Seoul mates: Korean sustainability plays
As the global economy stands at an inflection point, South Korea potentially stands to emerge as a relative winner from deglobalisation. First, Korean firms dominate the global battery supply chain outside of China, with long-term optimism is growing in the industry. Second, South Korea is also an underappreciated nuclear powerhouse, and is now leveraging trade realignments to its advantage, with plenty of room for firms to export their expertise to other markets. Third, Korean firms have quietly become world leaders in desalinisation and water purification tech and are winning contracts that would have otherwise gone to China. For sustainability-minded investors, Korea offers a unique sweet spot: exposure to critical green technologies without the geopolitical baggage of China at reasonable valuations relative to US or European pure-plays in these areas. Their top picks are Samsung E&A, Doosan Enerbility and LG Energy Solution.
Edition: 210
- 02 May, 2025
2022 Asia IPO pipeline
Aequitas are currently tracking 100+ companies that have filed for IPOs across Asia-Pacific and are likely to list in 2022. Hong Kong continues to be the market with the greatest number of pipeline deals, including Wanda Commercial Management (US$4bn) and Imeik Tech HK (US$3bn). In India, notable filings include Delhivery (US$980m) and API Holdings (US$843m), while the filing for the US$5bn+ LIC IPO is awaited. Elsewhere, the performance of LG Energy’s mega IPO (US$11bn) will set the stage for other large Korean IPOs.
Aequitas aims to cover all IPOs and placements with a minimum deal size of US$100m across Asia-Pacific (ex A-shares), including China ADRs. They ended 2021 with an accuracy rate of 72.4% across 127 IPOs covered and 73.1% across 141 placements.
Edition: 127
- 21 January, 2022