Daily Brief Financials: Woori Financial Group , Korea Stock Exchange KOSPI 200, Sankei Real Estate, Wing Tai Holdings, Bitcoin, Agile Property Holdings, NU Holdings /Cayman Islands, SES AI Corp, S&U PLC and more

• IMM PE, via Obis1, is looking to raise US$136m from selling a portion of its stake in Woori Financial Group (316140 KS).
• While the deal doesn’t look particularly well-flagged, the PE has been invested for quite some time now. 
• Despite the overhang, the deal is a small one to digest at just 1.7% of total shares outstanding, representing 5 days of the firm’s ADV.

• Government sees foreign investors as key for Corporate Value-Up success, considering reinstating short selling.
• Planning to expand short selling beyond 350 stocks, but anticipating pushback from retail investors, likely capping additional stocks around 100.
• The head of the Financial Supervisory Service will formally disclose these plans during the upcoming short selling conference scheduled for March 13th.

• Last October, I wrote about the plan the sponsor of Sankei Real Estate (2972 JP) had to exchange buildings with the REIT to clean it up, then buy more units.
• Today they announced the completion of the Portfolio Rebalancing Plan started in March 2023. And the plan to buy more units. The assets transferred out were gone at end Jan-2024.
• Now that’s done, and there are units to buy. Maximum 46,652 units over maximum 220 days.

• Following an Staits Times article this week – or perhaps just a coincidence – property play Wing Tai Holdings (WINGT SP) popped 8%. 
• Yesterday’s close of S$1.47/share, compares to its book value of S$4.24 (as at 31 Dec 2023). Cash on hand is S$684mn against borrowings of ~S$770mn.
• And the Cheng family has been buying up shares, almost every day since last September. That stake is currently 61.45%. Another Wing Tai Malaysia (WING MK) privatisation in the making?

• IMM Private Equity announced that it is selling a 1.7% stake in Woori Financial Group (316140 KS) in a block deal sale. 
• The number of shares subject to sale is 12.56 million, or 177.7 billion won to 181.5 billion won.
• Block deal sale discount range is reasonable, valuation multiples are low, and we expect continued positive capital inflow into stocks related to Corporate Value Up in the next 12 months. 

• The domain bitcoin.org was registered on August 18th, 2008.
• Just over two months later, on October 31st, an individual or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto unveiled the Bitcoin whitepaper.
• This was soon followed by the mining of the first Bitcoin block, known as the genesis block, on January 9th, 2009.

Lucror Analytics’ ESG Scores are based on a 3-tiered scale and are adjusted for Controversies (if applicable).
We view Agile Group’s ESG as “Adequate”. The company’s Environmental and Social scores are “Adequate”, while Governance is “Weak”. Controversies are “Immaterial” and Disclosure is “Adequate”.

• Management’s successful execution to 4Q23 has driven its LTM ROE of 18%+ and ROA of 2.6%; in Brazil, the focus is to grow secured lending and further penetrate high-income retail
• In Mexico, management aims to leverage off the deposit base and build its credit business, as well as establishing itself in Colombia; challenges include containing capital consumption and credit delinquency
• In Mexico especially, the competitive climate in digital banking is intensifying which puts pressure on customer acquisition costs, costs to serve, and it could drive up credit delinquency risks

• During 2023, the company took significant steps toward utilizing AI in the development of future electrolytes.
• SES’ objective is to create a roadmap for the next iterations of Li-Metal technology.
• SES highlighted that practical safety and manufacturability as the key milestones for entering into B-sample development.

In its trading update between December 2023 and January 2024, S&U announced that FY24 PBT will be 10% to 15% below consensus of c £38m. The key reason is lower collection rates in Advantage of 90% (H123: 94%) have prompted an increase in provisions. Management expects the collection rate to partially recover in the following months. Underpinned by an improving real estate market, Aspen continues to grow steadily with net receivables just over £130m (FY23: £114m). Elevated borrowing, at £224m, alongside higher interest rates have consequently doubled S&U’s interest payments to £15.1m (FY23: £7.5m). We have lowered our FY24 and FY25 PBT estimates by 12% and 8%, respectively.