Japan’s mobile sector accelerated again in Q4 and we think is heading to above inflation. With both KDDI and DCM recently announcing price increases the environment is increasingly benign and should be helped by NTT’s recent acquisition of SBI Sumishin Net Bank. Our recent trip to Japan highlighted how positive the environment is; NTT stays our preferred pick, with KDDI closely behind.
In our latest Asia Monthly, we discuss the performance of major Asian credit indices and review UST curve movements in May 2025. We also provide a recap of major news and macroeconomic releases, including those from the US, China, India, Indonesia and Japan. In addition, we summarise the top/bottom performers, recent USD bond issuances and rating actions in Asian corporate credit, as well as a list of our recent research. The Asia Monthly publication serves to keep investors updated on devel...
We met with all 3 of the incumbent Japanese Telcos & Rakuten in Tokyo last week, as well as visiting Osaka to talk to NTT in more depth about IOWN. Overall, we remain bullish on Japanese telcos operationally and buyers of all three incumbents. NTT remains our top pick followed by KDDI.
Profits disappointed despite revenue being 1% ahead of expectations, partly driven by one-off non cash hedging costs. Mobile remains weak as sequential improvement in MNO revenue slowed materially, as net adds slowed and ARPU fell sequentially
KDDI reported a better top-line, and generous shareholder remuneration. However, guidance is largely in line and leaves us wondering what happens after the company hits it in March ’26. Within this space, NTT remains our preferred pick on potential upside catalysts (IOWN revenue optionality, NTT Data and Fixed line rebound) while KDDI remains a close second with a ¥3,150 price target.
Softbank Corp delivered a decent EBITDA and EBIT beat in Q4 led by steady topline growth and cost reductions. Mobile service revenue was very strong and accelerated in Q4, supported by net additions whilst mobile ARPU was relatively stable. Despite FY25 guidance being revised higher, it was still 4-5% below expectations at the EBIT and earnings line.
In our latest Asia Monthly, we discuss the performance of major Asian credit indices and review UST curve movements in April 2025. We also provide a recap of major news and macroeconomic releases, including those from the US, China, India, Indonesia and Japan. In addition, we summarise the top/bottom performers, recent USD bond issuances and rating actions in Asian corporate credit, as well as a list of our recent research. The Asia Monthly publication serves to keep investors updated on dev...
The Asia Trade Book for April 2025 includes a summary of our recommendations, as well as our high-conviction ideas. The report also features relative-value charts and lists of the bonds across Asia HY and crossover credits. Please reach out to our analysts to discuss any of these ideas, or other trade recommendations from our Asia coverage.
Swings observed in the last 10 days has been second to none. The Great Financial Crisis and Covid didn’t get us in a worst spot. Make no mistake: The markets are panicking today even more than when the world came to a COVID standstill, with the individual contributors to the vast majority of the world’s GDP locked down. How reasonable is that? Very little, in our view. The polarization of the political landscape has created a global brain freeze. Few analyses calmly assess the U.S. administrati...
No doubt investors are busy fighting fires. But additional to our thoughts from last week we thought it might be helpful to offer 3 further action points for investors in EM & Japanese Telcos that we would be taking in response to market turmoil. Very brief thoughts below.
Perhaps the biggest surprise from last night’s White House announcement was the scale of tariffs imposed on Asian exporters (and South Africa). Being an ally of America provided no benefit with Thailand (36%) facing higher tariffs than China (34%). By contrast, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa are less negatively impacted, and may even benefit overall from dollar weakness. We run through likely implications for our coverage in Global EM and Japan. Spoiler alert: we see Rakuten as most negati...
In our latest Asia Monthly, we discuss the performance of major Asian credit indices and review UST curve movements in March 2025. We also provide a recap of major news and macroeconomic releases, including those from the US, China, India, Indonesia and Japan. In addition, we summarise the top/bottom performers, recent USD bond issuances and rating actions in Asian corporate credit, as well as a list of our recent research. The Asia Monthly publication serves to keep investors updated on dev...
In this quarterly strategy report, we look to evaluate where we are with regards the bull market conditions, and where those indicators might be headed, factoring in the downside risks, from Trump tariffs and the US economy, BoJ actions, Japanese earnings and valuations.
In our latest Asia Monthly, we discuss the performance of major Asian credit indices and review UST curve movements in February 2025. We also provide a recap of major news and macroeconomic releases, including those from the US, China, India, Indonesia and Japan. In addition, we summarise the top/bottom performers, recent USD bond issuances and rating actions in Asian corporate credit, as well as a list of our recent research. The Asia Monthly publication serves to keep investors updated on ...
Aggregate service revenue trended better on higher contribution from non-mobile, coupled with mobile improvement. Industry mobile was primarily driven by Softbank’s outperformance. Q3 EBITDA dropped on higher mobile marketing costs at NTT which the company seeks to offset through cost efficiencies. DOCOMO is the clear mobile underperformer, but we believe expectations for Fixed recovery is still low, plus there is IOWN optionality. NTT remains our preferred pick.
Rakuten's Q4 and FY 2024 results were solid, with robust revenue growth and strong earnings improvement. The company reached self-funding status at both the group and Mobile levels. Rakuten achieved all of its FY 2024 targets, especially those for the Mobile segment. The company has addressed all of its 2025 debt maturities, and its access to capital remains solid. We are confident that Rakuten will be able to achieve its FY 2025 targets, which appear to be conservative.
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