Asean-focused. Ex-Head of Thai Research

Athaporn Arayasantiparb, CFA

Athaporn served as Head of Research for UOB and ANZ in Thailand and was an award-winning telecoms analyst at UBS in 2010 (AsiaMoney Thailand category) and Regional Strategist for DMG in Singapore. Prior to that, he also served as Kasikornbank credit analyst and scholar. He has a total work experience of 22 years, of which 19 were in research and 9 in research management roles. He started his career as an engineer for PTT and currently manages family investments. He holds an MBA from Stern (NYU) and CFA Charter since 2006.

Apart from IPO Radar, which focuses on future listings, MCorp Review also performs financial advisory services for TKC Services and provides 11 other on-going thematic series ranked by frequency in descending order, namely:

1) Snippets (news-driven);
2) Sathorn Series (financial services);
3) Silicon Stories (technology); 
4) Thai-Coons (billionaire origin series);
5) Reality Check (data-driven, investigative);
6) Thai Media Spotlight;
7) Political Pit Stop; 
8) Telecom Review; 
9) Thai Macro Watch (read-through from foreign events);  
10) Small Cap Diary; and
11) Property Grid

There are also 3 limited-time series driven by specific events or locations, namely:
1) Thai Corona Crisis;
2) South Series; and
3) Mechanics and Details (deal forensics).

Snippets #36: Zen's New Chinese Restaurants, DTAC's Cautious Stance

A Primer on Thai Franchising: Structure, Roles, & Pitfalls

Thai Restaurants (Part I): Industry Structure and Key Success Factors

Asean (Thailand) Focused Independent Research

M Corp Review

M Corp is led by Athaporn Arayasantiparb who served as Head of Research for UOB and ANZ in Thailand and was an award-winning telecoms analyst at UBS in 2010 (AsiaMoney Thailand category) and Regional Strategist for DMG in Singapore. Prior to that, he also served as Kasikornbank credit analyst and scholar. He has a total work experience of 17 years, of which 14 were in research and 4 in research management roles. He started his career as an engineer for PTT and currently manages family investments. He holds an MBA from Stern (NYU) and CFA Charter since 2006. Apart from IPO Radar, which focuses on future listings, MCorp Review also provides six on-going thematic series ranked by frequency in descending order, namely: 1) Silicon Stories (technology) 2) Sathorn Series (financial services) 3) Thai-Coons (billionaire origin stories) 4) Reality Check (data-driven, investigative) 5) Thai Media Spotlight; and 6) Thai Macro Watch (global market drivers).

Equity Capital Markets

There will be many IPOs in 2019, which is turning out be a better IPO year than 2018, but we have a soft spot for restaurants, especially since they own some of our favorite chains: the namesake Zen, Aka (my favorite BBQ buffet place),  On The Table (expensive but fancy Japan-style pizza), and Sushi Cyu Carnival (high-end sushi place).Over 90% of their revenues comes from their own stores, while another 7% comes from the franchises, which management believe will grow at more than double the pace. There will be some cannibalization and decline in SSS, but this will be more than offset by store expansion as explained in this review. In the base case, we value the stock at Bt6.8/sh using DCF, but we believe it could IPO for much higher, simply by looking at the other pure play restaurant operators in the market. The best case valuation is Bt13.8/sh using relative valuation, but we would caution against going all this way, since the Thai IPO market seems to have cooled quite a bit since <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/ipo-radar-osothspa-the-thai-energy-giant-behind-m-100-m-150" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:19538">IPO Radar: Osothspa, The Thai Energy Giant Behind M-100/M-150</a>Oh! Almost forgot...they're also controlled by members of the Central Group family, so if you're surprised why they keep getting the best real estate...mystery solved.

There will be many IPOs in 2019, which is turning out be a better IPO year than 2018, but we have a soft spot for restaurants, especially since they own some of our favorite chains: the namesake Zen, Aka (my favorite BBQ buffet place),  On The Table (expensive but fancy Japan-style pizza), and Sushi Cyu Carnival (high-end sushi place).Over 90% of their revenues comes from their own stores, while another 7% comes from the franchises, which management believe will grow at more than double the pace. There will be some cannibalization and decline in SSS, but this will be more than offset by store expansion as explained in this review. In the base case, we value the stock at Bt6.8/sh using DCF, but we believe it could IPO for much higher, simply by looking at the other pure play restaurant operators in the market. The best case valuation is Bt13.8/sh using relative valuation, but we would caution against going all this way, since the Thai IPO market seems to have cooled quite a bit since IPO Radar: Osothspa, The Thai Energy Giant Behind M-100/M-150Oh! Almost forgot...they're also controlled by members of the Central Group family, so if you're surprised why they keep getting the best real estate...mystery solved.

IPO Radar: ZEN, Our Favorite Japanese Restaurant Chain