In today’s briefing:
- Rakuten’s Fortunes Could Change With The Rakuten Bank IPO
- JAPAN ACTIVISM: Silchester’s Bank of Kyoto AGM Results – Activism Still Failing
- Kura Sushi (2695): Dominates Sushi Market with Sanrio Power
Rakuten’s Fortunes Could Change With The Rakuten Bank IPO
- One of Japan’s largest internet companies, Rakuten Inc (4755 JP) applied to list its consolidated subsidiary, Rakuten Bank (EBANKZ JP) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on the 4th of July.
- With steady customer account growth mostly assured through leveraging Rakuten’s eco-system with more than 36.0m monthly active users, Rakuten Bank is likely to be valued at over ¥500bn.
- Thus, we think the Rakuten Bank IPO could change Rakuten’s fortunes and help the share price bounce back from a 10-year low level.
JAPAN ACTIVISM: Silchester’s Bank of Kyoto AGM Results – Activism Still Failing
- Silchester, after holding Bank of Kyoto (8369 JP) shares 16 years, becoming the largest investor, FINALLY publicly asked the bank to make a gesture to pay out a tiny special div.
- The bank rejected them, but they took it to to the AGM. And there Silchester got rejected by the shareholders. Soundly. Hostile activism is not going to be easy here.
- But all is not lost. Since December, the bank has raised its payout ratio to 50% and has promised to cut a piece of its cross-holdings in the MTMP.
Kura Sushi (2695): Dominates Sushi Market with Sanrio Power
- Same-store sales were 108.6% vs. June 2021 (113.6% for May), 101.5% vs. June 2020 (128.0% for May), and 98.9% vs. June 2019 (102.4% for May)
- The company ran a Sanrio Characters campaign in June. The prizes featuring popular characters such as “Cinnamoroll” seem to have been well received by the customers
- The number of stores at the end of June was 516 in Japan (+2 MoM), 37 in the U.S. (flat MoM), and 46 in Taiwan (+1 MoM). The total number of stores was 599 (+3 MoM)
Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma
