This weekly newsletter pulls together summaries of the top ten most-read Insights across Event-Driven and Index Rebalance on Smartkarma.
Receive this weekly newsletter keeping 45k+ investors in the loop
1. Updates on The Couche-Tard Deal for 7&I (3382 JP)
- Today saw the publication of three different articles regarding the Alimentation Couche-Tard (ATD CN) approach and offer to purchase all the shares of Seven & I Holdings (3382 JP)
- The first in the Nikkei said ATD could push offer a high price, even up to ¥8 trillion. The second mentioned debt financing being feasible because of prodigious cash flow.
- The third in Bloomberg noted that 7&i had requested the government upgrade its FEFTA status to “core”, which would lead to a more burdensome/restrictive government approval process.
2. Toyota Partial Offer Results – What Next?
- Today after the close, Toyota Motor (7203 JP) reported the results of their ¥800bn Tender Offer Buyback, originally intended to repurchase 290.12mm shares from cross-holders.
- In the end, 343.83mm shares were tendered (53.71mm shares more than originally expected, worth about ¥150bn at Tender Price). That creates back-end “issues” which must be considered.
- The resulting supply/demand profile is mixed, but on balance, I expect sees positive demand into the H1 earnings announcement. Watch for another buyback possibly announced then.
3. Zomato: Index Inclusions & Passive Impact (Once Added to F&O)
- Zomato (ZOMATO IN) has a market cap of over US$27bn but is not a member of the NIFTY Index and S&P BSE SENSEX Index since it is not an F&O member.
- Once SEBI’s proposed and enhanced stock inclusion thresholds are implemented, Zomato (ZOMATO IN) should be added to the F&O segment of the market.
- Passive NIFTY Index and S&P BSE SENSEX Index will have to buy a lot of Zomato stock at subsequent rebalances. The impact will be higher given the lower real float.
4. Shin Kong (2888.TW) And Taishin (2887.TW) Agree to Merge, But It Isn’t Clean, And It’s A Bad Price
- After rumours were rekindled a week earlier, on 22 August 2024, Taishin Financial Holding (2887 TT) and Shin Kong Financial Holding (2888 TT) announced they would merge.
- The ratio is 0.6022 shares of Taishin for every share of Shin Kong putting NEWCO assets at about the level of Taiwan #3 CTBC Financial. That’s bad.
- There’s history here. LOTS of history. This would need approvals from the FSC and FTC, but CTBC is already a spoiner, and the SKFH Board Meeting was anything but clean.
5. Huafa Property (982 HK): Buy With Both Hands
- A state-owned Offeror pitching a lifetime high Offer Price – with a solid premium – for an illiquid company? Sounds like a slam dunk.
- Yet property manager Huafa Property Services Group (982 HK) has perennially traded wide to Huafa Industrial Co., Ltd. Zhuhai (600325 CH)‘s terms. This is not justified.
- The Scheme Meeting/SGM is tomorrow (28 August), with payment on (or before) the 30 September. Or a gross/annualised return of 4%/46%. Buy here. Then buy some more.
6. Yuanta/P-Shares Taiwan Div+ ETF Rebalance Preview: Nuvoton Could Drop Some More
- With the review period complete, Nuvoton Technology (4919 TT) is a near certain deletion from the Yuanta/P-Shares Taiwan Dividend Plus ETF in September.
- Passive trackers will need to sell 20m shares in Nuvoton Technology (4919 TT). That is over 10% of float and the stock could continue to remain under pressure.
- The potential deletion still appears to be under positioned. There could be renewed selling in the stock over the next few weeks.
7. Jardine Matheson (JM SP): Trading “Cheap”
- I see Jardine Matheson Holdings (JM SP)‘s discount to NAV and implied stub at 12-month lows.
- Recent interim results were okay. Stripping out DFI Retail Group Holdings (DFI SP)‘s outperformance, the remainder of the Jardine stable delivered weaker numbers.
- Further afield, the implied stub is marginally below the long-term average since the Jardine Strategic Holdings (JS SP) circularity was collapsed in April 2021.
8. NIFTY NEXT50 Index Rebalance: 7 Changes on Expected Lines
- There are 7 changes for the NSE Nifty Next 50 Index (NIFTYJR INDEX) that will be implemented at the close on 27 September. Changes are on expected lines.
- Estimated one-way turnover for the Nifty Next 50 Index (NIFTYJR INDEX) is 19.6% resulting in a one-way trade of INR 63.64bn (US$759m). Many stocks have over 1x ADV to trade.
- The adds have outperformed the deletes this year but there has been big underperformance over the last month as stocks expected to benefit from rural spending have rallied.
9. Shinko Electric (6967) Deal Approval Delayed; From Here, Big Gap-, Small Break-, Some Delay-Risk
- Today after the close, Shinko Electric Industries (6967 JP) offered a progress report on the approvals for the JIC Consortium Tender Offer originally “scheduled” to start in late August 2024.
- “Procedures and Steps Necessary under the competition laws of Vietnam and China have not been completed” so the Tender Offeror expects to commence the Tender Offer in/after late January 2025.
- The announcement appears to suggest no update is likely for another five months or until the Tender Offer starts. That will introduce questions of further delay.
10. Yamaha Motors (7272 JP) – Secondary Offering as Toyota Sells Down – Easy To Digest
- On Firday 23 August, Yamaha Motor (7272 JP) announced that three cross-holders would sell about 4.6% of the shares out in a secondary sale.
- MS&AD was expected. Toyota was probably expected. Yamaha Corp is a bit of a surprise. But it also frees up Yamaha Motor to sell down cross-holdings (top 2 are Toyota/Yamaha).
- Given the price/guidance/dividend yield and limited size, this should be quite easy to place.
