Monday morning links
Monday morning links
Chinese housing, Malaysian furniture and home improvement, EV batteries and Xiaomi
My write-up on China’s housing market proved controversial. Bulls argue that the government won’t let the housing market fail. Bears point to China’s household debt burden and excessive construction activity.
It does look like the Chinese credit cycle is turning but whether we’ll see a full-blown up-cycle for housing is still unclear.
The write-up on Malaysian micro-cap furniture supplier Poh Huat is worth reading. Shareholder Pangolin Asia has been trying to convince the company to increase its dividend payout ratio and stop its non-core acquisitions.
Value Punks on Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi (1810 HK — US$53 billion)
Macro Ops on Malaysian home improvement store Mr DIY (MRDIY MK — US$5.3 billion)
Asianometry gives a short introduction to newly-listed battery maker LG Energy Solutions, which has a P/E of over 100x (373220 KS — US$103 billion)
Value Investing Substack on Malaysian furniture supplier Poh Huat (PHR MK — US$88 million)
(Largest new programs as % of the market cap; min market cap: US$50m)
Osaki Electric (4.9%) (6644 JP — US$205 million)
K’s Holdings (4.2%) (8282 JP — US$2.4 billion)
CMIC Holdings (3.3%) (2309 JP — US$255 million)
Howa Machinery (3.2%) (6203 JP — US$90 million)
Askul (2.9%) (2678 JP — US$1.5 billion)
(Largest over past 7 days; min market cap: US$50m)
Duksan Techopia: US$0.7 million (317330 KS — US$472 million)
GNA Axles: US$0.2 million (GNA IN — US$160 million)
Kitex Garments: US$0.2 million (KTG IN — US$243 million)
Pharmicell: US$0.1 million (005690 KS — US$588 million)
Unick Corporation: US$0.1 million (011320 KS — US$88 million)
(estimated reading time) ($ = behind paywall)
I wrote an article about the potential of a turnaround in China’s property market, which has been in a slump for six months in a row (18 mins) ($)
Calamos Investments on the opportunity in Japanese equities (6 mins)
Seth Klarman’s Baupost’s 2021 annual letter (25 pages)
I enjoyed Yet Another Value Blog’s deep-dive on the cable industry: part 1, part 2 and part 3 (39 mins)
Pivotal Substack: The economics of data businesses (18 mins)
An excellent overview of China’s political system and economy from IMF (click “Free download”) (83 pages)
Erin Cook: Myanmar’s coup, one year on (7 mins)
(listening time)
George Soros commentary on China and Xi Jinping (24 mins)
Jon Y from Asianometry gives a deep-dive on Taiwanese semiconductor foundry TSMC (46 mins)
7investing discusses South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang (50 mins)
Mohnish Pabrai with a value investing masterclass with students from Singapore’s NUS (53 mins)
Amy Jo Kim explains how the best social games are constructed (1:06 hours)
Rebecca Patterson from Bridgewater on macro investing (1:27 hours)
Alex Turnbull on how China’s coal use is changing (48 mins)
Nikkei’s Asia Stream podcast on the civil war in Myanmar (33 mins)
Panel with Richard McGregor & Chris Buckley on the risk of war in the Asia-Pacific (1:14 hours)
Leland Miller on the potential for a new credit cycle in China in 2022 (49 mins)
Mike Green interviews Louis Gave on China’s political and economic climate (1:25 hours)
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