Daily TMT & Internet: RRG Proprietary Corporate Governance Scoring System Identifies Poor Governance in Korea and more

In this briefing:

1. RRG Proprietary Corporate Governance Scoring System Identifies Poor Governance in Korea
2. TSMC. Reiterating Our Bullish Stance After Earnings
3. KDDI Deal for Kabu.com (8703 JP) Coming?
4. StubWorld: Intouch Gains On Possible Sale of Thaicom
5. Thai Telcos: Outstanding Liabilities to CAT/TOT Loom Post DTAC’s Partial Settlement

1. RRG Proprietary Corporate Governance Scoring System Identifies Poor Governance in Korea

• Our proprietary corporate governance scoring system now covers over 1,985 stocks including over 200 in Korea.
• We recently added a coverage of 28 new names in Korea.
• The two lowest scores in this group are Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Advanced Process Systems both with scores of 40/100.
• The involvement of a former executive at Samsung Electro-Mechanics in the Park scandal and ouster highlights the governance risk.
• Companies with good governance include LS Corp, and Lotte Shopping. Past issues with the founding family of Lotte should be noted and taken into consideration.
  We welcome requests from clients of names they want to see added to the universe.

2. TSMC. Reiterating Our Bullish Stance After Earnings

While Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company‘s Q4 2018 earnings were in line with expectations at ~$9.4 billion, the company’s revenue forecast for Q1 2019 was down 22% sequentially to $7.3 billion. TSMC predicts a tepid 2019 with semiconductor growth of 1%, down from ~6% last year. Like many of its peers, TSMC sees challenges relating to inventory overhang, waning smartphone unit sales and global macro uncertainty weighing on the company in the first half and expects business to recover to modest growth in the second half. The bottom line is that the company anticipates a no-to-low growth year of the Pig. 

In spite of the downbeat outlook for the year, the company reiterated its belief that it will hit its 5-10% growth CAGR through 2021. To meet that goal, it is clear that TSMC now expects both 2020 and 2021 to be double digit growth years and, as we outlined in our SmartKarma Originals report A Bull Investment Case for TSMC (In-Depth Version), much of that growth will come from TSMC’s new-found markets for processors and AI acceleration in the data center.

From a process technology leadership perspective, a fundamental tenet of our bull case for the company, TSMC noted that its 7nm process accounted for a staggering 23% of revenues in the fourth quarter, 7nm+ (with EUV) is on track for volume ramp in the second quarter and 5nm remains on track to follow just one year later. 

Investors shrugged of the negative outlook for the year with the company’s share price barely registering the news. We reiterate our bullish stance on the stock and our growth CAGR of 8.36% through 2022.

3. KDDI Deal for Kabu.com (8703 JP) Coming?

Yesterday morning, the Nikkei surprised everyone with an article saying KDDI Corp (9433 JP) was holding negotiations to acquire a stake of up to just under 50% in Kabu.Com Securities (8703 JP), which is the online brokerage entity of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (8306 JP) with 1.1 million customers. 

Kabu.com shares were bid limit up all day long and closed at ¥462, which is a 10+ year closing high. 

The idea is not a new one. The mobile telecommunications market in Japan is mature, and one of the few ways Type 1 telecom providers can grow is by adding content through the “pipes.” 

KDDI already has an investment in an online banking 50/50 joint venture with MUFG called Jibun Bank (“My Bank” or “Myself Bank”) which it launched in 2008. KDDI established a smartphone-based asset management service with Daiwa Securities Group (8601 JP) just under a year ago, where KDDI owns 66.6% and Daiwa 33.4%. This was to attract younger customers to savings products accessible through an app in order to make those customers stickier over the long-term. KDDI also bought into Lifenet Insurance Co (7157 JP) in 2015 through a capital raise, and is now its largest shareholder at just over 25% (a decent (and recent) presentation of the company is here). About six months ago, KDDI injected ¥6bn (link is Japanese) into Japanese financial services company Finatext to help spark their new service of a ¥0 commission brokerage. I would note that Finatext and partner (now sub) NOWCAST launched an algorithmic personal asset management advisory service using for kabu.com Securities in 2016. 

Owning a stake in a broker would go a long ways towards providing comprehensive financial services access by smartphone under a KDDI-owned profit umbrella.

Is a deal like this feasible? Reasonable? Likely?

The two companies’ first response was pretty standard. This was the version from KDDI:

• 当社は、カブドットコム証券と金融事業においてさまざまな可能性を検討していますが、決まった事柄 はございません. 
• KDDI is considering various possibilities in financial business with kabu.com Securities, however, there is no determined facts. [a better translation of the Japanese is “however… no decisions have been made”]

This is pretty standard in Japanese corporate “clarifications.” There are, in fact, no ‘decisions’ unless a board meeting has been convened and put their stamp on it.

But the Japanese market will look at a comment like this and figure that where there is smoke there is fire.

4. StubWorld: Intouch Gains On Possible Sale of Thaicom

This week in StubWorld …

• Both Intouch Holdings (INTUCH TB) and Thaicom Pcl (THCOM TB) gain ~10% in response to rumours of a government takeout of Thaicom.

Preceding my comments on Intouch and Yoosung T&S (024800 KS) are the weekly setup/unwind tables for Asia-Pacific Holdcos.

These relationships trade with a minimum liquidity threshold of US$1mn on a 90-day moving average, and a % market capitalisation threshold – the $ value of the holding/opco held, over the parent’s market capitalisation, expressed as a % – of at least 20%.

5. Thai Telcos: Outstanding Liabilities to CAT/TOT Loom Post DTAC’s Partial Settlement

Total Access Communication (DTAC TB) recently settled a number of outstanding cases with CAT, one of the two Thai Telecom authorities (the other being TOT). DTAC agreed to pay THB9.5bn ($300m) to CAT to settle a number of outstanding disputes. They did NOT clear all their disputes and there are substantial remaining potential liabilities. In the past, The Thai telcos have tended to ignore these cases given the glacial moves through the system (some are 20+ years), but DTAC’s moves suggest it is time to take a closer look. The total numbers for the industry are substantial at around $20bn and, following DTAC’s settlement, Chris Hoare thinks the risk of crystallizing losses has increased. We have cut our target prices as a result. The industry was already facing headwinds from the business revival at DTAC now that it has secured access to spectrum.