Think Equity, LLC (Think Equity) initiates coverage on Society Pass Inc. (Nasdaq: SOPA) (SoPa).
Click Here (on Society Pass website) to view the full Think Equity research report. https://thesocietypass.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ThinkEquity_SocietyPass_Initiation_ResearchReport_26Sep2022.pdf
Summary Points:
- ECommerce Holding Company. Society Pass is an acquisition-focused eCommerce holding company operating six interconnected verticals in loyalty, lifestyle, food and beverage, telecoms, digital media, and travel, connecting millions of registered consumers and thousands of registered merchants in Southeast Asia. The company has on-boarded more than 3.3 million registered consumers and over 200K registered merchants and brands. The company generated $520K of sales in 2021, with a revenue forecast of $9.5 million for 2022 and $42.7 million for 2023.
- Seasoned and Diverse Executive Team. The company is led by a team of seasoned Asia-based executives who have spent a total of over 150 years on the ground in Asia with operating, marketing, technology and financial experience there. Society Pass is the sixth company that Dennis Nguyen, Group Founder, Chairman and CEO, has taken public. Over half the executives and employees are female. The company’s board of directors brings diverse experiences from technology to finance, to legal, to investment banking/private equity. The company has built a sophisticated technology platform in four years and on-boarded over 3.3 million registered consumers and over 200k registered merchants/brands.
- Integrated Ecosystem. Society Pass acquires companies in targeted verticals, which include lifestyle, food and beverage delivery, travel, digital media, telecommunications, and loyalty. In the lifestyle vertical, the company acquired Leflair in February 2021 and relaunched in the Vietnamese marketplace in September 2021. In food and beverage delivery, the company acquired Pushkart and Handycart in February 2022 and Mangan in July 2022. In July 2022, the company acquired Thoughtful Media, a Thailand-based digital media company. In August 2022, the company acquired NusaTrip, an Indonesia-based leading Southeast Asia OTA. The business model is to acquire companies in targeted verticals and integrate them into the platform.
- Society Points. A Virtuous Cycle of Revenue Generation and Loyalty Creation in SEA. The company opportunistically acquires attractively valued companies to synergistically generate additional revenue streams, optimize efficiencies for merchants, and more cost-effectively aggregate consumers and merchants through synchronized marketing campaigns. The company’s loyalty platform, Society Points, drives this revenue generation and loyalty creation processes. The company has launched a beta version of the Society Pass app in June 2022 and expects to fully launch the app in 1Q 2023.
- Strategies for Digital Commerce in Asia/Pacific. Southeast Asia’s digital commerce revenue is expected to reach a 10-year CAGR of 32% by 2025. Business unit leaders, like Society Pass, carefully select their markets. Based on industry estimates, the expected growth of consumer spending on digital commerce for the Southeast Asian region will exceed $88 billion by 2025. This comes from a low penetration of the total retail market. Southeast Asia presents attractive growth opportunities and challenges for SoPa.
- Growth Strategies. As the company continues to acquire e-commerce platforms and apps in Southeast Asia, it should dramatically increase its revenue base, registered customer base, and registered merchant base. The company beta-launched its Society Pass loyalty platform in the second quarter 2022. The company is constantly upgrading its HR talent, especially identifying and mentoring female executives. It has built a powerful and integrated technology ecosystem targeting Southeast Asia, and operates in three of the world’s most attractive and fast-growing economies. Its senior executives have spent most of their lives in Southeast Asia running companies.
- Valuation. Think Equity’s 12-month price target is $6, based on 3.9x FY23 sales per share estimate.
- Solid Financials. As of June 30, 2022, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $28 million. For the six months ended June 30, 2022, the company’s stockholders’ equity was $35 million.
About Society Pass Inc
Founded in 2018 as a digitally-focused loyalty and data marketing ecosystem in the fast-growing markets of Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, which account for more than 80% of the SEA population, and with offices located in Angeles, Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Manila, and Singapore, SoPa is an acquisition-focused e-commerce holding company operating 6 interconnected verticals (loyalty, digital media, travel, telecoms, lifestyle, and F&B), which seamlessly connects millions of registered consumers and hundreds of thousands of registered merchants/brands across multiple product and service categories throughout SEA.
Society Pass completed an initial public offering and began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker SOPA in November 2021. SOPA shares were added to the Russell 2000 index in December 2021.
SoPa acquires fast growing e-commerce companies and expands its user base across a robust product and service ecosystem. SoPa integrates these complementary businesses through its Society Pass loyalty platform and circulation of its universal loyalty points or Society Points, which has entered beta testing and is expected to launch broadly at the beginning of 2023. Society Pass loyalty program members earn and redeem Society Points and receive personalised promotions based on SoPa’s data capabilities and understanding of consumer shopping behaviour. SoPa has amassed more than 3.3 million registered consumers and over 205,000 registered merchants and brands. It has invested 2+ years building proprietary IT architecture to effectively scale and support its consumers, merchants, and acquisitions.
Society Pass leverages technology to tailor a more personalised experience for customers in the purchase journey and to transform the entire retail value chain in SEA. SoPa operates Thoughtful Media Group, a Thailand-based, a social commerce-focused, premium digital video multi-platform network; NusaTrip, a leading Indonesia-based Online Travel Agency; Gorilla Networks, a Singapore-based, web3-enabled mobile blockchain network operator; Leflair.com, Vietnam’s leading lifestyle e-commerce platform; Pushkart.ph, a popular grocery delivery company in Philippines; Handycart.vn, a leading online restaurant delivery service based in Vietnam; and Mangan, a leading local restaurant delivery service in Philippines. For more information, please check out: http://thesocietypass.com/.
Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may include “forward-looking statements,” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend” and similar expressions, as they relate to us or our management team, identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, the Company’s management. Actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors detailed in the Company’s filings with the SEC. All subsequent written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are qualified in their entirety by this paragraph. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company’s registration statement and prospectus relating to the Company’s initial public offering filed with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law.
Media Contacts:
PRecious Communications
sopa@preciouscomms.com
