KKR sees many good privatisation targets among Singapore firms

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#1
The last seven or eight years have been one long, rough ride for emerging markets investors, but the tide has now turned. At least according to one of the world's largest private equity firms. Mr Ashish Shastry, KKR's head of South-east Asia, told a briefing yesterday: "Emerging markets have had a pretty tough ride since 2010, and it has made investors feel like the United States is a more solid bet, but our view is that emerging markets are turning around now." For buyout firms, there is an opportunity here since many of the region's biggest businesses are also owned by families where decision-making has now fallen into the hands of their third-generation leaders, leaders who are either "less emotionally attached" to the family legacy or more attuned to thinking about the business in terms of what is "core" and "non-core", said Mr Shastry. 

The same can be said for conglomerates that are looking to divest their non-core businesses; these may include government-linked conglomerates in Singapore and Malaysia. 

Mr Shastry noted that he saw many good privatisation candidates among Singapore-listed companies, adding: "It means that I think you can pay premiums to take some of these companies private. Typical companies would be family-owned or entrepreneur- led companies, third generation. We're working on a couple of those opportunities at the moment." Mr Shastry would not be drawn into details, but said his targets were firms with a market cap of up to $1.5 billion. 

These could be mid-cap companies in the manufacturing or industrials sector, valued from a few hundreds of millions to S$1.5 billion, he said.

[Valuebuddies, should we dig into companies that may be privatised?] 

KKR has done deals here in the manufacturing and industrial sector. It acquired Singapore disk- drive component maker Unisteel Technology through a leveraged buyout in 2008 and invested in Singapore-based precision engineering firm MMI Holdings in 2007. Mr Shastry believes Singapore stock valuations are "off the lows but we're far from the highs". 

For instance, "there are interesting opportunities available in Singapore. For example, the stock price performance and premium on Global Logistic Properties tells you that it was undervalued", he noted. Shares of the warehouse owner have rallied more than 70 per cent since the news broke last November that it had attracted takeover interest from a Chinese investor group. 

Last Friday, the stock jumped 22 per cent in one day when the takeover offer was announced. "So I think what it shows is there is value in the Singapore market," said Mr Shastry. In South-east Asia generally, KKR likes consumer businesses and their derivatives, such as logistics and e-commerce, that grow as consumption grows, as well as healthcare and education. KKR closed its US$9.3 billion (S$12.7 billion) Asian Fund III last month. 

http://www.straitstimes.com/business/kkr...pore-firms
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companie...-asia-head
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#2
(19-07-2017, 08:34 AM)kelvesy Wrote: In South-east Asia generally, KKR likes consumer businesses and their derivatives, such as logistics and e-commerce, that grow as consumption grows, as well as healthcare and education. 

Breadtalk? Courts Asia? Singpost? Overseas Education?
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#3
If I had the warchest of KKR, I will not hesitate to purchase penguin, FSL, bbr, kingsmen, Jap food, sarine, F&N

These are companies which either have quite a good cashflow generation ability relative to their company market a cap or that they employ little leverage in their business and are undervalued on tangible book value basis
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#4
CY09 - agree that F&N is great: Under geared and has a stake in the Vietnamese cash cow (literally) in Vinamilk. Expect its stake to cross 20% and therefore would have to be equity accounted for in F&N figures. Thai parent is likely to look into improving its liquidity along with ThaiBev and Frasers Centrepoint in 2H17.
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#5
On the industrial side, I think Spindex Industries, Frencken Group, Fischer Tech, Chuan Hup, PCI Liimted, and PNE Industries are worth while bets. InnoTek, perhaps, too small for their radar. They were the ones that privatised Goodpack.

For consumer side, Hanwell, Courts, Challenger, Hr Glass, or BreadTalk? If I were him, what would I buy? haha!
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#6
(19-07-2017, 03:47 PM)CY09 Wrote: If I had the warchest of KKR, I will not hesitate to purchase penguin, FSL, bbr, kingsmen, Jap food, sarine, F&N

These are companies which either have quite a good cashflow generation ability relative to their company market  a cap or that they employ little leverage in their business and are undervalued on tangible book value basis

Jap Food sounds good but hard to scale and grow its earnings. Competing consistently with new food brands out there. Frankly speaking, I know their brands but I wonder... what can I do after buying Jap Food? 

BBR, I agree, should be turning around after their general construction costs overrun issues disappear plus their newly acquired malaysian operations start to kick in.
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#7
Why KKR make annc? Fishing for leads?

Size (>$150m mkt cap) and cash flow (<5-8x EBITDA) will be the basic criteria.
"... but quitting while you're ahead is not the same as quitting." - Quote from the movie American Gangster
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#8
Waiting for forums to offer them undiscovered gem ideas.

 One thing I learnt institutions do not cover much on companies with small market caps but have wonderful cash flow or hidden assets. This is why forums such as vb and blogs appear to discover hidden gems. What better way than to announce and scout the forums for investing ideas😁
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#9
"It means that I think you can pay premiums to take some of these companies private. Typical companies would be family-owned or entrepreneur- led companies, third generation. We're working on a couple of those opportunities at the moment."

Seems like they already know what they want.
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#10
We can actually filter and do some checks. The choices shouldn't be too difficult. From what I gathered from some friends, Mr Ashish Shastry is a competent value creator that can inject KKR's resources to unleash potential of acquired businesses.
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