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

TOPIX Upweights: Big April Basket 2021 Pre-Event Is a WIN! Now the Event-Leg!

TOPIX April-End Rebalance - The OTHER Trades

Toshiba – Tsunakawa’s Reappointment as EO Is Probably the End for Kurumatani

TOPIX Index Upweights: The Big April Basket 2021

Toshiba Finally Gets Into TOPIX but Beware the Baku  (It's Complicated)

An MBO for Toshiba? Not As Silly As It Sounds

Gravity Works As WeWork Doesn't; Now Plan B

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

This morning in the Nikkei there is an <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-deals/Toshiba-receives-offer-from-CVC-to-go-private-in-20bn-deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> (English, Japanese is <a href="https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC06CLO0W1A400C2000000/?unlock=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>) headlined...<blockquote>Toshiba receives offer from CVC to go private in $20bn deal</blockquote>The accompanying article in Japanese including CEO Kurumatani-san's comments suggests that the board will meet today to discuss it. The initial response to the press was that it had received the initial proposal yesterday without any previous consultation, so the company would seek more information and consider the proposal carefully.It's early days. The headline number of ¥5,000/share is too low, by a fair bit, and there are a lot of hurdles (which are NOT shareholders wanting more) before this could go forward (allowing shareholders to want more).Exactly one year ago today, I wrote <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/an-mbo-for-toshiba-not-as-silly-as-it-sounds" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:38199" rel="noopener">An MBO for Toshiba? Not As Silly As It Sounds</a> after an article in an "investigative" magazine called FACTA (most famous for pre-commenting on the fraud on Olympus nearly a decade ago) put out an article "Toshiba: Kurumatani's Astonishing MBO Scheme: Will He Be Able to Expel Noisy Shareholders?" (東芝・車谷が「MBO」画策の仰天: 物言う株主「放逐」は叶うか).The article spent a lot of time talking about Kurumatani-san as a person, the insinuations that he hates shareholders, and about his desire to control his own fate - to "have his own castle" (by getting noisy activists out). The story suggested then that he saw his chance now (early April 2020) as the fall in the share price saw foreigners sell (that analysis was weak; I expect the activists were not the ones selling down hard in an illiquid market in the covid-crash, and I said as much). The article name-dropped PE funds and related parties (one fund, Integral, was led by a former SMBC colleague; and CVC - where Kurumatani-san spent a year as the Japan rep after leaving SMBC when he didn't get the nod for the top job - was mentioned as another), but I highlighted, <div>
<blockquote>The "astonishing scheme" about the MBO though is not to be ignored. It serves a LOT of purposes. </blockquote>
I stand by that conclusion, and it is worth thinking about how this might play out.
Much more below the fold.
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This morning in the Nikkei there is an article (English, Japanese is here) headlined...Toshiba receives offer from CVC to go private in $20bn dealThe accompanying article in Japanese including CEO Kurumatani-san's comments suggests that the board will meet today to discuss it. The initial response to the press was that it had received the initial proposal yesterday without any previous consultation, so the company would seek more information and consider the proposal carefully.It's early days. The headline number of ¥5,000/share is too low, by a fair bit, and there are a lot of hurdles (which are NOT shareholders wanting more) before this could go forward (allowing shareholders to want more).Exactly one year ago today, I wrote An MBO for Toshiba? Not As Silly As It Sounds after an article in an "investigative" magazine called FACTA (most famous for pre-commenting on the fraud on Olympus nearly a decade ago) put out an article "Toshiba: Kurumatani's Astonishing MBO Scheme: Will He Be Able to Expel Noisy Shareholders?" (東芝・車谷が「MBO」画策の仰天: 物言う株主「放逐」は叶うか).The article spent a lot of time talking about Kurumatani-san as a person, the insinuations that he hates shareholders, and about his desire to control his own fate - to "have his own castle" (by getting noisy activists out). The story suggested then that he saw his chance now (early April 2020) as the fall in the share price saw foreigners sell (that analysis was weak; I expect the activists were not the ones selling down hard in an illiquid market in the covid-crash, and I said as much). The article name-dropped PE funds and related parties (one fund, Integral, was led by a former SMBC colleague; and CVC - where Kurumatani-san spent a year as the Japan rep after leaving SMBC when he didn't get the nod for the top job - was mentioned as another), but I highlighted, 
The "astonishing scheme" about the MBO though is not to be ignored. It serves a LOT of purposes. 
I stand by that conclusion, and it is worth thinking about how this might play out.
Much more below the fold.



Toshiba - The CEO Gets His MBO Bidder and Toshiba Will Get Interestinger

Toshiba Corp

Toshiba - The CEO Gets His MBO Bidder and Toshiba Will Get Interestinger