Daily Brief Financials: Korea Stock Exchange KOSPI 200, Philippine Stock Exchange, Funding Societies Pte Ltd and more

In today’s briefing:

EQD | KOSPI 200 Index – Buy January Straddle
Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE PM): A Detailed Analysis Of Two Value Doubling Catalysts
Funding Societies raises US$25M to further expand payments business in SEA | e27

EQD | KOSPI 200 Index – Buy January Straddle

The implied move for January is less than what has been historically experienced. Sixteen of the last 26 years have had price movement > current implied move.
January punches above its weight in terms of both historic volatility (most volatile month) and the amount of price movement relative to that historic volatility.
Trades at the current implied move historically would have been winners 61.5% of the time with the average winner being more than double the average loser.

In its press release on December 26th, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE PM) detailed two catalysts: acquiring 61.92% of PDS and increasing the listing maintenance fee.
The PDS (Philippine Dealing System) pricing of 2.32 billion pesos for 61.92% implies a 10.5x PE (7.5x PE ex-cash), which will be accretive to earnings despite the cash coming down.
With the 75% increase in the upper limit of listing and maintenance fees and the acquisition, the stock trades at 12-13x PE/7.6% dividend yield and three billion net cash.

Digital finance platform Funding Societies | Modalku (Funding Societies) today announced that it has raised US$25 million in equity investment from Japan’s sovereign wealth fund Cool Japan Fund (CJF), marking the fund’s first investment into a fintech company in Southeast Asia (SEA).
The company said it will funnel the investment to deepen its core business in SME financing across its five markets (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) whilst further expanding its payments business since embarking on it in 2022.
In a press statement, Funding Societies said it will focus on helping businesses get paid faster through innovative receivables and financing solutions. It will also leverage technology and AI to digitise and automate lending origination processes.

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