In today’s briefing:
- HKBN Ltd (1310 HK) Mulls I Square’s HGC Offer
- Sweden’s EQT to Acquire a 68% Stake in SK Shieldus – Positive Impact on SK Square
- RiiiD: AI Machine Learning Technology to Improve Students Education and Test Scores
- Kakao Brain: Leading Provider of AI Based Text-To-Image Service & Launch of KoGPT in 2H 2023
- Applied Materials Inc.: Major Drivers
- JF Wealth IPO – Has Grown Well over Track Period, but Questions on Sustainability Remain
- Twilio Inc.: Major Drivers
- Beisen Holdings Pre-IPO Tearsheet
- NVIDIA Corporation: Major Drivers
- HubSpot Inc.: Major Drivers
HKBN Ltd (1310 HK) Mulls I Square’s HGC Offer
- Reportedly (Bloomberg) Hong Kong broadband play HKBN Ltd (1310 HK) has received a takeover offer from I Square’s HGC Global Communications.
- HKBN’s shares were halted in the late afternoon trading session yesterday after gaining 11.6%. The reason stated for the suspension was “possible inside information“, not pursuant to the Takeovers Code.
- Last May, Bloomberg reported that KKR, PAG, and Stonepeak – amongst others – were considering bids for HKBN. The market cap at the time was US$1.6bn versus US$934mn now.
Sweden’s EQT to Acquire a 68% Stake in SK Shieldus – Positive Impact on SK Square
- On 1 March, it was announced that Sweden’s EQT will be acquiring a 68% controlling stake in SK Shieldus (393820 KS).
- EQT Partners is controlled by Sweden’s powerful Wallenberg family. EQT will invest a total amount of 2 trillion won (US$1.5 billion) in SK Shieldus.
- Our NAV analysis of SK Square suggests NAV of 7.9 trillion won or NAV per share of 55,507, representing a 45% upside from current levels.
RiiiD: AI Machine Learning Technology to Improve Students Education and Test Scores
- Riiid uses AI machine learning technology including “reinforcement learning algorithm” to improve student education.
- Riiid has a strong presence in the TOEIC test prep services in Asia. Now, it is expanding its business in the SAT and ACT prep markets in the United States.
- Since the company’s inception, the company has received about $250 million in funding including from Softbank Vision Fund.
Kakao Brain: Leading Provider of AI Based Text-To-Image Service & Launch of KoGPT in 2H 2023
- One of the most promising projects that Kakao Brain is currently developing includes an AI Korean language model called KoGPT, which would be similar to ChatGPT service.
- In February 2023, Kakao Brain created a major magazine cover which was the first time in South Korea that an AI-based artwork has been published on a major magazine cover.
- There are five major companies including Kakao Brain, Naver Corp, SK Telecom, KT Corp, and LG AI Research that are actively developing Korean language versions of Chat GPT.
Applied Materials Inc.: Major Drivers
- Applied Materials performed well in the first fiscal quarter and delivered an all-around beat.
- For the seventh consecutive quarter, the company increased its backlog.
- We give Applied Materials a ‘Hold’ rating with a revised target price.
JF Wealth IPO – Has Grown Well over Track Period, but Questions on Sustainability Remain
- JF Wealth Holdings (9636 HK) is looking to raise US$143m in its Hong Kong IPO.
- JF Wealth (JFW) is an online investment decision-making solution provider in China, focusing on the online investor content services market.
- With total gross billings of RMB2bn in 2021, it was the second largest online investment decision-making solution provider in China with a 5.9% market share.
Twilio Inc.: Major Drivers
- Twilio delivered a strong result with revenues above Wall Street expectations and strong profitability as against the analyst expectation of a negative EPS.
- The fact remains that its revenue growth lags behind booking growth.
- In this report, we have carried out a fundamental analysis of the historical financial statements of the company.
Beisen Holdings Pre-IPO Tearsheet
- Beisen Holdings (1667838D CH) is looking to raise about US$200m in its upcoming HK IPO. The deal will be run by Morgan Stanley and CICC.
- Beisen Holdings is the largest provider of cloud-based HCM solutions in China in terms of revenues in 2021, according to CIC. Its platform iTalentX delivers cloud-native SaaS products.
- Its platform is the first and the only in the industry to offer a suite of cloud-based applications covering organization’s HCM needs throughout the entire employee lifecycle, according to CIC.
NVIDIA Corporation: Major Drivers
- Despite macroeconomic uncertainty, NVIDIA’s stock has been on a solid bull run.
- The company’s revenue was down in the quarter but managed to surpass analyst expectations.
- The sequential growth in revenues was driven by the robust reception of its 40 Series GeForce RTX GPU based on the architecture of Ada Lovelace.
HubSpot Inc.: Major Drivers
- HubSpot delivered profitable growth in the quarter with revenue increasing 35% year on year in constant currency in Q4.
- The company delivered an all-around beat and saw an operating profit margin of 14% in the fourth quarter and 10% for the year.
- In this report, we have carried out a fundamental analysis of the historical financial statements of the company.
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