Emerging Market Links + The Week Ahead (June 12, 2023)

More pension funds recoil from China, Taiwan dual-listings spreads, remembering previous bubbles or miracles (Taiwan, Brazil, Japan, etc), Turkey + Korean stocks & the week ahead for emerging markets.

Netherlands based APG, one of the world’s largest asset managers, has said its pension fund clients were shying away from China in a growing pullback by investors alarmed at rising geopolitical risks. Plus we have other articles discussing how history has shown us that economic “miracles” end in excesses of debt and speculation followed by long periods of stagnation (e.g. "The Brazilian Miracle" and Japan’s “Economic Miracle” are both distant memories and China’s may soon join them) plus remembering the Taiwan stock bubble as the AI one starts to inflate.

If you are looking at moving money out of China or for a good alternative, check out our Mirae Asset Securities' Korean Stock Picks (May 2023) piece as Korea offers many interesting and idiocentric stock picks and Mirae’s equity research is published in English (as it can still be hard to find Korean stock research and info in English).

Finally, the news aggregator style theme I have been using for my website breaks my website after the latest necessary PHP and Wordpress updates and I have not gotten a response from it’s creator (who also stopped updating it some years ago). Thus, I don’t know what or how much coding needs to be done to fix the theme (IF someone knows a reputable website techie, maybe on Upwork, tell me in a comment).

I do NOT see any other Wordpress themes that come close to what I was using or offers a nice clean website with internal or external links (and an option to not have too many graphics) like the Drudge Report, Real Clear sites, or Citizen Free Press have (and thus can be quickly scanned by readers):

If I can’t get the theme fixed to work with the latest tech updates (note that it did not severely impact my ADR, ETF or Closed-end fund list pages or tables - beyond appearing to also break the RSS feeds of relevant posts at the end of them…), I will need to temporarily create a static front page (which might take some time…) that has all the links to EM resources that used to be on my front page.

And then figure out what to do… Having and maintaining a website is a pain, but its also risky to solely rely on third party big tech sites like Substack who can arbitrarily decide to de-platform you or go out of business…

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Emerging Market Stock Pick Tear Sheets

$ = behind a paywall

• CATL (SHE: 300750): World's Largest EV Battery Maker Who Elon Musk Recently Met With

• SK Innovation (KRX: 096770): Raises More Funds and is Making Georgia Battery Plant Productivity Gains $

• LG Energy Solution (KRX: 373220): World's Biggest Non-Chinese EV Battery Stock $

• LG Chem (KRX: 051910): Owns Battery Stock LG Energy Solution (And Might Be the Better Stock to Own) $

• Mirae Asset Securities' Korean Stock Picks (May 2023) Partially $

  • Includes: HMM, PI Advanced Materials, Chong Kun Dang Holdings, SK Hynix, i-SENS, SOCAR, Hanon Systems, Ray, Seegene, NCsoft, KEPCO, KT, LG Uplus, InBody, Vatech, Nexon Games, Pan Ocean, Lotte Chemical, Wemade, Krafton, Classys, Dentium, SK Telecom, Contentree JoongAng, NAVER, SK Innovation, Kakao, CJ Logistics, Vieworks, Studio Dragon, Kakao Games, Korean Air, Kumho Petrochemical, ST Pharm & LX International

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Emerging Market Stock Picks / Stock Research

$ = behind a paywall

Alibaba Health Information Technology (241.HK) FY2023 - A Slowdown in Future Growth Seems Inevitable (Smart Karma) $

• Against a backdrop of slowing revenue/active users growth, a return to profit in FY2023, while welcome, is shaky.

• We think Alibaba Health's growth would continue to slow down in the future.

• The low gross profit and strong regulatory characteristics of drug sales indicate that Alibaba Health Information Technology (HKG: 0241 / FRA: TWYA / TWY / OTCMKTS: ALBHF / ALBBY) is difficult to replicate the scale effect brought by traditional internet platforms. 

• The current business model and revenue structure have already made Alibaba Health lack imagination space.

• From a comprehensive perspective, its valuation should be lower than JD Health but higher than PAGD.

Temu now tops charts across Europe, North America and ANZ (Momentum Works)

Website: Temu… Also see: Inside Temu: the fiery culture and a perpetual efficiency machine (Momentum Works)

• Temu has taken the global ecommerce market by storm. Many of you might already know that Temu was reaching US$ 400 million of monthly sales in the United States in April, barely 8 months since its launch in September 2022.

• Its parent, Pinduoduo [PDD Holdings] (NASDAQ: PDD)’s, is profitable with its Pinduoduo platform in China. In FY2022, PDD Holdings generated a free cash flow of US$ 7 billion; whilst in Q1 2023, when Temu was already in full swing, PDD Holdings still generated a net income of US$ 1.2 billion.

• A few of these markets saw [Sea Limited (NYSE: SE)] Shopee’s entry in 2021 – France, Mexico, Poland, and Spain. The Singapore-based ecommerce platform has subsequently withdrawn from all these markets. 

China E-Commerce: Is Still a Dead Cat (Smart Karma) $

• Positive surprises in profitability during Q1 2023 failed to reverse the long-term decline of Chinese e-commerce, possibly due to market recognition of the temporary impact of cost-cutting and monetization efforts.

• In our opinion, robust growth in GMV is fundamentally essential to reverse the long-term downward trend of the Chinese e-commerce sector.

• Chinese e-commerce sector no longer discloses GMV, but Express delivery volume indicates a 20% decline in parcel volumes compared to 2021, potentially reflecting a decrease in GMV.

Beauty Farm Medical (BFM HK): Expectations Are Flying Too High; 1H23 Result Will Set the Path (Smart Karma) $

Beauty Farm Medical and Health Industry (HKG: 2373 / FRA: XC5) is the largest provider of traditional beauty services and the fourth largest non-surgical aesthetic medical service provider in China.

• Beauty Farm Medical and Health Industry reported decline in revenue and net profit in 2022, due to the implementation of nationwide pandemic prevention and control policies.

• The company is seeing recovery in 2023. During January–May, customer traffic and average transaction value achieved double-digit growth YoY, while customer spending increased 20%+ YoY.

• In 2023, revenue and EPS are expected to grow 34% and 106%, YoY, respectively. The preliminary business operation overview seems to fall short of the expectations.

Oriental Watch (398 HK) (Oriental Value Substack)

Also see: Oriental Watch: HK Sales Recovery Continues for Q1 2023,14% Dividend Yield, >50% of Mkt Cap in Cash (Smartkarma) $

• Oriental Watch (HKG: 0398) is a prominent luxury watch retailer in the Greater China region. While the company offers various brands, the majority of its sales, over 80%, come from its core brands, particularly Rolex and Tudor, a sister brand of Rolex. Over the past two years, Oriental Watch has benefited greatly from the strong popularity of Rolex watches and has rewarded its shareholders with a dividend payout of over 100%.

• Currently, the company still trades at a high dividend yield and occasionally at a discount to its book value (which mostly consists of cash, inventories, and retail real estates it owns, which likely have a value higher than that on the book). We anticipate that Oriental Watch will deliver a satisfactory performance for FY 22/23, with a slight decrease in revenue and net profit compared to its peak performance in FY 21/22. Our projected 3-year IRR, including the upcoming dividend to be announced on 20th June, is 6.9% based on the last price of HKD 4.64 (assuming an exit dividend yield of 12%). Some may expect Oriental Watch to benefit from the Hong Kong-China reopening theme. However, we believe that the actual benefit from reopening might be less significant than anticipated.

Undamaged Goods (ZeroTV)

Note: Covered as a fund holding in our April 25th post. Also see: Jehoshaphat Research is Short Techtronic Industries Ltd. (669 HK) and Techtronic rejects short-seller’s report as stock rebounds from US$4 billion sell-off in Hong Kong.

• “JR” of Jehoshaphat Research is back to present a completely different short thesis on Techtronic (HKG: 0669 / FRA: TIB1 / OTCMKTS: TTNDY / OTCMKTS: TTNDF). Based on subsequent interviews and extensive boots-on-the-ground research, JR believes that Techtronic is systematically defrauding The Home Depot (NYSE: HD), its largest customer. At the heart of its thesis, Jehoshaphat Research has found a pattern of mislabeling products that allows the company to take advantage of a loophole in its exclusivity agreement with Home Depot.

Mapping Asia's casino industry (Asian Century Stocks)

Note: Many good graphics, charts, tables or maps. The most relevant tables:

Taiwan Dual-Listings: TSMC Spread Opens Again for Opportunity; Others Have Swung Substantially (Smart Karma) $

Note: Yahoo! Finance charts section allows you to compare the performance of the two stock tickers.

• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) (NYSE: TSM / TPE: 2330) is back to an 11.8% ADR premium after dropping to 8%... potentially another good Long/Short point.

• United Microelectronics Corp (NYSE: UMC / TPE: 2303) has flipped to a -0.6% ADR discount, from a 5.6% Premium. If the discount ticks slightly more negative then a good setup level will open up.

• [ASE Technology Holding] ASE (NYSE: ASX / TPE: 3711), ChipMOS (NASDAQ: IMOS / TPE: 8150), and [Chunghwa Telecom] CHT (NYSE: CHT / TPE: 2412) spreads have also experienced significant swings since our last dual-listings piece.

Breeley Capital: Thursday Think Tank (Breeley Capital: Thursday Think Tank)

• The ideal business is one that can not just sustain, but strengthen over time through any conditions or environment. Enter PT Multi Bintang Indonesia (Bintang) (IDX: MLBI), a near-centenarian beer company based out of Indonesia. A staple of Indonesian culture, Bintang is nearly 90% controlled by Heineken, a family-run global beer company, allowing it to take a long-term mindset that has led to a truly dominant market position. Because of the large devout Muslim population in Indonesia, the company largely relies on tourism to generate revenue, providing an opportunity to buy a unique, enduring asset at a discount to its normal earnings power.

Turkey investor trip – what we learned (Undervalued Shares)

Note: They visited MLP Care / MLP Saglik Hizmetleri AS (IST: MPARK), Turkey's largest private hospital group; Akbank (IST: AKBNK / FRA: AKB2 / OTCMKTS: AKBTY), one of Turkey's largest banks; & TOFAŞ Turk Otomobil Fabrikasi AS (IST: TOASO), automobile manufacturer;

The post covers in detail or mentions Turkish Airlines or Türk Hava Yolları (IST: THYAO), Mavi Giyim Sanayi Ve Ticaret (IST: MAVI), ÜNLÜ & Co. (IST: UNLU), Koç Holding (IST: KCHOL / OTCMKTS: KHOLY), Coca-Cola İçecek A.Ş. (IST: CCOLA), Migros Ticaret (IST: MGROS), Haci Omer Sabanci Holding AS (IST: SAHOL) & Enerjisa Enerji (IST: ENJSA).

• For once, Turkish stocks are very difficult to access. With the exception of some foreign-listed Turkish stocks, investors need to open a local brokerage account, which makes it difficult but also potentially interesting. Once it becomes easier to trade Turkish stocks – which it will at some point, e.g. thanks to trading apps such as Piapiri eventually opening to foreign users – the market could see additional investment flow into some of these names.

• Valuations are an issue, though. Some Turkish stocks are cheap, but are they cheap enough?

Orbia - LATAM Stocks Investment Analysis #16 (LATAM Stocks Substack)

• Orbia (BMV: ORBIA / FRA: 4FZ / OTCMKTS: MXCHY) is a diversified, vertically integrated, Mexican manufacturer. They are a global leader in PVC, Precision Agriculture, and Fluorspar production.

• Orbia has 5 distinct, but synergetic, business units and is significantly vertically integrated. The company is a market leader in all 5 of its business segments.

• It’s the 6^th largest general PVC producer in the world, the largest water management system provider in LATAM and Europe, the largest precision irrigation provider in the world, and is the largest fluorspar producer in the world, accounting for 20% of global production.

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Further Suggested Reading

$ = behind a paywall

Pension funds recoiling from China, says Dutch asset manager (FT)

• APG, one of the world’s largest asset managers, said its pension fund clients were shying away from China in a growing pullback by investors alarmed at rising geopolitical risks.

• Last week the FT reported that Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the C$400bn ($295bn) global investment group, had stopped making private deals in China and was closing its Shanghai office.

• Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC has slowed the pace of its direct investments in China, while Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan said in January that it had paused future direct investments in the country. 

Will China’s Economic “Miracle” End in Tears? (The Emerging Markets Investor)

Note: Also discusses "The Brazilian Miracle" and Japan’s “Economic Miracle” in detail. See his other Brazil articles, such as Brazil’s Grievous Manufacturing Collapse. Plus: A Factory Exodus Is Hollowing Out Brazil’s Industrial Heartland (WSJ) $ - More than a dozen major companies from Ford to Sony have recently shut operations in Latin America’s biggest economy

• However, history shows us that economic “miracles” end in excesses of debt and speculation, and are followed by long periods of stagnation.  The Brazilian and Japanese booms are distant memories, and these economies have struggled to work out the large imbalances built up during the good years.  China’s rise also came with massive debt accumulation and an enormous real estate bubble, and it too faces a difficult transition.

• At least, this is the view of the Beijing-based economist Michael Pettis, a Professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, and a keen observer of China’s developmental challenges. Pettis argues that China’s economic miracle peaked many years ago, and the drivers of growth – labor growth, investment, and exports – are now all severely constrained

L.E. Guest Post | The Great Taiwan Bubble (Lewis Enterprises Substack)

• If you have confidently navigated public markets over the past three years you can stop reading. For the remaining mortals, the recent market regime has offered no shortage of “What the hell is going on?” moments. I have returned again and again to this piece about the Taiwanese stock bubble of the late 1980s by The Magic Bakery this past year. Drawn largely from the book The Great Taiwan Bubble by Steve Champion, The Magic Bakery highlights the parallels that we saw during the 2020-2021 market run-up. As we enter a new period of potentially mimetic valuations ( NVDA -0.69%↓ currently trades at >180x earnings) it is worth recalling the underlying themes of the Taiwanese bubble: Subsidized trading, novel market structures and specious disclosure. 

Also see this video from last year:

• The financial bubble that gripped Taiwan in the 1980s is one of the wildest the world has ever seen. Stock prices went up more than 12x in less than four years, over a third of the Taiwanese population over the age of 15 were actively playing the stock market, and on peak days trading on the Taipei Stock Exchange exceeded the turnover of both the Tokyo and New York stock exchanges, combined!

• This is the story behind the boom and bust of Taiwan’s seldom discussed, yet spectacular stock market bubble.

Failures of an Economic Hitman in Turkey: Erdogan Re-elected (GOLD GOATS 'N GUNS)

Note: Interesting alt-media article that surprisingly appeared on Zero Hedge (run by “Tyler Durdin” who is apparently Bulgarian and usually runs negative Turkey stories):

• I’ve covered this story in detail (see my Turkey archives here) being one of the lone voices out there trying to parse Erdogan’s monetary policy actions which I’ve argued sought to de-dollarize Turkey’s foreign exchange liabilities and forge an independent path.

• Erdogan, wily as a fox, has been deftly playing the US and Russia/China off each other for years, positioning Turkey simultaneously as a member of NATO, the gatekeeper to the Black Sea, and the financial and trade crossroads linking East and West.

• All the while he will continue to invite Russian, Iranian and Chinese money into Turkey with the goal of lowering its dependence on foreign energy trades settled in the dollar.

Morgan Stanley Says $7 Trillion Needed To "Re-Wire" EV Battery Supply Chain In Multipolar World (Zero Hedge)

Note: From a few weeks ago…

• Morgan Stanley's global director of research Katy Huberty told clients in a note Tuesday that her global Autos research desk forecasts a complete "re-wiring" of the EV battery supply chain "through the lends of a multipolar world" will require $7 trillion in investment by 2040.

• Report note titled "Re-Wiring the EV Battery Supply Chain: Global Investment Implications."

Mapped: The State of Economic Freedom in 2023 (Visual Capitalist)

• The map above uses the annual Index of Economic Freedom from the Heritage Foundation to showcase the level of economic freedom in every country worldwide on a scale of 0-100, looking at factors like property rights, tax burdens, labor freedom, and so on.

Charts of the Week: Central bank balance sheets, retirees and the big three Aussie exports (Macrobond)

Note: Chat GPT forgot about the Taiwan stock and brief 3D printer bubbles.

• We’ve created a mini-AI index and charted it against investment crazes ranging from 1970s gold to 1990s Asian tiger economies, as represented by the Thai stock benchmark. We also included the FAANG, which defined the late 2010s. (With the Fed-driven bear market of 2022 in the rearview mirror, it seems this Big Tech trade is back on.)

• So far, there are few pure-play AI stocks; most of the hype has focused on Nvidia, a venerable chipmaker once associated with video-game graphics. It’s now seen as the dominant supplier of AI-related hardware and software. Microsoft, meanwhile, is integrating OpenAI into its Bing search tool. Both tech giants are in our nascent AI bubble index. We’ve also added Alphabet, Palantir and AMD.

• Many of the interesting pure-play AI companies, like Midjourney and Hugging Face, are still privately held. As they come to the market, Macrobond users can customise their own AI indexes accordingly.

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Earnings Calendar

Note: Investing.com has a full calendar for most global stock exchanges BUT you may need an Investing.com account, then hit “Filter,” and select the countries you wish to see company earnings from. Otherwise, purple (below) are upcoming earnings for US listed international stocks (Finviz.com):

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Economic Calendar

Click here for the full weekly calendar from Investing.com containing frontier and emerging market economic events or releases (my filter excludes USA, Canada, EU, Australia & NZ).

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Election Calendar

Frontier and emerging market highlights (from IFES’s Election Guide calendar):

• Kuwait Kuwaiti National Assembly Jun 6, 2023 (t) Confirmed Sep 29, 2022

• Greece Greek Parliament Jun 25, 2023 (t) Confirmed May 21, 2023

• Uzbekistan Uzbekistani Presidency Jul 9, 2023 (t) Confirmed Dec 31, 2021

• Cambodia Cambodian National Assembly Jul 23, 2023 (d) Confirmed Jul 29, 2018

• Argentina Argentinian Presidency Aug 13, 2023 (d) Confirmed Oct 22, 2023

• Zimbabwe Zimbabwean National Assembly Aug 23, 2023 (d) Confirmed Jul 30, 2018

• Zimbabwe Zimbabwean Presidency Aug 23, 2023 (d) Confirmed Jul 30, 2018

• Singapore Singaporean Presidency Sep 13, 2023 Date not confirmed Sep 23, 2017

• Slovakia Slovakian National Council Sep 30, 2023 (t) Confirmed Feb 29, 2020

• Pakistan Pakistani National Assembly Oct 1, 2023 (t) Date not confirmed Jul 25, 2018

• Argentina Argentinian Chamber of Deputies Oct 22, 2023 (d) Confirmed Oct 24, 2021

• Argentina Argentinian Senate Oct 22, 2023 (d) Confirmed Nov 14, 2021

• Argentina Argentinian Presidency Oct 22, 2023 (d) Confirmed Aug 13, 2023

• Ukraine Ukrainian Supreme Council Oct 29, 2023 (d) Confirmed Jul 21, 2019

• Poland Polish Sejm Oct 31, 2023 (t) Date not confirmed Oct 13, 2019

• Poland Polish Senate Oct 31, 2023 (t) Date not confirmed Oct 13, 2019

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Emerging Market IPO Calendar/Pipeline

Frontier and emerging market highlights from IPOScoop.com and Investing.com (NOTE: For the latter, you need to go to Filter and “Select All” countries to see IPOs on non-USA exchanges):

Cheetah Net Supply Chain Service Inc. CTNT, 2.0M Shares, $4.00-6.00, $10.0 mil, 6/12/2023 Week of

Cheetah Net Supply Chain Service Inc. imports luxury cars, including Mercedes and BMW, to China. (Incorporated in the Cayman Islands)  

We are a supplier of parallel-import vehicles sourced in the U.S. to be sold in the PRC market. In the PRC, parallel-import vehicles refer to those purchased by dealers directly from overseas markets and imported for sale through channels other than brand manufacturers’ official distribution systems. 

We purchase automobiles, primarily luxury brands such as Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Lexus, and Bentley, from the U.S. market and resell them to our customers, including both U.S. and PRC parallel-import car dealers. We derive profits primarily from the price difference between our buying and selling prices for parallel-import vehicles.

The primary driver for our industry is the continued growth of wealthy groups in China. The core of our business is the ability to identify the type of parallel-import vehicles that are in high demand and to procure them in a timely manner. Since our inception in 2016, our management has focused on building our procurement team. We procure our automobiles from U.S. automobile dealers via a network of independent contractors acting as purchasing agents on our behalf. As of Dec. 31, 2022, and 2021, we actively worked with 342 and 300 purchasing agents, respectively.

As of Dec. 2022, and 2021, we had an active customer base of 17 and eight dealers, respectively. Specifically, we had eight U.S. customers and nine PRC customers in 2022 and had four customers in each of the U.S. and the PRC in 2021. During the years ended Dec. 31, 2022, and 2021, we sold 434 and 167 parallel-import vehicles to Chinese parallel-import car dealers, respectively. During the same period, we sold 29 and 220 parallel-import vehicles to our U.S. domestic customers, respectively.

We sold 463 and 387 vehicles during the years ended Dec. 31, 2022, and 2021, respectively.

**Note: Net income and revenue are for the 12 months that ended Dec. 31, 2022.

(Note: Cheetah Net Supply Chain Service Inc. filed an S-1/A on April 28, 2023, in which it disclosed its IPO terms: 2.0 million shares at $4.00 to $6.00 to raise $10.0 million. Cheetah Net Supply Chain Service Inc. filed its S-1 on April 7, 2023.)

Maison Solutions MSS, 3.8M Shares, $4.00-4.00, $15.0 mil, 6/14/2023 Wednesday

Maison Solutions is a specialty Asian grocery retailer. (Incorporated in Delaware)

We are a fast-growing specialty grocery retailer offering traditional Asian food and merchandise to modern U.S. consumers, in particular to members of Asian-American communities. We are committed to providing Asian fresh produce, meat, seafood, and other daily necessities in a manner that caters to traditional Asian-American family values and cultural norms, while also accounting for the new and faster-paced lifestyle of younger generations and the diverse makeup of the communities in which we operate. To achieve this, we are developing a center-satellite stores network. 

Our merchandise includes fresh and unique produce, meats, seafood and other groceries which are staples of traditional Asian cuisine and which are not commonly found in mainstream supermarkets, including a variety of Asian vegetables and fruits such as Chinese broccoli, bitter melon, winter gourd, Shanghai baby bok choy, longan and lychee; a variety of live seafood such as shrimp, clams, lobster, geoduck, and Alaska king crab, and Chinese specialty products like soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, bean sprouts, Sriracha, tofu, noodles and dried fish. With an in-house logistics team and strong relationships with local and regional farms, we are capable of offering high-quality specialty perishables at competitive prices.

Our multi-pronged approach allows us to provide customers with multiple shopping channels, including integrated online and offline operations, according to Maison Solutions Inc.’s website.

“Customers can place orders on our mobile app “FreshDeal24,” or through our WeChat Applet “Good Luck to Home” for either home delivery or in-store pickup,” the company’s website says.

(Note: Maison Solutions Inc. filed an S-1/A dated June 2, 2023, in which it increased the size of its IPO – to 3.75 million shares – up from 3.0 million shares – and kept the assumed IPO price at $4.00 – to raise $15 million. Under the new terms, Maison Solutions will raise 25 percent more than the $12 million in estimated IPO proceeds  under its original terms. Background: Maison Solutions filed its S-1 on May 22, 2023, after submitting confidential IPO documents to the SEC on Dec. 23, 2022.)

AGIIPLUS INC.AGII, 4.5M Shares, $4.50-6.00, $23.6 mil, 6/19/2023 Week of

Note: AgiiPlus Inc., or AgiiPlus, is not an operating company but a Cayman Islands holding company with operations conducted by its subsidiaries, including subsidiaries in China. Investors in our securities are not purchasing equity interests in AgiiPlus’ operating entities in China but instead are purchasing equity interests in a Cayman Islands holding company. (Incorporated in the Cayman Islands)

AgiiPlus’ vision is to build the future of work and to connect businesses with technology, data, services, workspaces and more.

Through its subsidiaries, AgiiPlus is, according to the Frost & Sullivan Report, one of the fastest-growing work solutions providers with a one-stop solution capability in China and Singapore. By leveraging its proprietary technologies, AgiiPlus, through its subsidiaries, offers transformative integrated working solutions to its customers, including brokerage and enterprise services, customizable workspace renovations with smart building solutions, and high-quality flexible workspaces with plug-in software and on-demand services.

AgiiPlus has established an innovative business model called “S²aaS — Space & Software As A Solution,” which combines “Software As A Service”, or SaaS, and “Space As A Service.” This business model relies on proprietary technology, SaaS-based systems, and high-quality physical workspaces to provide customers with integrated work solutions for optimal work efficiency.

AgiiPlus, through its subsidiaries, has created an integrated platform connecting onsite workspaces and digital services through technology. Through its subsidiaries, AgiiPlus offers office leasing and enterprise services under the brand “Tangtang,” and, through its subsidiaries, AgiiPlus maintains the Distrii app, the proprietary official app for workspace members, offering AgiiPlus’ workspace members a seamless experience beyond physical spaces with easy access to enterprise services offered by AgiiPlus’ subsidiaries. As of Dec. 31, 2021, AgiiPlus’ subsidiaries had 35,771 enterprise customers and 322,252 digitally registered members.

Founded in 2016, AgiiPlus has established a network of workspaces in China and Singapore through its subsidiaries. Through Shanghai Distrii Technology Development Co., Ltd., a PRC subsidiary, AgiiPlus offers enterprise customers flexible and cost-effective space solutions in centrally located business districts in tier-one and new tier-one cities in China and Singapore. As of Dec. 31, 2021, through its subsidiaries, AgiiPlus maintained a network of 61 Distrii workspaces that covered seven different cities, namely Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, Jinan and Xiong’an in China, and Singapore, with a total managed area of about 256,291 square meters (approximately 2.8 million square feet) and approximately 41,455 workstations in total.

In addition, AgiiPlus’ asset-light model offers design, build, management and operating services to landlords who bear the costs in building and launching new spaces. This asset-light model allows AgiiPlus’ subsidiaries to economically expand and scale up while enabling landlords to turn their spaces into revenue-generating properties backed by professional services offered by AgiiPlus’ subsidiaries and AgiiPlus’ brand image. As of Dec. 31, 2021, through its subsidiaries, AgiiPlus had eight workspaces under the asset-light model, with a total managed area of about 22,947 square meters (approximately 247,000 square feet) and approximately 4,161 workstations available for members.

**Note: Revenue and net loss figures are in U.S. dollars (converted from China’s renminbi) for the year ended Dec. 31, 2022.

(Note: AgiiPlus Inc. cut the size of its IPO by 40 percent in an F-1/A filing dated March 22, 2023: The number  of Class A ordinary shares was cut to 4.5 million shares – down from 8.7 million shares previously – and the price range was increased to $4.50 to $6.00 – up from $4.00 to $5.00 – to raise $23.63 million. The new terms cut the IPO’s estimated proceeds by 40 percent from the initial estimate of $39.15 million under the original terms – 8.7 million shares at $4.00 to $5.00 – that were disclosed in an F-1/A filing dated Nov. 7, 2022. The F-1 was filed on Sept. 16, 2022; confidential filing was submitted on June 17, 2022.)

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Emerging Market ETF Launches

Climate change and ESG are clearly the latest flavours of the month for most new ETFs. Nevertheless, here are some new frontier and emerging market focused ETFs:

• 03/16/2023 - JPMorgan Active China ETF JCHI - Active, equity, China

• 03/03/2023 - First Trust Bloomberg Emerging Market Democracies ETF EMDM - Principles-based

• 1/31/2023 - Strive Emerging Markets Ex-China ETF STX - Passive, equity, emerging markets

• 1/20/2023 - Putnam PanAgora ESG Emerging Markets Equity ETF PPEM - Active, equity, ESG, emerging markets

• 1/12/2023 - KraneShares China Internet and Covered Call Strategy ETF KLIP - Active, equity, China, options overlay, thematic

• 1/11/2023 - Matthews Emerging Markets ex China Active ETF MEMX - Active, equity, emerging markets

• 12/13/2022 - GraniteShares 1.75x Long BABA Daily ETF BABX - Active, equity, leveraged, single stock

• 12/13/2022 - Virtus Stone Harbor Emerging Markets High Yield Bond ETF VEMY - Active, fixed income, junk bond, emerging markets

• 9/22/2022 - WisdomTree Emerging Markets ex-China Fund XC - Passive, equity, emerging markets

• 9/15/2022 - KraneShares S&P Pan Asia Dividend Aristocrats Index ETF KDIV - Passive, equity, Asia, dividend strategy

• 9/15/2022 - OneAscent Emerging Markets ETF OAEM - Active, Equity, emerging markets, ESG

• 9/9/2022 - Emerge EMPWR Sustainable Select Growth Equity ETF EMGC - Active, equity, emerging markets

• 9/9/2022 - Emerge EMPWR Unified Sustainable Equity ETF EMPW - Active, equity, emerging markets

• 9/8/2022 - Emerge EMPWR Sustainable Emerging Markets Equity ETF EMCH - Active, equity, emerging markets, ESG

• 7/14/2022 - Matthews China Active ETF MCH - Active, equity, China

• 7/14/2022 - Matthews Emerging Markets Equity Active ETF MEM - Active, equity, emerging markets

• 7/14/2022 - Matthews Asia Innovators Active ETF MINV - Active, equity, Asia

• 6/30/2022 - BondBloxx JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets 1-10 Year Bond ETF XEMD - Passive, fixed income, emerging markets

• 5/2/2022 - AXS Short CSI China Internet ETF SWEB - Active, inverse, thematic

• 4/27/2022 - Dimensional Emerging Markets High Profitability ETF DEHP - Active, equity, emerging markets

• 4/27/2022 - Dimensional Emerging Markets Core Equity 2 ETF DFEM - Active, equity, emerging markets

• 4/27/2022 - Dimensional Emerging Markets Value ETF DFEV - Active, equity, emerging markets

• 4/27/2022 - iShares Emergent Food and AgTech Multisector ETF IVEG - Passive, equity, thematic [Mostly developed markets]

• 4/21/2022 - FlexShares ESG & Climate Emerging Markets Core Index Fund FEEM - Passive, equity, ESG

• 4/6/2022 - India Internet & Ecommerce ETF INQQ - Passive, equity, thematic

• 2/17/2022 - VanEck Digital India ETF DGIN - Passive, India market, thematic

• 2/17/2022 - Goldman Sachs Access Emerging Markets USD Bond ETF GEMD - Passive, fixed income, emerging markets

• 1/27/2022 - iShares MSCI China Multisector Tech ETF TCHI - Passive, China, technology

• 1/11/2022 - Simplify Emerging Markets PLUS Downside Convexity ETF EMGD - Active, equity, options strategy

• 1/11/2022 - SPDR Bloomberg SASB Emerging Markets ESG Select ETF REMG - Passive, equity, ESG

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Emerging Market ETF Closures/Liquidations

Frontier and emerging market highlights:

• 06/23/2023 - Invesco PureBeta FTSE Emerging Markets ETF - PBEE

• 3/30/2023 - Invesco BLDRS Emerging Markets 50 ADR Index Fund - ADRE

• 3/30/2023 - Invesco BulletShares 2023 USD Emerging Markets Debt ETF - BSCE

• 3/30/2023 - Invesco BulletShares 2024 USD Emerging Markets Debt ETF - BSDE

• 3/30/2023 - Invesco RAFI Strategic Emerging Markets ETF - ISEM

• 2/17/2023 - Direxion Daily CSI 300 China A Share Bear 1X Shares - CHAD

• 1/13/2023 - First Trust Chindia ETF - FNI

• 12/28/2022 - Franklin FTSE Russia ETF - FLRU

• 12/22/2022 - VictoryShares Emerging Market High Div Volatility Wtd ETF CEY

• 8/22/2022 - iShares MSCI Argentina and Global Exposure ETF AGT

• 8/22/2022 - iShares MSCI Colombia ETFI COL

• 6/10/2022 - Infusive Compounding Global Equities ETF JOYY

• 5/3/2022 - ProShares Short Term USD Emerging Markets Bond ETF EMSH

• 4/7/2022 - DeltaShares S&P EM 100 & Managed Risk ETF DMRE

• 3/11/2022 - Direxion Daily Russia Bull 2X Shares RUSL

• 1/27/2022 - Legg Mason Global Infrastructure ETF INFR

• 1/14/2022 - Direxion Daily Latin America Bull 2X Shares LBJ

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Check out our emerging market ETF lists, ADR lists (updated) and closed-end fund (updated) lists (also see our site map + list update status as some ETF lists are still being updated as of Summer 2022).

I have changed the front page of www.emergingmarketskeptic.com to mainly consist of links to other emerging market newspapers, investment firms, newsletters, blogs, podcasts and other helpful emerging market investing resources. The top menu includes links to other resources as well as a link to a general EM investing tips / advice feed e.g. links to specific and useful articles for EM investors.

Disclaimer. The information and views contained on this website and newsletter is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice and/or a recommendation. Your use of any content is entirely at your own risk and it is your sole responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of the content. Seek a duly licensed professional for any investment advice. I may have positions in the investments covered. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any investment mentioned.

Emerging Market Links + The Week Ahead (June 12, 2023) was also published on our website under the Newsletter category.

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