IPOs and Catalysts/Events, Global Equity Research Ltd

Arun George

Arun has over 15 years’ experience covering the Technology sector. During this time, he has worked with technology start-ups and as an equity analyst in investment banks and independent research firms. He was formerly a Technology Analyst for Canaccord Genuity, Altium Securities, Espirito Santo Investment Bank, Noble Group and Clear Capital. He has a dual Master’s degree in Financial Engineering and Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is also a CFA charterholder.

IPOs and Catalysts/Events

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Global Equity Research Ltd

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Equity Capital Markets

<div><p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/soulgate-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:33304:1" rel="noopener">Soulgate (SSR US)</a> is an alternative social networking platform that lets users have virtual identities and aims to recommend to each user (referred to as a Souler) curated content and other Soulers with similar personalities, lifestyles and interests, enabling more in-depth interactions and more meaningful connections. Soulgate is backed by <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tencent-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1" rel="noopener">Tencent (700 HK)</a> (49.9% of outstanding shares, 25.7% of outstanding shares). </p></div><div>
<p>At the mid-point of the proposed IPO price range of $13.0-15.00 per ADS, Soulgate will have a market cap of $1.7 billion. New investors Janus Henderson and Boyu Capital intend to purchase a total of $80 million worth of ADSs in the offering (43.3% of the deal). At the mid-point of the IPO price range, the net proceeds including the concurrent private placement are $257.3 million. </p>
<p>Soulgate will also raise an additional $89 million in a concurrent private placement with miHoYo. miHoYo was founded in 2012 by three Shanghai Jiaotong University graduate students. miHoYo is the creator of <em>Genshin Impact</em>, an open-world action role-playing game released in 2020, and one of the highest-grossing mobile games. It is not entirely clear if there are any near-term synergies through this investment. Currently, Soulgate's exposure to games is largely limited to its <em>Werewolf Rooms</em> (a subset of its <em>Animated Partyroom</em> app functionality) which enable users to play the popular board game <em>Werewolf</em>.</p>
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<p>In <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/soulgate-ipo-initiation-lost-soul" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:51651" rel="noopener">Soulgate IPO Initiation: Lost Soul,</a> we opined at first glance, Soulgate is well-positioned to benefit from a sizeable China’s mobile social networking market. The strong growth in users, fast-paced revenue growth and ongoing revenue diversification suggest that Soulgate is heading in the right direction. However, the high S&amp;M expenses which exceeded revenue in each of the last three quarters, suggests that Soulgate is aggressively chasing user growth without paying much heed to monetisation and payback periods. This modus operandi is highly reflective of growth at all costs strategy. Overall, we think that the negatives in the Soulgate story warrant a pass.  </p>
<div class="content-highlight"><p>Our valuation analysis suggests that the IPO price range fairly values Soulgate for its forecasted growth. Overall, as we remain unconvinced that Soulgate's growth at all costs strategy will generate shareholder value, we are inclined to give this IPO a pass. </p></div>
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Soulgate (SSR US) is an alternative social networking platform that lets users have virtual identities and aims to recommend to each user (referred to as a Souler) curated content and other Soulers with similar personalities, lifestyles and interests, enabling more in-depth interactions and more meaningful connections. Soulgate is backed by Tencent (700 HK) (49.9% of outstanding shares, 25.7% of outstanding shares). 
At the mid-point of the proposed IPO price range of $13.0-15.00 per ADS, Soulgate will have a market cap of $1.7 billion. New investors Janus Henderson and Boyu Capital intend to purchase a total of $80 million worth of ADSs in the offering (43.3% of the deal). At the mid-point of the IPO price range, the net proceeds including the concurrent private placement are $257.3 million. 
Soulgate will also raise an additional $89 million in a concurrent private placement with miHoYo. miHoYo was founded in 2012 by three Shanghai Jiaotong University graduate students. miHoYo is the creator of Genshin Impact, an open-world action role-playing game released in 2020, and one of the highest-grossing mobile games. It is not entirely clear if there are any near-term synergies through this investment. Currently, Soulgate's exposure to games is largely limited to its Werewolf Rooms (a subset of its Animated Partyroom app functionality) which enable users to play the popular board game Werewolf.

In Soulgate IPO Initiation: Lost Soul, we opined at first glance, Soulgate is well-positioned to benefit from a sizeable China’s mobile social networking market. The strong growth in users, fast-paced revenue growth and ongoing revenue diversification suggest that Soulgate is heading in the right direction. However, the high S&amp;M expenses which exceeded revenue in each of the last three quarters, suggests that Soulgate is aggressively chasing user growth without paying much heed to monetisation and payback periods. This modus operandi is highly reflective of growth at all costs strategy. Overall, we think that the negatives in the Soulgate story warrant a pass.  
Our valuation analysis suggests that the IPO price range fairly values Soulgate for its forecasted growth. Overall, as we remain unconvinced that Soulgate's growth at all costs strategy will generate shareholder value, we are inclined to give this IPO a pass. 


Soulgate

Soulgate IPO: Valuation Insights