Daily Brief Japan: Shinko Electric Industries, TORIDOLL Holdings Corporation, TSE Tokyo Price Index TOPIX and more

In today’s briefing:

Shinko Electric (6967) – Break/Gap Risk Early May 2024 Update
Toridoll (3397): Restaurant Chain on a Lege
Shareholder Returns Will Increase over June AGM, but Will Companies Hold up with Sluggish ROE?

Shinko Electric (6967) – Break/Gap Risk Early May 2024 Update

When this deal was announced, it was light. But the timing, JSR influence, large-ish float, ensured FUD would make this trade wide. It traded wider.
15wks ago, Shinko had much-underperformed peer Ibiden, meaning downside gap risk from undisturbed was negative as spreads were wide. I reco’d a buy. Then 8wks ago, recommended taking profits.
Shinko had outperformed Ibiden, gross spreads had narrowed 5+% on JSR approval. Spreads are now 3.6% wider than at narrowest, but gap risk has widened as Shinko outperforms, Ibiden.

Macro trends for restaurant chains are all negative: Food prices rising faster than restaurant unit prices, part-time wages rising faster than full-time.
Toridoll’s same store sales resuming long-term underperformance trend that was broken only briefly during the pandemic.
Stock trades at 3x the market average PBR, despite merely average RoE. Technical support has broken down.

In addition to too much cash on hand to begin with, ROE is expected to continue to grow at a sluggish pace, as shareholder returns are less than profit growth.
Given that we expect more companies to have stock price, P/B, and ROE on the agenda for the June AGM, more companies are expected to announce increases in shareholder returns.
However, ROE is unlikely to increase significantly. Shareholder returns are certainly too small, but a more serious problem is the inability to find growth investment opportunities.

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