John Zolidis

“Professional investors don’t believe that inflation can be tamed without destroying economic demand; that’s why you’re seeing discretionary stocks under so much pressure,” says Quo Vadis Capital President John Zolidis.

John Zolidis, president of the New York-based equity research firm Quo Vadis Capital said greater transparency for US auditors would “improve investor confidence in US-listed Chinese companies” after a bruising year when the valuations of large internet giants including Alibaba and Tencent have slashed over 40 per cent following Beijing’s regulatory moves to break up their monopoly power.

“The value of a company is based on its future earnings and cash flows, adjusted for its assets and liabilities (the balance sheet), and discounted for each business’ risk profile and the time horizon to produce expected earnings and cash flow,” Zolidis said in a note on Friday. “The location of the exchange where the shares trade does not figure into this calculation (provided liquidity and investor safeguards are roughly equivalent).”

“In our view, there is enough common ground and shared interest here to support a compromise resolution,” Zolidis said. “Accordingly, we see a compromise being reached that serves regulators in both markets and maintains existing U.S. listings for the vast majority of Chinese companies.”

“FL needs to demonstrate that it can still comp and grow earnings even in the face of lower Nike allocations,” Zolidis wrote, adding that he believes the retailer can see success in the long term, given its “valuation, sentiment, cash flow, and the potential for news flow to improve incrementally from here.”

The question is “whether the fraud was hiding a permanently flawed business, or if it was lying on top of something legitimate that had long-term viability,” says John Zolidis, president of the New York-based equity research firm Quo Vadis Capital. Zolidis says Luckin’s shares are “attractively valued given the overhang of fraud”.