Korea / Special Sits, Pairs, Index Rebalancing, Clepsydra Capital

Sanghyun Park

I investigate special situations, pairs, and index rebalancing trades in Korea.

Korea / Special Sits, Pairs, Index Rebalancing

ASTA IPO Part 1 - Schedule, Financials & Valuation

Equity Capital Markets

Applied Surface Technology / Equity Capital Markets

* In Part 2 (as below), I summarized the company's growth potential and appropriate valuation level.Who is ASTA again? The company is a biomass analytics equipment/solution provider at an entry-level price with high-level performance. So, if this company has truly proved to be a maker who can offer an entry-level price with high-level performance, then it would has a pretty good chance to become the next star of KRX fast-track IPO program (which does not really have a good track record so far). For me, I have a little hard time accepting their estimates on the sale of Maldi-Tof equipment in 2019. But my biggest concern is their estimates on the sale of diagnostic consultancy services based on a new method which accounts for nearly half of their total sales. I'm feeling that ASTA should be valued well below the indicative price range of ₩13,000-18,000. Of course, the company's value will soar if it really proves to be a game changer of an entry-price level with high-level performance based on its cloud database and Maldi-Tof method based diagnostic service. But the company still has several issues to be addressed before we are fully confident that its new approach will work out as expected.

* In Part 2 (as below), I summarized the company's growth potential and appropriate valuation level.Who is ASTA again? The company is a biomass analytics equipment/solution provider at an entry-level price with high-level performance. So, if this company has truly proved to be a maker who can offer an entry-level price with high-level performance, then it would has a pretty good chance to become the next star of KRX fast-track IPO program (which does not really have a good track record so far). For me, I have a little hard time accepting their estimates on the sale of Maldi-Tof equipment in 2019. But my biggest concern is their estimates on the sale of diagnostic consultancy services based on a new method which accounts for nearly half of their total sales. I'm feeling that ASTA should be valued well below the indicative price range of ₩13,000-18,000. Of course, the company's value will soar if it really proves to be a game changer of an entry-price level with high-level performance based on its cloud database and Maldi-Tof method based diagnostic service. But the company still has several issues to be addressed before we are fully confident that its new approach will work out as expected.

ASTA IPO Part 2 - Growth Potential & Appropriate Valuation Level