Head of Research, IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Sumeet Singh

Head of IPO & Placements for Aequitas Research. At Aequitas we cover all IPOs and placements across Asia-Pac with a deal size of at least US$100m. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%. 
Prior to Aequitas. I was heading Content Strategy for Smartkarma, along with covering IPOs & Placement. In an earlier life I have covered ASEAN property and the banking space in India.

Head of Research, IPOs & Placements

Olympus Placement - Had Been Doing Well, till Recently

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<p>Sony is selling half its stake in Olympus in a block trade worth USD612m. We would avoid the deal given:</p><ul><li>The stock has had a chequered history, having being mired in an accounting scandal a few years ago which resulted in significant write downs</li><li>Sony bought an 11% stake in the company in 2012 for (USD645m, so its doubled its stake), as part of its strategy to move into medical equipment business (Olympus is the world's largest endoscope maker with a 70% market share). With this stake purchase, Sony became the largest shareholder in Olympus. This was meant to be part of a long term &nbsp;partnership, which included forming JVs etc, but Sony seems to have had a change of heart, for reasons not clear to us. Thus, the remaining shares of Sony will continue to be an overhang, with no clarity of if and when the next sale will take place.</li><li>The deal scores poorly on our framework with earnings momentum being weak (analysts having recently revised down their estimates), and the company having underperfomed the index over the past few months. The stock isn't cheap either trading at 33x earnings.</li><li>While the medical business remain stable, however, the imaging business continues to be a drag with the company undertaking further restructuring which is likely to continue being a drag on earnings.</li></ul><p>On the positive side:</p><ul><li>The previous deal undertaken by the company has done well</li><li>Since Sony bought its stake the stock has performed well and outperformed the market</li></ul>

Sony is selling half its stake in Olympus in a block trade worth USD612m. We would avoid the deal given:The stock has had a chequered history, having being mired in an accounting scandal a few years ago which resulted in significant write downsSony bought an 11% stake in the company in 2012 for (USD645m, so its doubled its stake), as part of its strategy to move into medical equipment business (Olympus is the world's largest endoscope maker with a 70% market share). With this stake purchase, Sony became the largest shareholder in Olympus. This was meant to be part of a long term &nbsp;partnership, which included forming JVs etc, but Sony seems to have had a change of heart, for reasons not clear to us. Thus, the remaining shares of Sony will continue to be an overhang, with no clarity of if and when the next sale will take place.The deal scores poorly on our framework with earnings momentum being weak (analysts having recently revised down their estimates), and the company having underperfomed the index over the past few months. The stock isn't cheap either trading at 33x earnings.While the medical business remain stable, however, the imaging business continues to be a drag with the company undertaking further restructuring which is likely to continue being a drag on earnings.On the positive side:The previous deal undertaken by the company has done wellSince Sony bought its stake the stock has performed well and outperformed the market

Olympus - Largest shareholder looking to partially exit, avoid the deal

Olympus Corp

Olympus - Largest shareholder looking to partially exit, avoid the deal