Links round-up
Asia investment-related write-ups, articles and podcasts
The one write-up that’s stood out to me this month is Alex Sweet’s post on Japanese grocery retailer Kobe Bussan. The company runs a discount supermarket chain called Gyomo Super, whose business model emphasizes private label products, a small number of SKUs, and minimal marketing to save on costs. Alex forecasts a 15% EPS CAGR in the next five years. Unfortunately, the stock trades trades at a P/E ratio of 35x on 2024e estimates. But it’s an exciting story that I’ll be following for many years.
I also want to draw attention to Samsonite, which received two separate write-ups from Alex Feng and Acid Investments. Samsonite is the world’s leading luggage brand, listed in Hong Kong and trading at a P/E ratio of 13x. There are rumours that Samsonite will be taken private. Rimowa and Tumi were acquired at 12-14x EBITDA, a premium to Samsonite’s 10x. Alex thinks Samsonite might seek a dual listing in the US. If you want an introduction to Samsonite, check out my 2022 deep-dive on the stock here ($).
I recommend the podcast episode with the UK’s Jonathan Ruffer. He thinks the world is deglobalizing, leading to elevated capex levels and structurally higher inflation. Jonathan is also bullish on the Japanese yen and can see it doubling against the US Dollar. Towards the end of the episode, Jonathan mentions that his favorite book is the 1963 edition of Sidney Homer’s A History of Interest Rates.
Investing in China on e-commerce firm Alibaba (🇨🇳 BABA US - US$181 billion)
Meditation Capital on Kazakh super-app Kaspi (🇰🇿 KSPI US - US$23 billion)
Sweet Stocks on grocery retailer Kobe Bussan (🇯🇵 3038 JP - US$5.3 billion)
Alex Feng and Acid Investments on Samsonite (🇭🇰 1910 HK - US$5.3 billion)
Dede Eyesan on confectionary firm Kotobuki Spirits (🇯🇵 2222 JP - US$2.0 billion)
Investment Moats Blog on Haw Par Corporation (🇸🇬 HPAR SP - US$1.6 billion)
Pyramids and Pagodas on TCL Electronics (🇭🇰 1070 HK - US$962 million)
One Foot Hurdle on noodle maker Nissin Foods (🇨🇳 1475 HK - US$651 million)
Apollo Asia Fund on clothing retailer Giordano (🇭🇰 709 HK - US$433 million)
Asian Century Stocks on Pentamaster Int’l (🇲🇾 1665 HK - US$236 million)
The Mikro Kap on Articore Group (🇦🇺 ATG AU - US$105 million)
Continuous Compounding on Okano Valve Mfgr (🇯🇵 3038 JP - US$41 million)
(estimated reading time)
Asian Century Stocks on Anne Stevenson-Yang’s book Wild Wide (16 mins)
Mobius Capital Partners on Korea’s “Value Up” initiative (4 mins)
Fallacy Alarm: Never hedge the most telegraphed risk (6 mins)
Andrew Walker on the ongoing bubble in US “quality” stocks (5 mins)
Made in Japan: A peek into Japanese roll-ups, Part 1 & Part 2 (22 mins)
Brad Setser on the end of the Bank of Japan’s yield curve control policy (11 mins)
Clark Square Capital: How to build a research system on a shoestring (4 mins)
(listening time)
Activist Seth Fisher at Oasis remains bullish on Japanese stocks (8 mins)
McKinsey’s Naoyuki Iwatani on Japan’s competitive advantages (33 mins)
Leland Miller thinks that China’s leaders don’t care about share prices (5 mins)
Leonid Mironov on how Chinese EVs are seemingly taking over the world (1 hour)
Financial Times on the rise of e-commerce sites Pinduoduo and Temu (25 mins)
Tribeca’s John Stover gives an overview of the Asian credit universe (5 mins)
Edward Chancellor discussing his capital cycle framework (45 mins)
Jonathan Tepper of Prevatt Capital on identifying quality businesses (52 mins)
Founders Podcast on The Lessons of History, Ray Dalio’s favorite book (53 mins)
Jonathan Ruffer on inflation, the Japanese yen, his career and more (1:08 hours)
Thank you for reading! 🙏
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