HK/China Equity Long-Short

Osbert Tang, CFA

Osbert Tang is an equity analyst with over 20 years of experience with focuses on China transport, infrastructure, industrials and utilities sectors. He has been based in Shanghai since 2003, accumulated nearly 20 years of on-ground knowledge on the Chinese economy and financial markets, and has a wealth of contacts with China corporates and government entities. 

Osbert has received votes from top-tier institutional investors and has been a highly-ranked transport and infrastructure analyst in the Asiamoney, Institutional Investors and Greenwich surveys. In addition to his extensive experience with international investment banks including RBS, ABN AMRO (both served as Shanghai Chief Representative), Paribas Asia Equity, Maybank Kim Eng and DBS Securities, he has been a senior analyst with Moody’s Investors Service with focus on ratings of China infrastructure and related LGFV issuers. He has also worked in the area of strategic development at Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited. 

Osbert holds a BBA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a MSSc in Applied Psychology from the City University of Hong Kong. He was accredited with the CFA charter in 1997, and is a member of both British Psychological Society and Hong Kong Psychological Society.

China Southern Airlines (1055 HK): A Tough Start

China Strategy: Re-Assessing the Rmb Exchange Impacts

Roundup of 2021 High Conviction: Still Expect Air China (753 HK) To Outperform CSA (1055 HK) In 2022

Beneficiaries of China's 14th 5-Year Tourism Industry Development Plan

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

China Airlines / Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/air-china-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8239:1" rel="noopener">Air China Ltd (753 HK)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-southern-airlines-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1078:1" rel="noopener">China Southern Airlines (1055 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-eastern-airlines-co-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1079:1" rel="noopener">China Eastern Airlines (670 HK) </a>issued profit warnings for FY21, guiding for Rmb36.8-43.3bn aggregate losses, worse than FY20. </li>
<li>On QoQ basis, CSA's bottom line is significantly weaker as losses enlarged 3.1x in 4Q21, versus 38.4% for CEA and 54% for Air China, based on the mid-point of guidances.</li>
<li>We expect Air China to outperform CSA (YTD: 1.6pp), backed by more international traffic, border opening of China, favourable cargo demand and pricing, and improvement at <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/cathay-pacific-airways-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:243:1" rel="noopener">Cathay Pacific (293 HK)</a>. </li>
</ul>



Air China Ltd (753 HK), China Southern Airlines (1055 HK) and China Eastern Airlines (670 HK) issued profit warnings for FY21, guiding for Rmb36.8-43.3bn aggregate losses, worse than FY20. 
On QoQ basis, CSA's bottom line is significantly weaker as losses enlarged 3.1x in 4Q21, versus 38.4% for CEA and 54% for Air China, based on the mid-point of guidances.
We expect Air China to outperform CSA (YTD: 1.6pp), backed by more international traffic, border opening of China, favourable cargo demand and pricing, and improvement at Cathay Pacific (293 HK). 


Chinese Airlines: A Tale of Three Loss-Making, but Outperforming, Companies