Daily Brief Financials: Aozora Bank Ltd, Elite Commercial REIT, Bank of Communications , Sompo Holdings, China Vanke , Utilico Emerging Markets Ltd and more

• Just under 6 weeks ago, Japanese activist Murakami-san’s company and daughter reported a 5+% stake in Aozora Bank Ltd (8304 JP). They bought after a sharp dip caused CRE-related writedowns. 
• As is normal, they bought more (now 8.92%) post-5%-filing-trigger, but before the actual first filing. And as is normal these days, the stock popped on the first filing.
• Then it fell, and hasn’t recovered much. So far, on a weighted basis, they are up 1% vs TOPIX Banks Index. 

For our next Corporate Webinar we are glad to welcome Elite Commercial REIT’s CEO, Mr Joshua Liaw.

In the upcoming webinar, Joshua will share a short company presentation after which, he will engage in a fireside chat with Smartkarma Insight Provider, Sumeet Singh. 

Sumeet 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 Monday, 15 April 2024, 19:00 SGT.

About Elite Commercial REIT

Elite Commercial REIT (“Elite REIT”) is a Singapore real estate investment trust established with the investment strategy of principally investing, directly or indirectly, in commercial real-estate related assets in the United Kingdom (“UK”). Elite REIT is the only UK REIT listed in Pound sterling on the Singapore Exchange.

Elite REIT’s portfolio (“Portfolio”) comprises predominantly freehold properties strategically located mainly in town centres, and near amenities and transportation nodes. The Portfolio offers a stable government-backed income stream with over 99% of the gross rental income derived from the UK Government, backed by AA-rated sovereign credit strength. The leases are on triple net basis and Elite REIT is one of the largest providers of critical social infrastructure to the Department for Work and Pensions (“DWP”) and other UK Government departments. The DWP is the UK’s largest public service department that is responsible for welfare, pensions and child maintenance policy, serving over 20 million claimants and customers. The Portfolio is part of the crucial social infrastructure through which the DWP provides services to local communities.

• With the review period nearing completion, 6 stocks are in inclusion zone and 8 are in deletion zone. However, there can be a maximum of 5 changes at a review.
• We estimate a one-way turnover of 7% at the June rebalance leading to a one-way trade of CNY 9.7bn (US$1.34bn). Index arb balances could increase the impact on the stocks.
• The inflows into mainland China ETFs have further increased the flow and impact on the potential changes. The potential adds have continued to outperform the potential deletes.

• The Japanese Financial Services Agency has asked the general insurers to reduce/eliminate their cross-shareholdings.
• Sompo Holdings (8630 JP) had a stake over US$100m in at least 16 listed Japanese stocks, amounting to a total of around US$6bn.
• In this note, we take a look at its stakes in various companies to see which ones could possibly be candidates for further selldowns.

Lucror Analytics Morning Views comprise our fundamental credit analysis, opinions and trade recommendations on high yield issuers in the region, based on key company-specific developments in the past 24 hours. Our Morning Views include a section with a brief market commentary, key market indicators and a macroeconomic and corporate event calendar.

• China Vanke
• Melco Resorts and Entertainment (Philippines)

Utilico Emerging Markets Trust’s (UEM’s) manager Charles Jillings, at specialist investor ICM, is very excited about the prospects for the trust’s investee companies. He believes that investors underappreciate the quality of these businesses and the teams that manage them. Jillings travels extensively, along with deputy portfolio managers Jacqueline Broers and Jonathan Groocock, meeting with current portfolio and other firms and relevant organisations in emerging markets. They report first hand that companies in the fund are performing very well, with robust top-line growth and cost reductions leading to higher margins. Because of the nature of UEM’s holdings in infrastructure and utility assets, the fund has a consistently low beta. Successful stock selection has led to the trust’s NAV outperformance versus the MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the last one, three, five and 10 years – most notably over the last three years. Since inception in 2005, UEM’s NAV total return compounded at 9.5% per year.