Thailand’s Kasikorn Securities aims to create investor opportunities by strengthening its equity research platform. The company pays close attention to the quality of equity research and international standards to address customer needs across sectors.
Providing resourceful investment insights for customers
According to Executive Chairman Mr. Thiti Tantikulanan, investment management has become quite complex and thus, necessitates insightful and accurate information for investors. Equity research is the first step toward its customer investment process.
For that reason, the firm is committed to building a robust research platform and a pool of analysts to ensure a comprehensive sector coverage on both short-term and long-term investment strategies. Kasikorn has also partnered with Jefferies Group, a leading investment bank, to effectively distribute research products and services to global markets.
One reason why Kasikorn is set apart from other competitors is because of an excellent analyst team and equity research publications. To date, it has actively covered nearly 140 securities on the Stock Exchange of Thailand — making it one of the largest stock coverage firms in the country.
Now, the firm aims to increase the number of securities under coverage to 200 in the next three to five years on the back of industry specialisation.
When it comes to analysts, each of them has developed strong industry expertise and in-depth analysis on the subject matter. Their first hand working experience in energy, petrochemicals, banks and fund management has given Kasikorn a competitive advantage in the industry. In fact, these factors have made the firm’s research products widely popular among investors as they provide a detailed financial outlook on the respective sectors.
Kasikorn’s research products are particularly strong in four sectors, namely electricity, construction, infrastructure funds and real estate investment trusts. By comparison, it provides the most comprehensive coverage for the electricity sector comprising conventional and renewable power plants. That in turn allows customers to easily compare the strengths and weaknesses of each power plant in order to make the right investment decisions.
For construction, Kasikorn will assign an analyst to closely monitor the government’s infrastructure projects to provide customers with a timely investment advice. The firm is among the few that offers coverage in infrastructure funds and real estate investment trusts. Currently, it covers 10 infrastructure funds, or real estate investment trusts and plans to soon increase the number to 30.
According to Kasikorn, its equity strategy team is strategically aligned to meet various investors’ requirements. The firm’s macro-strategists provide a top-down equity strategy which not only provides an economic analysis but details regarding the sector. This is a key differentiation in analysis compared to the usual economist insights. In contrast, the micro-strategy provides a bottom-up equity strategy which is built on the potential stock correlation with key company financials in various economic cycles.
Kasikorn is one of the first to have started incorporating ESG factors into its equity strategy. Today ESG is one of the new investment angles. Also, the firm offers an equity investment strategy for small stocks that show a promising outlook, allowing investment strategies to meet the needs of all investors types, including institutional and retail.
Access to in-depth business data
In addition to a robust research platform, Kasikorn has invested efforts in providing access to a corporate insights on a monthly basis. The speakers are high-ranking executives of both listed and non-listed companies, in addition to government entities.
Corporate access is one of the most important tools for clients to make investment decisions. Against this background, the firm has been focusing on the non-listed companies that are difficult for customers to access. Analysts are dispatched frequently to present their sector and stock views to both domestic and international customers. Domestic and overseas field trips are organised for them to perform on-the-ground market checking.
Kasikorn’s investment analyses win international recognition
Kasikorn has received a number of domestic and international awards. It won the International Finance Awards for the Best Research House 2018 honouring its professionalism and commendable research over the years. Kasikorn is committed to sustain its performance in accordance with international standards and continue to offer customers top-class service in the coming years.