Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

Travis Lundy

HK Type 4 license through Ballingal Investment Advisors Ltd. ("BIA" or "BIAL")

BACKGROUND
I have 20+yrs experience in Asia doing alternative strategies (i.e. non-delta1 non long-only) in fixed income, equity derivatives, and activist/catalyst/event-driven and long-short equity strategies with most of that time spent managing money. 

4 years in fixed income macro, 8 years running internal hedge fund and 4yrs investment banking at Citi in Japan, 3 years running an Asia multi-strat portfolio at a hedge fund, 4+yrs as an independent special situations analyst.

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Tata Consultancy Share Buyback Offer - The Numbers Are Interesting

Indian IT Services: Valuation and Earnings Levels Suggest We Are Nearing the Point-Of-Peak-Optimism

Indian IT Consulting Stocks Resuming Uptrends; Buy Tata Consultancy Svcs, Infosys, & Wipro

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

On October 7th after the close, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/wipro-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:15360:1" rel="noopener">Wipro Ltd (WPRO IN)</a> released an announcement to the Stock Exchanges saying that the Board would shortly <a href="https://www.bseindia.com/xml-data/corpfiling/AttachHis/f50204d7-3fa7-4a21-9bb4-f4dc579dfbe0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">consider</a> a buyback proposal. The stock popped 7% the next day to nearly INR 360 from INR 335, then rose to near INR 380 on the 13th when the Board announced its decision to go ahead with the buyback. This would be the fourth buyback in five years. The stock has fallen back more than 10% from the recent high (which was, admittedly, up 50%ytd), on some disappointment on size and price of the buyback and the shares trade less than 2% higher than before the original announcement and on slight disappointment with Q2 earnings which were announced at the same time.  The buyback announced is to buy up to 237.5mm shares at INR 400/share, spending up to INR 95 billion or ~US$1.3bn. That is 4.16% of shares out. This is a bit smaller than last year's record US$1.7bn buyback and as always, promoter Mr. Azim Premji and almost all of this related shares are expected to participate. The somewhat limited size and Mr Premji's participation means this event must be treated with some delicacy but there are certainly some interesting angles to think about, and understanding the process and how it works in all buyback offers gives you a leg up for other buyback offers.Much more below the fold.

On October 7th after the close, Wipro Ltd (WPRO IN) released an announcement to the Stock Exchanges saying that the Board would shortly consider a buyback proposal. The stock popped 7% the next day to nearly INR 360 from INR 335, then rose to near INR 380 on the 13th when the Board announced its decision to go ahead with the buyback. This would be the fourth buyback in five years. The stock has fallen back more than 10% from the recent high (which was, admittedly, up 50%ytd), on some disappointment on size and price of the buyback and the shares trade less than 2% higher than before the original announcement and on slight disappointment with Q2 earnings which were announced at the same time.  The buyback announced is to buy up to 237.5mm shares at INR 400/share, spending up to INR 95 billion or ~US$1.3bn. That is 4.16% of shares out. This is a bit smaller than last year's record US$1.7bn buyback and as always, promoter Mr. Azim Premji and almost all of this related shares are expected to participate. The somewhat limited size and Mr Premji's participation means this event must be treated with some delicacy but there are certainly some interesting angles to think about, and understanding the process and how it works in all buyback offers gives you a leg up for other buyback offers.Much more below the fold.

How Indian Buyback Offers Work - The Wipro Example