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Finding Japanese Net-nets


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Today I stumbled upon a blog about investing in Japan I had never noticed before. It has some potentially interesting ideas and features a series of posts on shareholder activism in Japan. Nice read to get a feeling for the situation over there.

 

http://undervaluedjapan.blogspot.de/2014/04/the-little-post-about-shareholder.html

http://undervaluedjapan.blogspot.de/2014/05/the-little-post-about-shareholder.html

http://undervaluedjapan.blogspot.nl/2014/06/the-little-post-about-shareholder.html

 

Bit unrelated to net-nets but I didn't want to open a new topic for this.

 

great find! thank you!

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  • 3 months later...

One of my holdings, KG Intelligence (TYO:2408), has gained a lot recently, but I can't figure out why. Can anyone shed any light?

I don't know, I've seen this with a few of my other Japanese net-nets as well. People just warm up to them from time to time I guess. I owned a very small position in KG Intelligence, but sold a few days ago.

 

Meanwhile my net-net screen for Japan is down to a record low number of hits and for the first time in two years I'm actually having some trouble to find good replacements for positions I sold in Japan.

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One of my holdings, KG Intelligence (TYO:2408), has gained a lot recently, but I can't figure out why. Can anyone shed any light?

I don't know, I've seen this with a few of my other Japanese net-nets as well. People just warm up to them from time to time I guess. I owned a very small position in KG Intelligence, but sold a few days ago.

 

Meanwhile my net-net screen for Japan is down to a record low number of hits and for the first time in two years I'm actually having some trouble to find good replacements for positions I sold in Japan.

 

Have seen something similar myself.  A month or two ago most positions were flat or negative.  Suddenly I'm very positive on a few now.  I have no idea why, happy with the turn of events.  Patience is required with this.

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One of my holdings, KG Intelligence (TYO:2408), has gained a lot recently, but I can't figure out why. Can anyone shed any light?

I don't know, I've seen this with a few of my other Japanese net-nets as well. People just warm up to them from time to time I guess. I owned a very small position in KG Intelligence, but sold a few days ago.

 

Meanwhile my net-net screen for Japan is down to a record low number of hits and for the first time in two years I'm actually having some trouble to find good replacements for positions I sold in Japan.

 

Have seen something similar myself.  A month or two ago most positions were flat or negative.  Suddenly I'm very positive on a few now.  I have no idea why, happy with the turn of events.  Patience is required with this.

 

I guess perhaps it's a case of value being its own catalyst? ;-)

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How do you guys determine when to sell these stock bought on a quantitative basis? Do you just exist after you made 30, 100, 200%? Do you have a target PE, EV/EBIT or PB ratio?

To me, it occurs less straightforward to assess the companies' businesses if bought by the numbers. It would make sense to exit on a quantitative basis aswell, but I would be interested to learn how others go about it.

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One of my holdings, KG Intelligence (TYO:2408), has gained a lot recently, but I can't figure out why. Can anyone shed any light?

 

The Nikkei is @ 15-year high and this does make a big difference to sentiment believe it or not :)  I don't think the rally in small names is predominantly fundamental-driven at this time as some businesses are still couping with the drop in demand following the sales tax hike but I do have a gut feeling that fundamentals may follow prices this time as Japan Inc is finally in pretty good shape after all that they have been through in the last five years.

 

We are running out cheap names to buy in Japan but generally speaking many micro-cap names are still relatively cheap in Japan versus in other markets.

 

If you like the U.S. economy but dislike the valuation in the U.S. markets, then the smaller cap sector in Japan may be where you want to take a deeper look.  Lower yen vs. the dollar, higher wages, lower oil price, and a business-friendly administration are all that's going to help get their economy back on track.

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Was anyone else invested in Tomen Electronics, 7558?  Toyota Tsusho tendered for all their remaining shares at 1650 (http://www.toyota-tsusho.com/english/press/detail/140822_002679.html) last year, but IB never said a word about it and they still list it as a position for me.  From what I can tell the tender went through because now I can't find it quoted anywhere.

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I see they went from 40% to 63% ownership.  But nothing comes up when I search for them on the TSE website.

The company was delisted on Dec. 25, 2014: http://www.tse.or.jp/english/news/07/141128_l.html

Quote from that page:

 

At the general shareholders meeting of TOMEN ELECTRONICS CORPORATION (hereafter "the Company") held today, the following matters were approved.

(1) Changing the Company to a company that issues classified shares as specified in the Companies Act;

(2) Attaching a clause for acquiring all common shares that are issued by the Company; and

(3) In return for acquiring all common shares of the Company, allotting a different class of shares in the Company (as a result, cash payment is scheduled).

Not sure if I'm understanding it right, but perhaps a squeeze out of minority holders is in process?

I found a document from PWC that also describes minority squeeze outs in Japan: https://www.pwc.com/jp/ja/advisory/research-insights-report/assets/pdf/tra_0706_01.pdf

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  • 8 months later...

Anyone look at Funai Electric? I purchased it about a month ago and so far it has been a dog:

 

The good: One of the larger net nets in Japan - I've seen some research that both the largest and smallest net nets typically outperform within the basket. CUrrently my holdings are mostly micro / small caps so I like having a larger name in the mix. It had a a pretty attractive F Score of 7 when I purchased it and recent profitability after years of losses.

 

The bad: Unsure if the recent profitability that the company experienced is temporary (probably is). Recent quarterly results weren't great. Poor industry

 

Conclusion: Company is SUPER cheap 35% Price / NCAV - considering buying more

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A quick glance on Morningstar would make me assume the recent profitability is temporary. Terrible ROE, no buybacks, tiny dividend, book value decreased during the past seven years. I'm not touching it. But yeah, it is cheap based on NCAV.

 

In general, given that it is almost impossible for us foreigners to understand anything about obscure Japanese stocks except for the most basic numbers I would always take a diversified approach. In other words, I don't see why you would want to double down on this name when you can buy a second net-net instead. It's not like we have an information advantage. Gotta give the market some credit.

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