In this briefing:
- HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Air China and Great Wall Motor (2019-04-04)
- Kingboard Starts Voluntary Unconditional Offer for 88% Held Sub Kingboard Copper Foil
- Everbright Mandatory Offer for Ying Li Intl Real Estate – Going Cheap
- ECM Weekly (6 April 2019) – Bilibili, Huya, Qutoutiao, Polycab, PNB Metlife, CIMC Vehicle
- Battery Technology- The Key To An Electric Vehicle Future
1. HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Air China and Great Wall Motor (2019-04-04)
In our Discover HK Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of southbound trades via the Hong Kong Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by mainland investors in the past seven days.
We split the stocks eligible for the Hong Kong Connect trade into three groups: component stocks in the HSCEI index, stocks with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion, and stocks with a market capitalization between USD 500 million and USD 1 billion.
In this insight, we will highlight Air China and Great Wall Motor.
2. Kingboard Starts Voluntary Unconditional Offer for 88% Held Sub Kingboard Copper Foil
April 4th after the close, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Kingboard Laminates Holdings (1888 HK) (which itself is 70.93% owned by Kingboard Holdings (148 HK) (formerly known as “Kingboard Chemical“)) launched a VOLUNTARY UNCONDITIONAL CASH OFFER for Kingboard Copper Foil Hldgs (KCF SP).
This is a “clean-up” as Kingboard Laminates owns 87.96% of Kingboard Copper Foil already.
It is unconditional in all respects and the Offeror owns 87.96%. The goal is delisting. If they get 17.03% of the minority, they will be able to engineer a delisting. Squeezeout is a bit further out but is far from impossible.
This looks like a done deal. This one should trade at shouldn’t trade at a premium UNLESS…
Quiddity’s new Quiddity Singapore M&A Guide 2019 is now published with guidelines to the relevant rules, regulations, documentation, and pointers to the Singapore M&A landscape. Watch for more in the series to be published shortly.
3. Everbright Mandatory Offer for Ying Li Intl Real Estate – Going Cheap
On 3 April 2019, China Everbright (165 HK)‘s wholly owned subsidiary, State Alpha Limited, purchased 767,052,161 shares representing approximately 30.00% of the Shares in Singapore-listed property developer, Ying Li International Real Estate Ltd (YINGLI SP), from Newest Luck Holdings Limited (the vehicle of Executive Chairman and CEO Mr. Fang Ming) at a share price of SGD 0.140.
Following this transaction, the combined stake of China Everbright and parties acting in concert with it reached 58.91% triggering an obligation to make a mandatory offer for all the shares of Ying Li, a transaction which was announced after the close.
The offer price of SGD 0.140 translates to a premium of 5.9% and 10.9% to Ying Li’s 1-month and 3-month VWAP, respectively but less than a 1% premium to last trade – the company’s shares closed at SGD 0.139 on 3rd April before the announcement. The company asked for a trading halt the next morning and the shares have not traded yet as the large shareholder disclosures have come trickling in on the 4th and the 5th.
The acquirer has stated that it is their present intention to maintain the listing status of the company. However, the acquirer also reserves the right to reevaluate this position if the free float falls below the 10% requirement specified in the listing rules following the completion of the offer.
This is something like a free put for investors and a very low-priced call option for Everbright. The situation raises obvious questions, and despite the “intention” to maintain the listing status, there are reasons why they would not want to. The details are worth a look.
Quiddity’s new Quiddity Singapore M&A Guide 2019 is now published with guidelines to the relevant rules, regulations, documentation, and pointers to the Singapore M&A landscape. Watch for more in the series to be published shortly.
4. ECM Weekly (6 April 2019) – Bilibili, Huya, Qutoutiao, Polycab, PNB Metlife, CIMC Vehicle
Aequitas Research puts out a weekly update on the deals that have been covered by Smartkarma Insight Providers recently, along with updates for upcoming IPOs.
Placements activity picked up momentum this week as evidenced by the number of follow-on offerings launched by a handful of US-listed Chinese tech companies. It all started with Qutoutiao Inc (QTT US) ‘s follow-on offering, then followed by Bilibili Inc (BILI US)‘s equity + convertible note placement, and ending the week with HUYA Inc (HUYA US)‘s follow-on offering and Baozun Inc. (BZUN US)‘s convertible bond and placement.
On the other hand, Ruhnn Holding Ltd (RUHN US)‘s debut this week had been a total disaster. It closed 37% below its IPO price on the first day. This is the worst first-day performance among Chinese ADRs (deal size >US$100m) in the past six months.
Back in Hong Kong, Dongzheng Automotive Finance (2718 HK) also broke its IPO price on the first day after relaunching at a much lower price. As per our trading update note, considering that there will be greenshoe support, we thought that the risk to reward could be favorable for a trade (from its first day mid-day price of HK$2.57).
As for placements, Ronshine China Holdings (3301 HK) seems to have made its equity raise a yearly affair. The company is back to tap the equity market through a top-up placement and it has done the same in 2017 and 2018. The initial deal size was small, US$122m, but was upsized later on. The share price traded well post-placement, closing 9.5% above its deal price of HK$10.95 on Thursday.
For upcoming IPOs, we heard that Leong Hup International (LEHUP MK) has started pre-marketing and Sumeet Singh had already shared his early thoughts on the company in Leong Hup Pre-IPO – Hard to Pinpoint What’s Going to Be the Revenue Driver Going Forward.
We are also waiting for Shenwan Hongyuan Hk (218 HK) and CIMC Vehicle Group Co Ltd (1706044D HK) to launch their IPO since they already been approved on the HKEX. Ke Yan, CFA, FRM had also analyzed the two companies in his notes:
- Shenwan Hongyuan (申万宏源) A+H: A Commoditized Broker Business
- CIMC Vehicle (中集车辆): Market Leader of Semi-Trailers but Little Growth Ahead
Map Aktif Adiperkasa PT (MAPA IJ) will be closing its bookbuild for its follow-on offering next Tuesday (pricing on Wednesday). We heard that books are already covered as of Thursday.
Accuracy Rate:
Our overall accuracy rate is 72.4% for IPOs and 63.5% for Placements
(Performance measurement criteria is explained at the end of the note)
New IPO filings
- Changliao AKA 派派(Hong Kong, ~US$100m)
Below is a snippet of our IPO tool showing upcoming events for the next week. The IPO tool is designed to provide readers with timely information on all IPO related events (Book open/closing, listing, initiation, lock-up expiry, etc) for all the deals that we have worked on. You can access the tool here or through the tools menu.
News on Upcoming IPOs
- Leong Hup – comeback sunny side up
- Polycab India eyes to raise around Rs 1,345 crore through IPO
- Carlyle-backed Metropolis Healthcare’s IPO nears halfway mark on second day
- Eagle Hospitality Trust eyes Singapore IPO to raise up to US$575m
- Cancer Treatment Firm Plans Hong Kong IPO
- Goldman-Backed Chinese Online Pet Store Boqii Plans IPO
- China drone maker EHang delays IPO plan, eyes private funding-sources
This week Analysis on Upcoming IPO
- Map Aktif Follow-On Offering – Lace up for a Potential Long Run
- Zhongliang (中梁地产) Pre-IPO Review – Incredible Growth Bogged Down by Related Party Transactions
- CIMC Vehicle (中集车辆): Market Leader of Semi-Trailers but Little Growth Ahead
- PNB Metlife Pre-IPO Quick Take – Doesn’t Stack up Well Versus Its Larger Peers
- Polycab India Limited IPO – Probably Near Peak Margins, Improvements Unexplained
5. Battery Technology- The Key To An Electric Vehicle Future
This Insight has been produced jointly by William Keating at Ingenuity and Mio Kato, CFA and Aqila Ali at LightStream Research.
The Insight is structured as follows:
- A. Key Conclusions
- B. Report Highlights
- C.History of Electric Vehicles
- E. History of Rechargeable Battery Technologies And An In-Depth Analysis on Li-ion Batteries
- F. Batteries Beyond Li-ion
- G. Supply Constraints for Key Raw Materials
- H. The Competitive Landscape
A. Key Conclusions
Global sales of EV’s reached 2m units in 2018. As a base case scenario, we expect a combination of improving EV battery cost-effectiveness, increasingly challenging emissions standards and ongoing incentives by various governments to propel unit sales to 8m units annually by 2025. Against this, we consider battery material price increases, a reduction of EV incentives in the US and China and political and environmental risks from the mining of metals used in batteries as downside risks which could delay the growth of the EV market.
Surprisingly, the EV battery technology that will drive us towards that 8m unit goal is still very much a work in progress. While Lithium Ion is the by far the dominant technology, there are striking differences between variants of the technology, battery pack design, battery management systems and manufacturing scale between the leading contenders. Furthermore, while there’s nothing on the horizon to completely displace Lithium Ion within the next decade, it remains unclear whether the technology will be the one to achieve the $100/kWh price target that would make the EV cost-neutral compared to its internal combustion predecessors.
Quite apart from the technology, the EV battery segment faces other significant challenges including increasing costs for core materials such as Cobalt, increasing safety concerns as the mix of that very same cobalt is reduced in the cathode, the growing risk of litigation amidst a fiercely competitive environment and last but not least, the appetite of various governments to maintain a favourable subsidy framework.
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