Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events, Quiddity Advisors

Travis Lundy

HK Type 4 license through Ballingal Investment Advisors Ltd. ("BIA" or "BIAL")

BACKGROUND
I have 20+yrs experience in Asia doing alternative strategies (i.e. non-delta1 non long-only) in fixed income, equity derivatives, and activist/catalyst/event-driven and long-short equity strategies with most of that time spent managing money. 

4 years in fixed income macro, 8 years running internal hedge fund and 4yrs investment banking at Citi in Japan, 3 years running an Asia multi-strat portfolio at a hedge fund, 4+yrs as an independent special situations analyst.

Pan-Asia Catalysts/Events

Aslead To Exit Fuji Kosan, Leaving Would-Be Activist Shigeta-San

Aslead Capital Hostile Offer for Fuji Kosan (5009)

Wakita Rejects StraCap's Shareholder Proposals

Japan Activism: A Look into Wakita (8125 JP) Potential Pre-Event

Quiddity Advisors

Event-Driven

In late April 2021, just before Golden Week, a Singaporean fund called Aslead Capital, backed by a family office, announced a bid to get to a stake of 40% or more in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/fuji-kosan-company-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:17867:1" rel="noopener">Fuji Kosan Company (5009 JP)</a>. They had gone from a 5% stake to a 16.75% stake ahead of the deal.This was a hostile bid, and was treated as hostile from the get-go. But it was neither high enough to be interesting to investors, nor low enough to be upsetting. The most interesting thing about the deal to me from the start was the website of the family office which provided some of the capital. It is still great (<a href="https://y-n10.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://y-n10.com/</a>). The second most interesting thing was that another investor - the scion of the Shigeta family - appeared to have piggybacked on Aslead's interest and built a stake of 8+% and in the process of the deal, he bought another 1% to get to just over 9%. At the end of May the company's Special Committee came out <a href="https://ssl4.eir-parts.net/doc/5009/tdnet/1980098/00.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">against</a> the deal. The Aslead proposal was incomplete and with ENEOS being a super-important counterparty (representing 80% of COGS), the importance of maintaining a good relationship with ENEOS was paramount. An ill-advised control change could threaten that relationship. Furthermore, Aslead was saying that delisting it to restructure while private was necessary but Aslead was not making the Tender Offer work to that end. The Company also basically said "they only want us for our cash." That probably wasn't strictly true. They also wanted the solar farms.It was too cheap to be doable, and in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/aslead-capital-hostile-offer-for-fuji-kosan-5009" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:50800" rel="noopener">Aslead Capital Hostile Offer for Fuji Kosan (5009)</a> I said I did not think it likely the deal would get done the way it was proposed. I was, however, bullish that something else would get done. It did. Unfortunately, not the way I had figured. When the Company came out against, they proposed a rights offering which would dilute Aslead.

In late April 2021, just before Golden Week, a Singaporean fund called Aslead Capital, backed by a family office, announced a bid to get to a stake of 40% or more in Fuji Kosan Company (5009 JP). They had gone from a 5% stake to a 16.75% stake ahead of the deal.This was a hostile bid, and was treated as hostile from the get-go. But it was neither high enough to be interesting to investors, nor low enough to be upsetting. The most interesting thing about the deal to me from the start was the website of the family office which provided some of the capital. It is still great (https://y-n10.com/). The second most interesting thing was that another investor - the scion of the Shigeta family - appeared to have piggybacked on Aslead's interest and built a stake of 8+% and in the process of the deal, he bought another 1% to get to just over 9%. At the end of May the company's Special Committee came out against the deal. The Aslead proposal was incomplete and with ENEOS being a super-important counterparty (representing 80% of COGS), the importance of maintaining a good relationship with ENEOS was paramount. An ill-advised control change could threaten that relationship. Furthermore, Aslead was saying that delisting it to restructure while private was necessary but Aslead was not making the Tender Offer work to that end. The Company also basically said "they only want us for our cash." That probably wasn't strictly true. They also wanted the solar farms.It was too cheap to be doable, and in Aslead Capital Hostile Offer for Fuji Kosan (5009) I said I did not think it likely the deal would get done the way it was proposed. I was, however, bullish that something else would get done. It did. Unfortunately, not the way I had figured. When the Company came out against, they proposed a rights offering which would dilute Aslead. 

Fuji Kosan Wins In Court, Aslead Walks Away