Financials

Report by Veritas Investment Research

Roshan Paunikar’s analysis highlights rising scrutiny around private credit exposure within Canadian lifecos, with risks centred on below-investment-grade assets, valuation opacity and broader fixed-income sensitivity. While portfolios remain skewed towards higher-quality credit, companies are not insulated from a weaker environment, with potential impacts including higher credit losses, fair value marks and pressure on regulatory capital. Manulife Financial appears most exposed driven by a higher proportion of below-investment-grade private credit and a relatively riskier fixed-income portfolio, while Sun Life Financial appears most negatively exposed to wider credit spreads. Great-West Lifeco appears to have the most conservative investment portfolio among peers.

Financials

Report by Veritas Investment Research

Rising risks trump rising rates - Nigel D’Souza expects market sentiment to shift over the coming months as slowing economic growth and elevated credit risk outweighs the benefit of higher NII. Ahead of this inflection point, Nigel is lowering his sector forward P/E multiple for Canadian banks to 10.6x (NB assuming a pre-pandemic PCL ratio, it currently stands at 13.5x, the highest multiple since the GFC). He downgrades Scotiabank, CIBC, National Bank, RBC and TD Bank to Sell. If you are taking money off the table in banks, consider moving it to the insurers. Nigel continues to pound the table on Manulife Financial and recently upgraded Sun Life and Great-West Lifeco to Buy.

Report by Aequitas Research

Aequitas is a leading ECM research firm with a focus on IPOs and placements across the Asia Pacific. Since 2015, they have covered 600+ IPOs and 750+ placements with an accuracy rate of 74% and 67% respectively. Recent coverage includes:

Helen’s Intl (IPO Hong Kong) - Selling cheap drinks but at an expensive valuation.
Simplex Holdings (Pre-IPO Japan) - Steady top line growth but appears to be at peak margins.
Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC (Pre-IPO India) - Strong profit growth but losing market share.