Equity Analyst, LightStream Research

Supun Walpola

Equity Analyst

Long-Short Analysis on Japan, Asia and the World

LightStream Research

LightStream conducts quantitatively rigorous and data-driven analysis with a focus on Japan and Asia.

We consistently cover the Tech, Consumer and Industrial sectors, and provide ECM and Events coverage more broadly.

We supplement traditional qualitative insights from company relationships with a robust quantitative foundation that examines as much historical data as is available.
We further refine the accuracy of our insights and calls through the use of alternative data to flesh out current trends, and through a valuation framework that emphasises non-superficial peer group selection and a proper attempt to understand the metrics and changes that have driven security valuations in the past.

Equity Bottom-Up

<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zozo-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:18379:1" rel="noopener">ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)</a>’s growth has quickly returned to its decelerating trend post-lockdowns and we believe this will become more evident from 3Q FY03/21 when the impact of the stay-at-home demand further subsides. The underlying reasons for this collapsing growth such as, the saturation of the under-25 segment, weak penetration among the middle-aged demographic, and falling average price levels, does not seem to be improving, hence, we believe ZOZO’s consignment business growth should not be much higher than the overall online fashion market growth of 5%-10% going forward.</p><p>In the meantime, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding ZOZO’s longer-term growth drivers such as the new ZOZOSUIT 2 and the private label business which are still in their experimental phase. ZOZO is already down 20% from early October, however, we believe a further correction is required to justify ZOZO’s single-digit growth in the medium-term, until the new initiatives start making meaningful contributions to the results.</p>

ZOZO Inc (3092 JP)’s growth has quickly returned to its decelerating trend post-lockdowns and we believe this will become more evident from 3Q FY03/21 when the impact of the stay-at-home demand further subsides. The underlying reasons for this collapsing growth such as, the saturation of the under-25 segment, weak penetration among the middle-aged demographic, and falling average price levels, does not seem to be improving, hence, we believe ZOZO’s consignment business growth should not be much higher than the overall online fashion market growth of 5%-10% going forward.In the meantime, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding ZOZO’s longer-term growth drivers such as the new ZOZOSUIT 2 and the private label business which are still in their experimental phase. ZOZO is already down 20% from early October, however, we believe a further correction is required to justify ZOZO’s single-digit growth in the medium-term, until the new initiatives start making meaningful contributions to the results.

2021 High Conviction: ZOZO – Good Times Are Zo Far Away