In today’s briefing:
- Outsourcing (2427) – Earnings Delay Causes Consternation
- Toei Animation (4816) – Shareholder Selldown To Meet Listing Hurdles – Bigly, Heavy, More to Come
- JSR (4185) – Updated Information in SUNY Lawsuit, and Other Developments
- MVIS Australia Equal Weight Index Rebalance Preview: Should I Stay or Should IGO?
- Toei Animation Placement – Looks Ripe for a Correction
- SET50 Index Rebalance Preview: Three Potential Changes in June
- Musings On US-Listed China Plays
- KB Financial Placement – Momentum Has Been Strong and the Last Clean-Up Sale Has Done Well
- Outsourcing (2427 JP): Keep Calm or Worry About the Earnings Delay?
- Toei Animation (4816 JP): A US$550 Million Secondary Offering
Outsourcing (2427) – Earnings Delay Causes Consternation
- Originally, the MBO for Outsourcing Inc (2427 JP) was expected to get launched end-January 2024. A late-ish filing with regard to the EU’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation regime prompted a delay.
- Yesterday Outsourcing announced a delay its earnings release by 3 business days, the delay “procedures related to impairment losses are continuing.”
- Outsourcing shares are down hard on this. -1.5% as I write. I examine.
Toei Animation (4816) – Shareholder Selldown To Meet Listing Hurdles – Bigly, Heavy, More to Come
- In December 2021, when companies were required to file statements with the TSE as to plans to meet continuing listing requirements, Toei Animation (4816 JP) had a Plan.
- That plan? Get from a then-current 15.5% Tradable Shares level to 25.0% by 31 March 2025. That was “OK” though later, the TSE asked companies to speed it up.
- Today, shareholders Sony and Bandai Namco announced an equity offering to sell down up to 4.48mm shares in a domestic+overseas offering. It’s big, heavy, and there is more to come.
JSR (4185) – Updated Information in SUNY Lawsuit, and Other Developments
- 12 days ago, JSR Corp (4185 JP) announced that former research collaboration partner Research Foundation of the State University of New York had sued in an intellectual property ownership dispute.
- I wrote about it here to the extent I could. Since then, more information has become available, or available to me. Some details on the case. Some on lawyers.
- Since then JSR has reported earnings with unchanged forecast, and major pure play comp Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (4186 JP) today reported earnings; the stock popped 10+% to an all-time high.
MVIS Australia Equal Weight Index Rebalance Preview: Should I Stay or Should IGO?
- The review period for the March rebalance of the MVIS Australia Equal Weight Index ends on 29 February with results announced on 8 March and implemented on 15 March.
- Lendlease Group (LLC AU), IDP Education (IEL AU) and IGO Ltd (IGO AU) are very close to deletion zone and price moves over the next couple of weeks are important.
- IGO Ltd (IGO AU) is also a deletion from a global index in February and a lower stock price could lead to deletion from this index too.
Toei Animation Placement – Looks Ripe for a Correction
- Bandai Namco (7832 JP) and Sony Pictures are looking to raise up to US$525m via selling around 10.66% of Toei Animation (4816 JP) (TA).
- The purpose of the placement is to unwind some of the cross-shareholding, as well as help TA to maintain its listing in the Standard Segment.
- In this note, we will talk about the placement and run the deal through our ECM framework.
SET50 Index Rebalance Preview: Three Potential Changes in June
- Early days, but there could be three changes for the Stock Exchange of Thailand SET 50 Index at the June rebalance. Two names are reversals of the December changes.
- Passive trackers will need to buy between 1.5-3.6 days of ADV on the inclusions and sell 1.1-1.4 days of ADV on the deletions.
- There are a couple of stocks that are close to passing/failing the liquidity tests and a couple close to cutoff ranks. That could result in further changes to the index.
Musings On US-Listed China Plays
- Seeing as though it is Chinese New Year week, I thought it might be appropriate to conduct a brief analysis of US-listed China plays.
- According to a recent US-China Economic and Security Review Commission report, 265 Chinese companies were listed on the NYSE, Nasdaq and NYSE American exchanges in January 2024 worth US$848bn.
- That’s down from 252 companies worth US$1.03tn a year ago, a 17.5% decline. 91% of the total market capitalization of Chinese firms listed on U.S. exchanges use VIEs.
KB Financial Placement – Momentum Has Been Strong and the Last Clean-Up Sale Has Done Well
- The Carlyle Group / (CG US) via Kingsman Investment, is looking to raise US$244m from selling its entire stake in KB Financial (105560 KS).
- Carlyle has been invested in the firm since mid-2020, where it then expressed that it would hold on to its stake for at least three and a half years.
- The deal would be a small one to digest at just 3.8 days of KB Financial’s three month ADV, representing 1.2% of its current mcap.
Outsourcing (2427 JP): Keep Calm or Worry About the Earnings Delay?
- Outsourcing Inc (2427 JP) has delayed the announcement of its 4QFY2023 results from 14 to 19 February as the impairment loss accounting is yet to be completed.
- Outsourcing has a history of impairments, resulting in missed forecasts, which suggests a weak 4Q. The concern is that a weak 4Q could force Bain to trim its JPY1,755 offer.
- Persol Holdings (2181 JP) guidance cut today suggests a weak 4Q reflects near-term industry weakness rather than company-specific issues. The weak 4Q is a valuable cover to justify the less-than-stellar offer.
Toei Animation (4816 JP): A US$550 Million Secondary Offering
- Toei Animation (4816 JP) has announced a secondary offering of up to 4.5 million shares (including overallotment). Bandai Namco Holdings (7832 JP) and Sony Corp (6758 JP) are the sellers.
- The offering will allow Toei Animation to maintain its listing in the TSE Standard Market and enable Bandai Namco and Sony to reduce and liquidate cross-shareholdings.
- Looking at recent large Japanese placements is instructive for understanding the potential offer price. The pricing date will likely fall between 27 February and 4 March (likely 27 February).