Monday morning links
China's COVID-19 testing infrastructure, Kyushu Railway, Oriental Watch, May portfolio update
Bloomberg reported that China is building a network of tens of thousands of COVID-19 testing booths across the country. These booths will be no further away than 15 minutes from each person’s home, with tests as frequent as every 48 hours. Since it will take time to get the network up and running, it appears that China’s zero-COVID policy will stay in place for now.
Over the past week, I wrote a report on the Japanese railway operator and COVID-19 recovery bet Kyushu Railway and an update about my personal Asia-focused portfolio, linked to in the sections below.
($ = behind a paywall)
I wrote a report on Japanese railway operator and real estate developer Kyushu Railway (9142 JP — US$3.2 billion) ($)
A short note from the Searching 4 Value blog on Oriental Watch and the recent weakness in Rolex prices (398 HK — US$264 million)
(estimated reading time) ($ = behind a paywall)
I wrote a May 2022 update on my own personal portfolio (19 mins) ($)
Joachim Klement: activists should not target companies with overconfident management teams (2 mins)
Jay Newman sees a coming wave of EM sovereign bond defaults (4 mins)
Turtles Substack on how industry consolidation can bring up ROIC (11 mins)
Arjun Murti on ROCE regimes by decade for energy stocks (11 mins)
GS Commodities Research: The battery metal bull market is over (18 pages)
Variant Perception on using diffusion indicators (1 min)
The yield dive blog: What is going in Chinese real estate? (2 mins)
On Jiaolong, a city in China that’s run by a private corporation (15 mins)
Andrew Batson on the CCP’s “two strong hands” strategy: eliminating all threats to party control while supporting private firms that deliver growth (5 mins)
(listening time)
George Soros: “Civilization may not survive Putin’s war” (27 mins)
John Hempton on Ukraine, supply chains, green tech, etc. (47 mins)
Cliff Asness is bullish value stocks (57 mins)
Daniel Chung of Alger on his investment approach (1:35 hours)
Ronnie Stoeferle makes a case for buying gold (1:14 hours)
Josh Young: energy stocks remain undervalued (1:29 hours)
(Highest market cap for announced buybacks last week; min market cap: US$200m)
AIA Group (1299 HK — US$123 billion)
OCBC (OCBC SP — US$39 billion)
SingTel (ST SP — US$31 billion)
China Vanke (2202 HK — US$30 billion)
CK Asset (1113 HK — US$25 billion)
(Highest market cap for stocks with insider buys <7 days; min market cap: US$200m)
Shinhan Financial: US$8.3k (055550 KS — US$17.4 billion)
Vietnam International: US$1.0 million (VIB VN — US$2.4 billion)
AKR Corporindo: US$94.1k (AJRA UH — US$1.5 billion)
Yinson Holdings: US$1.3 million (YNS MK — US$1.2 billion)
Manila Water: US$17.6k (MWC PM — US$949 million)
Thank you for reading!
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Disclaimer: Asian Century Stocks uses information sources believed to be reliable, but their accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The information contained in this publication is not intended to constitute individual investment advice and is not designed to meet your personal financial situation. The opinions expressed in such publications are those of the publisher and are subject to change without notice. You are advised to discuss your investment options with your financial advisers, including whether any investment is suitable for your specific needs. From time to time, I may have positions in the securities covered in the articles on this website.