Daily Brief Financials: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MUFG), DGB Financial Group, Aroundtown , Regional REIT Ltd, JDC Group AG, CDL Hospitality Trusts, National Australia Bank and more

• Today, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316 JP) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial (MUFG) (8306 JP) reported H1 earnings. Mizuho Financial Group (8411 JP) reported yesterday.
• Mizuho raised full-year NP guidance by ~5%, passing the Street. SMFG raised its FY NP guidance 12.2%, also beating the Street. MUFG didn’t raise guidance but H1 saw 71% progress.
• Today, SMFG raised its div, and both SMFG (¥150bn) and MUFG (¥400bn) announced buybacks. Cross-holding unwind progress is waaay lower than we’d like, but capital stronger as a result.

• We can check this on KIND, KRX’s disclosure site. As an example, SK Inc. disclosed this information on July 26, two weeks before the dividend record date, August 10.
• We can capture this information in English without the need for Korean. The disclosure title we must hunt is “Decision on Closure of Shareholder’s Registry (including Record Date) for Dividends.”
• The critical aspect here is that we need to identify disclosures from companies that still use the year’s last trading day as the dividend base date.

• In this insight, we take a look at the names leading the race to become ADDs/DELs for the DAX, MDAX, and SDAX Indices in the December 2023 Rebalance.
• I do not see any changes for the DAX index in December 2023 but Deutsche Lufthansa (LHA GR) is not very far away from triggering a change.
• Separately, I see two changes for the MDAX index and two changes for the SDAX index.

Regional REIT’s (RGL’s) Q323 trading update includes details of further leasing events, at rents ahead of market levels, and continuing asset sales, at or above book value. However, with the balance of occupiers remaining cautious, as economic prospects are assessed, rent roll and occupancy weakened. Supported by the strong ‘return to the office’, RGL continues to expect an acceleration in leasing, to provide the underpinning for its efforts to reduce gearing while maintaining income and dividends.

JDC Group (JDC) issued its Q323 report in which its FY23 guidance was adjusted to the lower end of the indicated revenue and EBITDA ranges. This was partly due to the weak economic environment in Germany and partly because JDC may not be able to consolidate Top Ten Group in FY23. Nevertheless, to reach the lower end of the €175–190m revenue guidance, a strong Q4 is needed given the 9M23 realised revenue of €122.9m. However, we believe guidance is realistic given seasonal trends as Q4 is the quarter when clients usually evaluate their insurance portfolios.

• NAB holds significantly more maturing debt in the coming year than its largest 3 peer banks in Australia and also more than the 3 banks in Singapore, by comparison
• The bank has grown its business loans aggressively, which can see lumpy bad loans in a poor economy, with high unseasoned loans, yet its HoH credit costs were flat
• CRE loans are meaningful at NAB, adding another risk to maturing debt at the top of the rate cycle with what appears to optimistic credit costs in recent results