This Week in Asia #47

Coupang unexpectedly became the watchlist's strongest performer last week, driven by a lawsuit challenging its KRW 620 billion fine. A DFI Retail made a modest share purchase after the company's Starbucks deal. And Steve Eisman argued that the AI bubble will eventually pop.

Watchlist update

• Coupang had the strongest performance of any company in my watchlist. The trigger seems to be a 7 October 2026 lawsuit in which Coupang challenged the KRW 620 billion in fines that it paid for its data breach.
• Malaysian rubber glove maker Top Glove announced strong fourth-quarter net profit of MYR 158 million, up +353% year-on-year. The improvement was partly macro-driven, but also due to a better utilization rate (now 79%) and a tax write-back. The risk is that oil prices eventually come down, pressuring ASPs.
• Koshidaka's FY2026 revenues showed +16% growth in revenues but unfortunately, a continued decline in operating profit, now -5.5% year-on-year. FY2027 guidance points to +17% operating profit growth, but Koshidaka has disappointed in the past.
• Japanese SaaS stock Sansan reported first-quarter 2026 revenues rising +20% year-on-year, including invoice management service Bill One at +34% year-on-year. The operating profit margin hit 17%, with the stock now trading at 3.7x EV/Sales.
• We saw a modest insider buy in Jardine Matheson's DFI Retail. Food segment head Tom van der Lee purchased US$56,100 worth of shares, just a day after DFI announced it would exchange its 50% stake in Maxim's for direct ownership of Starbucks' licensed business across seven Asian markets (1,100+ stores), plus US$340 million in cash. DFI Retail trades at 11x trailing P/E, though the earnings include its share of Maxim's profits, so it doesn't describe the business after the deal.

Worth your time

• Platinum Asia Fund's Cameron Robertson was on the Equity Mates podcast a few days ago. Cameron said he's excited about SK Hynix, healthcare stocks in India, Mayora Indah in Indonesia, and Jollibee in the Philippines. Asked where he'd put his money, he replied "Indonesia", though emphasizing that the market is indeed higher risk than most.
• Fidelity Emerging Markets Limited's (FEML) Nick Price & Chris Tennant talked about their outlook for emerging markets. Based on the trust's biggest holdings, they seem to be all-in on the AI theme, which I suspect is just the tip of the iceberg for the broader fund management industry.
• Steve Eisman was on the New Money podcast discussing the ongoing "AI bubble". He argues that all the sector's spending comes down to demand from OpenAI/Anthropic. And both of them are burning cash like crazy. Eisman thinks that they lack moats: people switch between these tools at the click of a button. Hyperscalers have already used up their operating cash flows to pay for AI capex, and are now forced to rely on debt financing. He doesn't think it will end well.

Coupang

Yesterday, I published a deep-dive on Korean e-commerce operator Coupang.

Of all the e-commerce operators in Asia, Coupang seems most like Amazon.com. It has extensive logistics infrastructure, a strong focus on adding value to customers, and a Prime-like membership program called WOW. The stock has been pummeled by its 2025 cybersecurity scandal, which led Coupang to issue US$1.2 billion worth of customer vouchers and pay a US$410 million fine. The deep-dive also covers the risks, including competition from Shopee.

You can read the full post here:

A temporary glitch?

Deep-dive: Coupang (CPNG US)

Asian Century StocksMichael Fritzell