Daily Brief Industrials: Pasona Group, HD Hyundai Marine Solution , Orient Overseas International and more

In today’s briefing:

Pasona (2168 JP) Special Div – Too Small to Matter
ECM Weekly (15th Apr 2024) – Hyundai Marine, Bharti, Kayou, Zeekr, ChaPanda, Samsung, WT Micr, Sompo
Orient Overseas Intl (316 HK): Spotting Initial Signs of Recovery

Pasona (2168 JP) Special Div – Too Small to Matter

On Friday, Pasona Group (2168 JP) announced its expected use of funds into the May 2024 results, including a special dividend plan, investment for growth, and “strengthening the operating platform.”
The plan will disappoint. The stock may get hit hard. The truth is somewhere in the middle. This is where active stewardship matters. So get stewarding.
A special div paid over 5yrs should be paid one-shot, now. If the company has plans worth supporting, set KPIs now, ask for money later. Good plans get good money.

Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that were covered by the team recently along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
On the IPO front, the focus remained on HD Hyundai Marine Solution (443060 KS), even as Sichuan Baicha Baidao Industrial is gearing up to launch its IPO.
On the placement front, there were deals across India, South Korea and Australia.

Orient Overseas International (316 HK) saw 27.2% QoQ freight rate uptick in 1Q24. This is a positive start and we should not be too concerned about the 12% YoY decline.
Its overall load factor also expanded 0.9pp YoY in the quarter, and this is the first YoY improvement since 2Q22. A better utilisation level is good for unit costs.
At end-FY23, net cash equals 62.4% of the share price, dragging ROE to 7.5% for the next three years. But with such solid financials, its 0.7x P/B is not expensive.

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