I’m struck by how attractive some Korean small-caps stocks are, including the Korean soy saucer producer Sempio Foods that I wrote about yesterday (P/E 8x). I have a pipeline of Korean ideas that I plan to dig deeper into in the coming months.

• I wrote about Korean soy sauce producer Sempio Foods (KOSE: 248170 — US$166 million)

• The Searching 4 Value blog on Japan Petroleum Exploration (TSE: 1662 — US$1.2 billion)

(Largest new programs as % of market cap; min market cap: US$50m)

1. Career Design Center (19%) (TSE: 2410 — US$69 million)

2. Kanematsu Engineering (14%) (TSE: 6402 — US$63 million)

3. Softbank (13%) (TSE: 9984 — US$103 billion)

4. Fujikura Composites (9%) (TSE: 5121 — US$180 million)

5. T&D Holdings (9%) (TSE: 8795 — US$7.4 billion)

(Largest over past 7 days; min market cap: US$50m)

1. Venture Corp: US$284 million (SGX: V03 — US$4.1 billion)

2. Aqua Corporation: US$6.2 million (SET: AQUA — US$103 million)

3. Sabuy Technology: US$5.0 million (SET: SABUY — US$444 million)

4. Metropolitan Land: US$4.0 million (IDX: MTLA — US$235 million)

5. Chin Hin Group: US$1.4 million (KLSE: CHIN — US$404 million)

(estimated reading time) ($ = behind a paywall)

• I disclosed my Asian equity portfolio in a November 2021 update (10 mins) ($)

• Ed Chancellor thinks China’s growth model resembles that of Japan (5 mins)

• Anne Stevenson-Yang provides her take on China’s new common prosperity program (5 mins)

• Financial Times: How China’s tech bosses cash out at the right time (5 mins)

• Semi-Literate: Five US-China chip stories (3 mins)

• Straits Times discussing Hong Kong’s plan to reopen its border with mainland China (4 mins)

(listening time)

• Victor Shih on Chinese Communist Party politics (52 mins)

• Kyle Bass discussing a range of topics, including Chinese politics (1:03 hours)

• BBC discussing the future of Chinese capitalism (49 mins)

• Shipping expert J Mintzmyer provides an introduction to the sector (42 mins)

• Fellow Substacker Kevin Muir discussing energy, China & inflation (1:11 hours)

• Author Jeevan Vasagar on Singapore’s past and future (39 mins)

Vietnam’s stock market turnover has risen 8x during the pandemic

Thanks for reading, and I wish you a great week ahead!

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