Monday morning links
Chinese tutoring stocks slumped after the state signalled they might turn into non-profit entities. China’s government ministry MIIT launched a six-month "special campaign" to regulate its internet sector.
The Delta variant has spread to 26 cities in China. Beijing has stopped entry into the city to stop new COVID cases.
China has stopped issuing passports and travel documents unless for “essential or emergent reasons”.
Evergrande suffered a credit rating downgrade and a pulled dividend pay-out, renewing fears of a bankruptcy of the world’s most indebted company.
Singapore intends to relax the pandemic restrictions once the vaccination rate reaches 80% (1st dose currently: 75%), including quarantine-free travel.
BIS and the Monetary Authority of Singapore are planning to launch an instant cross-border payments scheme.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore lifted bank dividend restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
IPO activity: India’s Zomato started trading on 23 July, Korea’s Krafton confirmed its pricing range, Kakao Bank priced at the top of its indicated range, China Telecom received approval for an A-share listing, and Ant Group is now restarting its IPO process as well.
Company-specific reports
The ValueTeddy Substack makes the case that Chinese tech company Sohu is worth buying in anticipation of the privatisation of its key holding Sogou (NASDAQ: SOHU — US$781 million)
Wolfpack Research issued a short idea report for the Chinese online advertising company Moxian (NASDAQ: MOXC — US$345 million)
Long-form writing
I wrote a summary of Claire Barnes’s book Asia’s investment prophets (estimated reading time 43 mins)
I interviewed Asia bank analyst Daniel Tabbush (7 mins)
Wickhams Hill’s “Under-the-Radar” report dated 31 July 2021 (31 mins)
Andrew Batson: China in the 2020s is not France in the 1960s (4 mins)
Harvard’s Tony Saich: Rethinking the CCP’s history (13 mins)
Anne Stevenson-Yang on the future of the VIE structure (5 mins)
Investor Amnesia had an interesting post on the interplay between pandemics and the resulting monetary policy response in history (12 mins)
Our friends at The Bear Cave published a list of the top 100 Finance Twitter accounts to follow (5 mins)
Jason Goepfert with a word of warning about emerging market stocks (1 min)
Podcasts and videos
Carson Block provides his view on China’s crackdown on tech (25 mins)
Leland Miller of China Beige Book on the regulatory crackdown (9 mins)
Kendra Schaefer on Didi and China’s regulatory ambitions (1:06 hours)
Another interview with Russell Napier on the Asian Financial Crisis (34 mins)
Vivek Viswanathan on investing in Chinese A-shares (48 mins)
Andy Ho of VinaCapital’s “Vietnam Opportunity Fund” on Vietnam (40 mins)
Chart of the week – Internet stocks as % of MSCI China down to 41% from 49% in October 2020
Picture of the week - Orchard road in Singapore’s shopping district last Saturday night
Thanks for reading, and I wish you a great week ahead!
Sign up for over 20 deep-dive reports on Asian stocks per year and full disclosure of my personal portfolio.