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).

The Week that Was in ASEAN@Smartkarma - Widodo Wins, Thailand Picks, and Indonesian Towers

Telecom Review (Sept'18): Regulatory Wranglings

Political Pit Stop (June): The Game of Thrones Ends...Sort Of

Political Pit Stop (May): Search for Solution

Political Pit Stop (April): An Election Gridlock

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).

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

A lot changes in six months. Thanks to Trump's renewed vigor on the trade wars, the Baht is strengthening against the dollar, and there is strong capital inflows into the Thai markets, even though the Thai economy remains weak relative to regional peers. Like the Fed, the Bank of Thailand will now be open to more rate cuts. In this investing climate, the three areas to focus on are:<ul>
<li>
Big cap repositories of capital inflows. Flows trump fundamentals. As long as it's a major big cap that's not negatively impacted by big macro trends mentioned earlier, we think this is where money will flow into during H2'19. In this category, we like CPALL, AIS, and Siam Cement. The elimination principle plays a big role in our selection.</li>
<li>
Strong Baht beneficiaries. A strong Baht hurts many companies (exporters, foreign operations, tourism), but firms with good track record for foreign acquisitions that have operations on both sides of the Pacific, such as MINT and Thai Union.</li>
<li>
Election beneficiaries. One reason foreign investors are willing to come back right now appears to be political stability. Two obvious beneficiaries of the elections are STEC and Sri Trang.</li>
</ul>

A lot changes in six months. Thanks to Trump's renewed vigor on the trade wars, the Baht is strengthening against the dollar, and there is strong capital inflows into the Thai markets, even though the Thai economy remains weak relative to regional peers. Like the Fed, the Bank of Thailand will now be open to more rate cuts. In this investing climate, the three areas to focus on are:

Big cap repositories of capital inflows. Flows trump fundamentals. As long as it's a major big cap that's not negatively impacted by big macro trends mentioned earlier, we think this is where money will flow into during H2'19. In this category, we like CPALL, AIS, and Siam Cement. The elimination principle plays a big role in our selection.

Strong Baht beneficiaries. A strong Baht hurts many companies (exporters, foreign operations, tourism), but firms with good track record for foreign acquisitions that have operations on both sides of the Pacific, such as MINT and Thai Union.

Election beneficiaries. One reason foreign investors are willing to come back right now appears to be political stability. Two obvious beneficiaries of the elections are STEC and Sri Trang.


Sino-Thai Engineering & Construction (STEC TB)

Thematic Picks for Mid-Year 2019