Daily Brief Financials: Metro Pacific Investments Co, Rakuten Bank , Sino Land Co, Country Group Holdings and more

• Back on the 26 April, First Pacific (142 HK) and three other entities, proposed delisting Metro Pacific Investments (MPI PM) at PHP 4.63/share. This was subsequently bumped to PHP 5.20.
• A Special Stockholders’ Meeting was held on August 8, and MPI stakeholders approved all the resolutions. An SGM for independent First Pac shareholders will be held on the 24 August. 
• The Tender Offer is now open and closes on the 7 September, with (expected) settlement on 19 September – provided the Tender Offer delisting conditions are met.

• Rakuten Bank is a clear beneficiary of the steepening yield curve in Japan, with its low LDR and healthy capital ratio
• Rakuten Bank’s LTM PE multiple of 11.4x, LTM PBV ratio of 1.5x and ROE of 13.8% makes it the best ROE to PBV ratio bank among its digital peers
• Rakuten Bank is also the lowest cost to serve Japanese digital bank; it is narrowing the PBV ratio discount gap with SBI Sumishin

• Sino Land is a developer in Hong Kong and China with both DP and IP rental business. 
• Sino Land has a net cash position of HKD41bn, its strong balance sheet makes the stock a defensive play
• Despite trading at attractive valuation (0.46x P/B), we see there is a lack of catalyst and the stock may remain as value trap

Country Garden Holdings Co. Ltd., one of China’s largest property developers, said it expects to report a record, multibillion-dollar net loss for the first half, raising further concerns as the company slides deeper into a debt crisis.

Guangdong-based Country Garden estimated its net loss at 45 billion yuan to 55 billion yuan ($6.2 billion to $7.6 billion) for the first six months of 2023, compared with a net profit of 1.91 billion yuan a year ago, according to a Hong Kong exchange filing late Thursday.

The company warned July 31 that it would report red ink for the first half.