In this briefing:
- ECM Weekly (15 December 2018) – Wanka, Alpha Smart, CMGE Tech, Junshi Science, Xinyi Energy.
- SMC (6273 JP): Profits Start to Decline
- Independent Director Is a Great Way to Supplement Retirement in Japan….
- Rental Rates for Last Mile Industrial Real Estate Poised to Move Higher in Most Key Global Markets
- Core US Sectors Leading an S&P Major Support Break
1. ECM Weekly (15 December 2018) – Wanka, Alpha Smart, CMGE Tech, Junshi Science, Xinyi Energy.
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.
IPO listings this week have mostly been within our expectation. Mobvista (1860 HK), Natural Food International H (1837 HK), and Fosun Tourism (1992 HK) have all struggled to hold on to their IPO price on the first day of trading. Unfortunately, WuXi AppTec Co (2359 HK) has also struggled on this first day despite our expectation that the company should be trading at a relatively smaller 19% A-H premium which would imply about 11% upside based on Ke Yan, CFA, FRM‘s sensitivity analysis and Wuxi Apptec’s A share Friday close price.
In the US, Tencent Music Entertainment (TME US) performed well within our expectation. The company’s share price opened about 9% above IPO price. As Sumeet Singh has mentioned in his insight, Tencent Music IPO – Firework – Trading Strategies, this is unlikely going to be a bumper IPO and short-term investors could take profit at high single-digit to low double-digit returns on debut. Indeed, after a decent debut, TME has collapsed below its IPO price, probably due to investors taking profit as the broad market traded poorly on Friday.
Next week, all eyes will be on Softbank Corp (9434 JP)‘s debut and Mio Kato, CFA summarised in his note some of the reasons why Softbank Corp could perform poorly in the near term. Bookbuild results have been mixed. Bloomberg report suggested that Softbank’s international bookbuild was 2-3x oversubscribed while retail offering was at almost 2x. However, Nikkei Asian Review’s article reported that it has been a struggle to sell the IPO shares to retail investors. In any case, we will put out a note next week on our thoughts on bookbuild, updated valuation of peers, and how we think the IPO will likely trade after the recent series of events.
Other debuts next week include Luzhou Commercial Bank Co Ltd (1983 HK), Wanka Online (1669726D HK), and Asiainfo Technologies (1675 HK).
Accuracy Rate:
Our overall accuracy rate is 72% for IPOs and 64% for Placements
(Performance measurement criteria is explained at the end of the note)
New IPO filings this week
- Shanghai Henlius Biotech (Hong Kong, ~US$500m)
- Ingrid Millet (Hong Kong, re-filed)
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
- Chat-service firm Slack taps Goldman Sachs to lead IPO: sources
- Kyobo Life Insurance to seek IPO next year
- Uber has confidentially filed to go public
- London billionaire Michael Spencer boosts stake in Singapore Life, considers IPO
- Brokerages scramble on tepid investor response over SoftBank IPO
- After delivering 24 electric cars, this Chinese startup has IPO dreams
- Solar energy firm Xinyi said to postpone up to $582m Hong Kong IPO
Smartkarma Community’s this week Analysis on Upcoming IPO
- Alpha Smart – Pre-IPO – PE Investors Recovered 56% of Their Cost in Two Years but Left It in Debt
- Xinyi Energy IPO Valuation: Asking More Than What It Is Paying to Acquire Target Portfolio
- CMGE Tech (中手游) Pre-IPO Review – Unfortunate Timing
- Junshi Bioscience (君实医药) IPO: Rich Is Valuation, but Catalyst Ahead
- Junshi Biosciences IPO Valuation: Sensibly Priced with Upside at the Low-End
- Wanka Online IPO – Quick Note – Even After the Downsize Its Still Too Expensive
- Xinyi Energy (信义能源) IPO: High Dividend Yield but Depreciating Asset
- Softbank IPO: Signs Point to Risk of Early IPO Price Break
- WuXi AppTec IPO Valuation: Bull/Bear Case DCF Scenarios
- Wuxi Apptec (药明康德) IPO: What You Need to Know Before the Trading Debut
List of pre-IPO Coverage on Smartkarma
2. SMC (6273 JP): Profits Start to Decline
SMC’s year-on-year profit comparisons have turned negative. In the three months to September (Q2 of FY Mar-19), gross profit was down 3.7% year-on-year, operating profit was down 8.8% and net profit was down 9.6%. Operating profit was down 15.1% from Q1. Sales were up only 0.4% year-on-year in Q2, compared with 29.0% growth a year earlier, and down 7.5% from Q1. Management responded by cutting full-year guidance, implicitly changing anticipated 2H operating profit growth from +3.0% to -9.3% year-on-year.
This has all been discounted. The share price dropped 43% from its 52-week and all-time high of ¥55,830 on January 18 to a 52-week low of ¥31,580 on October 28, then rebounded to ¥40,000 in early December. Last Friday, December 14, it closed at ¥34,840.
What happens next? The share price trend suggests that because year-on-year profit comparisons have finally turned negative, it’s time to start anticipating recovery. But the fundamentals indicate that profit comparisons are likely to remain very difficult and most probably negative for at least three more quarters. Management reports that semiconductor-related demand is down in all markets and that auto-related demand is down in the U.S. Auto sales are also declining in China. The length and depth of the downturn and the timing and strength of recovery are both unclear. Any positive news on the trade front should support the share price, but while trade friction aggravates the cyclical downturns in the semiconductor and auto industries, it is not their cause.
At ¥34,840, the shares are selling at 17.0x our EPS estimate for FY Mar-19 and 17.7x our estimate for FY Mar-20. These multiples compare with a 5-year historical range of 13.8x – 28.5x. Our projected EV/EBITDA multiples for the same two years are 8.7x and 8.1x, which compare with a 5-year historical range of 7.0x – 15.1x. This should help put a floor under the share price. Interestingly, Japan Analytics’ chart analysis indicates that SMC has never been seriously overbought (see chart below).
A leading supplier of pneumatic and other automated control equipment for the electronics, auto, machine tool and other industries, SMC is highly geared to investment in semiconductor production capacity and factory automation.
3. Independent Director Is a Great Way to Supplement Retirement in Japan….
We all know that Japan has tried to give the impression that they are improving corporate governance. However, when you start to dig into the numbers you see that it is basically just window dressing. We looked at the ages of the Independent Directors and they are not young…. Most should be gardening somewhere in Shizuoka.
4. Rental Rates for Last Mile Industrial Real Estate Poised to Move Higher in Most Key Global Markets
- New industry data this week, plus take-aways from our latest discussions with company managements, all confirm that the likely trend in the industrial segment of the global real estate industry is for rental rates to rise.
- The growth in e-commerce is continuing to accelerate globally. In some key market, this is “triggering a land grab for distribution space that experts say is accelerating”.
- Therefore, the increasing scarcity value of well situated industrial real estate in high demand markets is likely to continue to push up rental rates to higher and higher levels.
- Given our expectation that fundamentals driving the growing demand for Last Mile Industrial real estate are likely to persist, we continue to expect this segment to outperform the broader Real Estate sector for the foreseeable future.
5. Core US Sectors Leading an S&P Major Support Break
We see increasing evidence of a failed December risk on phase as core sectors break below supports and early 2018 lows in a lead fashion.
Our underperform/bear call for banks, small caps, tech and transports to lead a bigger market spiral is taking shape. Small caps, banks and transports are now breaking early 2018 lows, signaling a broader S&P break below 2,600 may in fact be unfolding now rather than in January/Q1.
Fed speak will dominate a break/bounce next week but a break down is in the cards, regardless in 2019.
Breadth remains bearish.
USD/JPY teetering on a pattern breakout. Gold is not trading well given it has decoupled from traditional correlations.
Big net outflows recorded in key sectors/markets last week.
