Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Nearly 25 years of experience in analyzing hundreds of companies, especially in Asia. Deep expertise in the following sectors:
- Technology (E-commerce, SaaS, Internet)
- Consumer 
- Special Situations/Deep Value Plays
- Holdcos/Stubs
- Asian Unicorns/Private Companies

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Event-Driven

It was reported on August 26th that<a href="https://finance.naver.com/item/news_read.nhn?article_id=0003608935&amp;office_id=011&amp;code=067170&amp;sm=title_entity_id.basic" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Scion Asset Management</a>(a hedge fund based in the U.S.) started to "go activist" on a small-cap Korean company called <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/autech-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:14684:1" rel="noopener">Autech Corp (067170 KS)</a>which has a market cap of 180 billion won ($148 million). According to recent filings (<a href="http://www.dart.fss.or.kr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.dart.fss.or.kr</a>), Scion Asset Mgmt's ownership of Autech recently increased from 8.62% to 9.75% (as of August 23rd, 2019). While Scion Asset Mgmt has mentioned that it wants to participate in the management of the company, it has yet to provide full details of its proposals.Normally, a foreign hedge fund going activist on such a small company Korea would not generate much interest, but Scion Asset Mgmt is relatively well-known in the global financial community (including in Korea) partly because the founder of the hedge fund (Dr. Michael J. Burry) and Scion Asset Mgmt. were featured in the 2015 movie, "The Big Short" (Actor Christian Bale played the role of Michael Burry).Autech Corp makes different kinds of special purpose vehicles, including ambulances, police vehicles, delivery trucks, dump trucks, recreation vehicles, and ice making trucks. It also makes air conditioners (Carrier brand) as well as various retail and industrial refrigeration products. The company also provides parking system services. The company generated revenue of 918.7 billion won (up 11.5% YoY) and operating profit of 29.8 billion won (down 18% YoY) in 2018. It also generated revenue of 528.7 billion won (up 17.3% YoY) and operating profit of 22.2 billion won (up 46.9% YoY) in 1H19.

It was reported on August 26th that Scion Asset Management(a hedge fund based in the U.S.) started to "go activist" on a small-cap Korean company called Autech Corp (067170 KS)which has a market cap of 180 billion won ($148 million). According to recent filings (www.dart.fss.or.kr), Scion Asset Mgmt's ownership of Autech recently increased from 8.62% to 9.75% (as of August 23rd, 2019). While Scion Asset Mgmt has mentioned that it wants to participate in the management of the company, it has yet to provide full details of its proposals.Normally, a foreign hedge fund going activist on such a small company Korea would not generate much interest, but Scion Asset Mgmt is relatively well-known in the global financial community (including in Korea) partly because the founder of the hedge fund (Dr. Michael J. Burry) and Scion Asset Mgmt. were featured in the 2015 movie, "The Big Short" (Actor Christian Bale played the role of Michael Burry).Autech Corp makes different kinds of special purpose vehicles, including ambulances, police vehicles, delivery trucks, dump trucks, recreation vehicles, and ice making trucks. It also makes air conditioners (Carrier brand) as well as various retail and industrial refrigeration products. The company also provides parking system services. The company generated revenue of 918.7 billion won (up 11.5% YoY) and operating profit of 29.8 billion won (down 18% YoY) in 2018. It also generated revenue of 528.7 billion won (up 17.3% YoY) and operating profit of 22.2 billion won (up 46.9% YoY) in 1H19.

Scion Asset Mgmt "Goes Activist" On Autech Corp