Monday morning links
Philippines 12% VAT for online purchases: Wickhams Hill published another excellent report with ASEAN stock ideas. I am intrigued by the new digital services tax in the Philippines, which will impose VAT on online purchases. It might shift retail consumption back to offline retail.
ASEAN travel restrictions eased further: Bali announced it would open up to foreign tourists this week. Malaysia opens up interstate travel today. Singapore will open up quarantine-free travel with 12 more countries, including the US and the UK. Listed airports and airport services companies will benefit, as will other businesses dependent on tourism spending.
Japan’s capital gains tax: future prime minister Fumio Kishida retracted his previous statements that Japan would increase its capital gains tax. That initiative is off the table “for now”. Instead, he will focus on other ways to redistribute income.
China bans private media companies: Bloomberg reported that China proposes a ban on private companies operating media businesses. It’s hard to see how media platforms such as Weibo can remain private in this environment.
Company-specific reports
(estimated reading time) ($ = behind a paywall)
I wrote a deep-dive on an Indonesian sin stock (IDX: ? — more than US$1 billion) ($)
Punch Card Investor with a follow-up post on Sea Limited (NYSE: SE — US$179 billion), this time focusing on the company’s e-commerce segment
SemiAnalysis’s Dylan Patel on the IPO of GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ: GFS — expected market cap of ~US$20 billion)
Long-form writing
(estimated reading time)
I created a table of contents for Asian Century Stocks so that you can find past ideas more quickly (2 mins)
Twitter: Asian Century Stocks readers’ highest-conviction stock ideas (2 mins)
Twitter: funds worth tracking within the Asia-Pacific (1 min)
Twitter: a review of Herald van der Linde’s book “Asia’s Stock Markets from the Ground Up” (3 mins)
Richard Lawrence’s new book “The Model: 37 years of investing in Asian equities” is now available for pre-order (0 mins)
Claire Barnes’s Apollo Investment’s 3Q21 investor letter (3 mins)
Aswath Damodaran on India’s Paytm IPO (15 mins)
Olivier’s Emergingvalue blog with a review of David Webb’s portfolio (3 mins)
Variant Perception thinks that 2021 resembles the 1926/27 recession, which ultimately led to the 1929 blow-off top (1 min)
Jason Goepfert says that investors are in risk-off mode, which has historically been a bullish signal (1 min)
Think-tank CSIS writes that the Communist Party is increasing its power over nearly all areas of political and economic activity in China (full report: 3:05 hours, summary: 1 min)
Alex Turnbull on China’s energy crunch (4 mins)
McKinsey on how technology will transform the insurance industry (11 mins)
Michael Mauboussin on how to analyse cash flow statements (35 mins)
Podcasts and videos
(listening time)
Russell Napier on the knock-on effects of secular inflation (1:11 hours)
Soros Fund Management’s Dawn Fitzpatrick with a market outlook (20 mins)
Kyle Bass on Bridgewater’s connection with the Chinese government (7 mins)
Michael Mauboussin: Moats, skill, luck, decision making, etc. (1:25 hours)
Clocktower’s Marko Papic does not believe in Taiwan “reunification” (1:01 hours)
Shai Oster of “The Information” on China’s tech crackdown (55 mins)
Asia Matters Podcast: Explaining South Korea’s economic success (38 mins)
Japan Times podcast: “Who is [Japan’s new PM] Fumio Kishida?” (24 mins)
Tim Romero of Japan’s largest startup podcast “Disrupting Japan” (36 mins)
Todd Sullivan: the long term bull case for oil (45 mins)
Chart of the week – The price to ship a 40ft container from China to Los Angeles
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.