Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

Travis Lundy

HK Type 4 license through Ballingal Investment Advisors Ltd. ("BIA" or "BIAL")

BACKGROUND
I have 20+yrs experience in Asia doing alternative strategies (i.e. non-delta1 non long-only) in fixed income, equity derivatives, and activist/catalyst/event-driven and long-short equity strategies with most of that time spent managing money. 

4 years in fixed income macro, 8 years running internal hedge fund and 4yrs investment banking at Citi in Japan, 3 years running an Asia multi-strat portfolio at a hedge fund, 4+yrs as an independent special situations analyst.

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

SPH Lobang - Holders So Shiok, Bidders So Kiasu. This May Not Be The End.

SPH Update: Keppel, SPH REIT Chain Offer, and Cuscaden Strategy

Huat Ah! SPH Holders So Shiok, Keppel (So Kiasu!) Adds 20 Cents - Swee!

Singapore Press Own Time Own Target Restructuring Lor... (Come I Clap For You)

Alamak! SPH Restructuring Restructured as Keppel Bo Jios SPH Holders

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

On Friday 9 September, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/singapore-press-holdings-limited" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:9952:1" rel="noopener">Singapore Press Holdings (SPH SP)</a> shareholders voted to approve the Media Business Spinoff and the Proposed Restructuring which will allow SPH to spin off the various media assets and some supporting assets it has heretofore controlled into a new non-profit Company Limited by Guarantee.The idea is that the "lifting" of the restrictions of the Newspaper Printing and Presses Act (“NPPA”) would then provide SPH "with greater financial flexibility to tailor its capital and shareholding structure to unlock and maximise value for all shareholders."As discussed first in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/singapore-press-own-time-own-target-restructuring-lor-come-i-clap-for-you" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:51141" rel="noopener">Singapore Press Own Time Own Target Restructuring Lor... (Come I Clap For You)</a>, the upside did not seem huge. A few months later SPH decided that the rest of the business would be taken over by <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/keppel-corp-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:12:1" rel="noopener">Keppel Corp (KEP SP)</a> in return for a basket of cash, units of <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sph-reit" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:5994:1" rel="noopener">SPH REIT (SPHREIT SP)</a> and units in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/keppel-reit" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:192:1" rel="noopener">Keppel REIT (KREIT SP)</a>. This was discussed in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/alamak-sph-restructuring-restructured-as-keppel-bo-jios-sph-holders" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:55370" rel="noopener">Alamak! SPH Restructuring Restructured as Keppel Bo Jios SPH Holders</a>, and at that, the upside did not seem huge. The price jumped from a div-adjusted S$1.88/share before the Keppel news to S$1.92/unit to close some of the gap. The remaining spread is now quite small at a bit less than 10cts on a forward div-adjusted basis, or about 5%.<section class="figure"><figure class="editor-figure mceNonEditable"><img src="https://static-prod.smartkarma.com/images/media/000/229/249/original/Screenshot+2021-09-11+at+2.04.22+PM.png?1631340279" class="editor-image img-responsive" data-smartkarma-image-id="229249"></figure></section>From the day before the Keppel announcement until now, the value of the non-cash portion of the Consideration (i.e. the 0.596 units of KREIT and the 0.782 units of SPH REIT) have fallen 2.55% in value while the value of an equal weighted Peer Basket of REITs has fallen 2.45%. That tells you that despite the first-day drop in the value of SPH REIT and Keppel REIT resulting from market participants' expectation that hedging pressure on those two REITs would cause them to underperform the market, the underperformance has been minimal. I expect the high cost of borrow and relative illiquidity of S-REITs has limited the appeal of the arb to arbitrageurs.Now we wait for the EGM to approve the distribution of SPH REIT units and the Scheme Meeting to dispose of the SPH business in return for KREIT units and cash. That should happen in the October/November timeframe.In the meantime, we check progress of the arb, and what the value of the Consideration is compared to a comparable Peer Basket.

On Friday 9 September, Singapore Press Holdings (SPH SP) shareholders voted to approve the Media Business Spinoff and the Proposed Restructuring which will allow SPH to spin off the various media assets and some supporting assets it has heretofore controlled into a new non-profit Company Limited by Guarantee.The idea is that the "lifting" of the restrictions of the Newspaper Printing and Presses Act (“NPPA”) would then provide SPH "with greater financial flexibility to tailor its capital and shareholding structure to unlock and maximise value for all shareholders."As discussed first in Singapore Press Own Time Own Target Restructuring Lor... (Come I Clap For You), the upside did not seem huge. A few months later SPH decided that the rest of the business would be taken over by Keppel Corp (KEP SP) in return for a basket of cash, units of SPH REIT (SPHREIT SP) and units in Keppel REIT (KREIT SP). This was discussed in Alamak! SPH Restructuring Restructured as Keppel Bo Jios SPH Holders, and at that, the upside did not seem huge. The price jumped from a div-adjusted S$1.88/share before the Keppel news to S$1.92/unit to close some of the gap. The remaining spread is now quite small at a bit less than 10cts on a forward div-adjusted basis, or about 5%.From the day before the Keppel announcement until now, the value of the non-cash portion of the Consideration (i.e. the 0.596 units of KREIT and the 0.782 units of SPH REIT) have fallen 2.55% in value while the value of an equal weighted Peer Basket of REITs has fallen 2.45%. That tells you that despite the first-day drop in the value of SPH REIT and Keppel REIT resulting from market participants' expectation that hedging pressure on those two REITs would cause them to underperform the market, the underperformance has been minimal. I expect the high cost of borrow and relative illiquidity of S-REITs has limited the appeal of the arb to arbitrageurs.Now we wait for the EGM to approve the distribution of SPH REIT units and the Scheme Meeting to dispose of the SPH business in return for KREIT units and cash. That should happen in the October/November timeframe.In the meantime, we check progress of the arb, and what the value of the Consideration is compared to a comparable Peer Basket.

Capitaland Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT SP)

Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MCT SP)

SPH Shareholders Approve Spinoff - There's Still a Spread To Earn