Vaccine availability improving: Bill Gates commented that while vaccine availability in emerging markets was low in the first half of 2021, the situation is now improving.
Indonesian recovery: Indonesia reported the lowest new COVID-19 cases in over a year.
Thailand re-opening delayed: Thailand’s government announced that the re-opening of five major tourist destinations will be delayed one month until 1 November.
Chinese import substitution: Two industry associations issued reports suggesting that the Chinese government is looking to replace imports with domestic goods. That could be a threat to foreign companies selling to China.
Company-specific reports
Wickhams Hill on taxi and public transport operator ComfortDelGro (SGX: C52 — US$2.5 billion)
New Vila Equity Research on Cambodian casino operator NagaCorp’s 7.95 bonds due 2024 (ISIN: XS2197693265; par value: US$451 million)
The searching 4 value blog with quick thoughts on Oriental Watch (SEHK: 398 — US$204 million)
nipponNuggets on high-flying Japanese no-code platform Yappli (TSE: 4168 — US$468 million)
Swan Street Research wrote a bearish report on Chinese “hologram company” WiMi (NASDAQ: WIMI — US$379 million) (h/t: The Bear Cave)
Long-form writing
(estimated reading time)
I wrote an essay about Marc Faber’s life and career (20 mins)
GlobalStockPicking blog with an update of his value-oriented portfolio (8 mins)
Daniel Tabbush discussing how Japanese banks might offer high earnings growth coming out of the pandemic, given already-low ROAs (2 mins)
Technical analyst Jason Geopfert: the selling in Hong Kong nears panic proportions, indicating a bottom (2 mins)
Michael Pettis: What does Evergrande meltdown mean for China? (14 mins)
Anne Stevenson-Yang: Will the wind-up of Evergrande ultimately lead to government ownership of housing? (5 mins)
Aaron Pek going through China Evergrande’s accounting (18 mins)
Kalani Scarrott on the Asian dairy industry (10 mins)
Bireme Capital’s third part in its series on what it perceives to be a bubble in speculative growth stocks (34 mins) (Part 1, Part 2)
In its 3Q21 quarterly review, BIS warns of a bubble in green tech. Summary (3 mins) and entire report (1:26 hours)
James Montier’s 2nd article on what to do in an inflationary climate (19 mins)
Podcasts and videos
(listening time)
Jeff Gundlach on how inflationary pressures are building (51 mins)
Wall Street Journal’s Lingling Wei discusses how Xi Jinping is rewriting the rules for the Chinese economy (20 mins)
Travis Lundy explains the China Evergrande situation (56 mins)
Richard McGregor speaks to Red Roulette author Desmond Shum (31 mins)
SCMP’s Josh Ye on Tencent’s efforts to comply with new regulation (28 mins)
HK-based value investor Graham Rhodes on video game stocks (48 mins)
Professor Yoichiro Sato discusses who might replace Japan’s prime minister Yoshihide Suga (32 mins)
Chart of the week – China’s central bank PBOC injecting large amounts of capital into the interbank market
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.