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).

Sathorn Series 6: Disappearing Deutsche, Breakaway Brokers

Sathorn Series 1: The Case Against Rate Cuts

Equity Bottom-Up

<p>We are very cautious about Thai banks, because they are effectively the mirror image of a slow economy. Though the economy has picked up and NPLs appear to have bottomed out, bank earnings are still one of the weakest amongst all sectors. Couple that with the high valuations due to foreign inflows, rising cost and lower income from PromptPay mandated by the government, and the looming threat of deposit guarantee removal over the next six years, the outlook for the sector is as bad as it gets.</p><p>Within this worrisome landscape, we like (or hate least) SCB, the most valuable bank, in the near term as it plays laggard to market darling KBANK. BAY will also have tailwind thanks to Mitsubishi-UFJ's influential patronage. The large bank best insulated from deposit guarantee removal is BBL due to its ultra-conservative management. While we admit TISCO looks really tempting, we would avoid all of the smaller banks, as we feel that this is the wrong time to take risk with second-tier franchises, given the slow pace of economic improvement.</p>

We are very cautious about Thai banks, because they are effectively the mirror image of a slow economy. Though the economy has picked up and NPLs appear to have bottomed out, bank earnings are still one of the weakest amongst all sectors. Couple that with the high valuations due to foreign inflows, rising cost and lower income from PromptPay mandated by the government, and the looming threat of deposit guarantee removal over the next six years, the outlook for the sector is as bad as it gets.Within this worrisome landscape, we like (or hate least) SCB, the most valuable bank, in the near term as it plays laggard to market darling KBANK. BAY will also have tailwind thanks to Mitsubishi-UFJ's influential patronage. The large bank best insulated from deposit guarantee removal is BBL due to its ultra-conservative management. While we admit TISCO looks really tempting, we would avoid all of the smaller banks, as we feel that this is the wrong time to take risk with second-tier franchises, given the slow pace of economic improvement.

Sathorn Series 2: Banks Under Storm (PromptPay & Deposit Guarantee Removal)

Siam Commercial Bank

Sathorn Series 2: Banks Under Storm (PromptPay & Deposit Guarantee Removal)