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.

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

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

2021 High Conviction: Pair Trade - Long Air China (753 HK), Short China Southern (1055 HK)

China Southern Airlines (1055 HK): Is There More Room to Go?

Air China (753 HK): Positive Implications from CX's May Traffic Announcement

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>Our 2021 pair trade did not work well with <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/air-china-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:8239:1" rel="noopener">Air China Ltd (H) (753 HK)</a> underperformed <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> by 9.9pp, but we maintain such position into 2022.</li>
<li>Much of the 2021 underperformance was incurred in 1Q21, with Air China catching up very well since then, and Dec has been the best month in this year.</li>
<li>Acceleration of international traffic, sustained cargo strength, low comparison base and upside on margin are the four factors that we see will drive Air China narrowing its performance gap.</li>
</ul>


Our 2021 pair trade did not work well with Air China Ltd (H) (753 HK) underperformed China Southern Airlines (1055 HK) by 9.9pp, but we maintain such position into 2022.
Much of the 2021 underperformance was incurred in 1Q21, with Air China catching up very well since then, and Dec has been the best month in this year.
Acceleration of international traffic, sustained cargo strength, low comparison base and upside on margin are the four factors that we see will drive Air China narrowing its performance gap.


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