companies translate into English and the documents that overseas institutional investors require to be translated into English.
• Few companies with high foreign ownerships have translated their annual securities reports, convocation notices (business reports) and corporate governance reports into English, which overseas investors need to translate into English.

• Starbucks Corp. plans to open 3,000 stores in China in the next three years, bringing the total to 9,000 locations and pushing China past the U.S. as the coffee giant’s biggest market by 2025.
• China is currently Starbucks’ second-largest market, with 16% of global stores and accounting for 7% of total revenue in the 2022 second quarter.
• The company aims to double its China revenue by 2025.

The Europe HY Trade Book for September 2022 includes high-conviction trade ideas drawn from our European HY coverage universe, along with relative-value scatter plots and tables by industry.

• Askul Corp (2678 JP) posted the best revenue growth in six quarters as both B2B and consumer product sales accelerated
• The corresponding operating income decline of 10% is less welcome but that includes a front-loading of planned growth investments and full year guidance of 1% growth is unchanged
• We are tagging this insight as bearish as headlines of a 10% OP decline might not be as well received as the top-line story