Many investors newly allocating to Japanese equities tend to start with an index ETF or household-name large-cap stocks. Such stocks do indeed trade at a discount to what investors may be used to seeing in the US, but trade at massive premia to small-cap Japan.
The opportunity in Japan's small caps is pronounced. Small & micro-cap stocks under 50bn yen (~A$440m) in market cap trade on a median price/earnings ratio of 11.9x. This compares highly favourably to the Nikkei 225's level, which is more than double at 25.3x.
The valuation gap is even more pronounced when one looks at the value the market attributes to companies relative to the assets they hold - ie: the price/book ratio. The same set of companies trades at a median of 0.9x price/book compared with the Nikkei 225, now at 3x - an increase from <2x little more than a year ago.
When one considers that the 0.9x number is heavily understated due to historical cost accounting applied to real estate holdings on the books in many cases for 50 years or more, the deep-value opportunity becomes even more clear.
Senjin Capital sources its investment opportunities from within this low-priced universe of smaller companies, but we seek out the very cheapest companies in this space, with large holdings of excess assets, and reasonably profitable and stable businesses:
We look for companies that have stored up decades worth of retained earnings on their balance sheet, but that instead of deploying those earnings into assets related to growing their business such as plant and working capital, have held large cash balances, invested in the stocks of other public companies, and hold large real estate portfolios. With the valuation of our median shortlisted company supported by an average 77% of market cap being comprised of such assets, our shareholder activism does not need to catalyse major operational restructuring in order to realise positive outcomes.
Our shortlist is also comprised of companies that are more profitable than the average on an EBITDA margin basis, but which also have scope for improvements in operational efficiency and growth strategy. However, such improvements are not required in order for us to realise much of the potential upside from any given position.
Would we like to see significant improvement in our investee companies’ operations? Of course. But it is not a necessary condition for us to achieve our targeted returns. Simple improvements in capital allocation, such as sizeable dividend increases, can result in significant stock-price appreciation.
Where the value of the company's operating business often comprises less than a third of the value of the company's market value, operational improvements tend to be the icing on the cake rather than the main course.
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Jamie is the founder & CIO of Senjin Capital, Australia's only fund manager focused on using shareholder activism to unlock the deep value in Japanese publicly-listed small cap companies.
Prior to founding Senjin in 2024, Jamie spent 13 years with Kerr Neilson's Platinum Asset Management, where he became a senior portfolio manager, managing ~$1bn across a global equities and a Japan equities fund, and leading the global consumer and Japan research teams.
Jamie is well into his second decade of investing in Japan, and his history with the country goes back to his high school days. He is still in regular contact with the family who hosted him on his high school exchange.
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Jamie is the founder & CIO of Senjin Capital, Australia's only fund manager focused on using shareholder activism to unlock the deep value in Japanese publicly-listed small cap companies.
Prior to founding Senjin in 2024, Jamie spent 13 years...
Jamie is the founder & CIO of Senjin Capital, Australia's only fund manager focused on using shareholder activism to unlock the deep value in Japanese publicly-listed small cap companies.
Prior to founding Senjin in 2024, Jamie spent 13 years...