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).

UTP (UTP TB): Beneficiary of Tight Global Paper Supply

IPO Radar: S Hotels & Resorts, Singha's Hospitality Arm

IPO Radar: SPRIME, an Office REIT from Singha Group

IPO Stalker: Bangkok Glass, Singha Beer's Bottle Maker

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 Bottom-Up

<p>We did a quick follow-up on Singha Estate, the parent company of the recently listed Singha Hotels as well as SPRIME, and also had a quick introduction towards United Papers, a stock touted by A Stotz a year ago.</p><ul>
<li>Due to its focus on the higher end, Singha Estate appears to be doing better than bottom fishers like Pruksa. The company turned a loss of Bt27m in 9M'18 into a profit of Bt367m in 9M'19, as gross margins expanded 6% and revenues more than doubled.</li>
<li>The company continues to look for new acquisitions in the office space segment, noting that their earlier acquisition of Outrigger hotels by subsidiary Singha Hotels allowed them to grow their hotel revenues by 66%. The IPO also bought in Bt7.35bn in cash proceeds which could be used to reduce gearing and financing costs.</li>
<li>Singha Estate is rather disciplined and focused on only four residential projects. Take-up rates are much healthier than Pruksa, which we visited earlier. On the office side, SunTowers logged in occupancy rates of higher than 90%, vindicating their focus on Grade B office space outside the CBD areas.</li>
<li>United Papers only delivered flat profitability in Q3'19 (EBITDA Bt298m, Net income Bt217m), as sales declined 13% YoY due to a 20% drop in ASP (average selling price). Luckily for them, raw material prices dropped even more.</li>
</ul>

We did a quick follow-up on Singha Estate, the parent company of the recently listed Singha Hotels as well as SPRIME, and also had a quick introduction towards United Papers, a stock touted by A Stotz a year ago.
Due to its focus on the higher end, Singha Estate appears to be doing better than bottom fishers like Pruksa. The company turned a loss of Bt27m in 9M'18 into a profit of Bt367m in 9M'19, as gross margins expanded 6% and revenues more than doubled.
The company continues to look for new acquisitions in the office space segment, noting that their earlier acquisition of Outrigger hotels by subsidiary Singha Hotels allowed them to grow their hotel revenues by 66%. The IPO also bought in Bt7.35bn in cash proceeds which could be used to reduce gearing and financing costs.
Singha Estate is rather disciplined and focused on only four residential projects. Take-up rates are much healthier than Pruksa, which we visited earlier. On the office side, SunTowers logged in occupancy rates of higher than 90%, vindicating their focus on Grade B office space outside the CBD areas.
United Papers only delivered flat profitability in Q3'19 (EBITDA Bt298m, Net income Bt217m), as sales declined 13% YoY due to a 20% drop in ASP (average selling price). Luckily for them, raw material prices dropped even more.


Singha Prime Office Leasehold REIT (SPRIME TB)

Small Cap Diary: Singha Estate, United Papers