Daily Brief TMT/Internet: SK Telecom, Keep Inc, 4Paradigm, Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) – ADR, Dropbox Inc, Esker SA and more

• As of last Friday, SKT has utilized 86.2 billion won out of the allotted 300 billion won for share buybacks, resulting in the acquisition of 1,810,242 shares.
• If there are indications of the foreign room potentially falling to a risky level, SKT will likely proceed with an aggressive buyback, targeting 20-30% of the daily trading volume.
• Another particularly intriguing observation is the absence of local retail flow directed towards SKT. This indicates there is still potential momentum for an upward price movement at this juncture.

• There have only been 7 new listings on the HKEX (388 HK) in the third quarter of the year so far.
• Of those stocks, only Keep Inc (3650 HK) has a chance of being added to the Hang Seng Composite Index in December and then into Southbound Stock Connect.
• Keep Inc (3650 HK) is the largest online fitness platform in China and the name recognition could bring in substantial flows via Southbound Stock Connect.

• 4Paradigm (1764934D HK) is looking to raise up to US$144m in its Hong Kong IPO, after downsizing from an earlier reported float of US$600m.
• 4P is a platform-centric AI enterprise solutions provider. It was the largest player by revenue in the platform-centric decision-making AI market in China in 2022, as per CIC.
• In our previous notes, we covered the company’s performance and refiling updates. In this note, we will cover the firm’s PHIP updates, peer comparison and share our thoughts on valuation.

• TSMC’s ADR premium/discount appears to have shown a clear decline in trading range recently, down from the 10% level.
• UMC & ASE joined corporate days today in Taipei, which could be supportive of their premiums in the near-term.
• We provide spread levels we view as compelling from a risk/reward perspective.

• Dropbox, Inc. delivered a positive result and managed an all-around beat in the last quarter, driven by FormSwift’s revenue growth and some improvement in the company’s SKUs, as the development it observed in late Q1 carried over into Q2.
• In the quarter, the company launched Dropbox AI.
• Furthermore, Dropbox introduced a new activation homepage to simplify admins setting up their teams and becoming familiar with the product.

In H123 Esker reported strong growth in revenue (+16% y-o-y in constant currency (cc)) and bookings (+18% y-o-y cc) but this was outweighed by increases in costs, resulting in an operating margin decline. The company is taking measures to counter this, both in its contract pricing and by slowing the pace of hiring. While FY23 revenue outlook is unchanged, management reduced the mid-point of operating margin guidance by 1% to 12%. We have conservatively reduced our operating profit forecasts, which for FY23 were at the upper end of the new guidance range.