The Point for Asia Pacific

Research evidence excerpt

The Point for Asia Pacific

easing and price hikes start offsetting. For L&T, we expect a soft quarter on Middle

East impact, but more importantly, focus now moves to the potential pace of a 2H

recovery. For defense, the demand backdrop remains constructive: FY26 closed

with strong DAC approvals of ~Rs6.7trn, followed by Rs520bn on 3rd July. We

open a 90-day positive catalyst watch on Bharat Electronics.

Mohit Pandey | Anusha Madireddy

India Electrical Equipment - China OEM approval: Execution tailwind; Not a

competitive threat

Media reports indicate that the government has approved four Chinese OEMs with

Indian manufacturing operations to participate in Government T&D tenders for a

two-year period, raising concerns around increased competition. We view this

as execution-positive rather than competitively disruptive — the approval is

narrow in scope, confined to segments with insufficient domestic capacity, and

unlikely to extend to products where supply is adequate. Rather than enabling

aggressive market-share gains, we see this primarily easing supply-side

bottlenecks — particularly in GIS — supportive of faster project execution. For our

T&D OEM coverage universe, read-through remains limited, underpinned by

robust order backlogs and a growing export revenue base.

Anusha Madireddy | Mohit Pandey

Kingboard Laminates Holdings (1888.HK) - Higher-than-expected ASP Inflation

of 15% on CCL and Others in July; Raise TP to HK$130

KBL announced it raised ASP of 15% on FR4 CCL, 10% on CEM CCL, 15% on

prepreg. More significantly, KBL started to inflate value-added profit margin of

copper foil at Rmb 5 / kg at 1.5oz and Rmb8 / kg at 2oz, which implies over 25%

price inflation. In view of higher-than-expected inflation, we raise our earnings