Global Head of Research, Smartkarma

Mark Artherton

Global Head of Research

Ecstrat

Ecstrat is a consultancy advising on asset allocation between global equity markets, with a focus on the intersection of governments, geopolitics, governance and markets.
 
Over the past few years and more especially since the Great Financial Crisis (GFC), investors have become more focused on short-term market movements and real-time returns and have consequently neglected the analysis of the underlying structural themes that underpin longer term performance.
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More specifically we believe that the evolution of governance-based relationships between investors, controlling shareholders, labour and the state is one of the primary determinants of both relative and absolute performance between individual equity markets.
 
We will endeavour to provide investors with some of the context surrounding governance-related issues which encompass many different disciplines including history, economics and political science, as well as the financial metrics which are the most obvious manifestation of the structural characteristics of each market.
 
We will pay particular attention to the shifts and potential inflection points for governance in individual markets as these are often the best lead indicators for both economic and market performance.

Macroeconomics

<p style="text-align: justify;">Ecstrat were amongst the first to highlight the explosive growth of working capital in non-financial companies in China. We monitor over 3,000 listed Chinese corporates and with 20% of those having now reported for 2015 we can start to draw some conclusions.</p><div class="content-highlight"><ul><li><em><strong>The 'cash flow recession' in corporate China continues.</strong></em></li></ul></div><div class="content-highlight"><ul><li><em><strong>Almost all sectors have experienced a rise in receivable days when comparing 2015 to 2014.</strong></em></li></ul></div><div class="content-highlight"><p><em><strong>Almost all sectors have seen an even larger increase in payable days, suggesting that the listed</strong></em>…</p></div>

Ecstrat were amongst the first to highlight the explosive growth of working capital in non-financial companies in China. We monitor over 3,000 listed Chinese corporates and with 20% of those having now reported for 2015 we can start to draw some conclusions.The 'cash flow recession' in corporate China continues.Almost all sectors have experienced a rise in receivable days when comparing 2015 to 2014.Almost all sectors have seen an even larger increase in payable days, suggesting that the listed…

Shanghai Electric Group Company (601727 CH)

Haitong Securities Co Ltd (A) (600837 CH)

China Railway Construction Corp (1186 HK)

China Communications Construction (1800 HK)

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. (600000 CH)

Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group (A) (600887 CH)

Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Union (600010 CH)

Shanghai Electric Group Company (2727 HK)

Huaneng Power International Inc (Adr) (HNP US)

Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd (1618 HK)

China Merchants Securities Co Ltd (A) (600999 CH)

China Pacific Insurance (Group) Co., (601601 CH)

Shanghai International Port Group (600018 CH)

China Merchants Securities Co Ltd (H) (6099 HK)

Wens Foodstuff Group Co., Ltd. (300498 CH)

Large Caps Squeezing SMEs in Early Reading of FY2015 Chinese Working Capital