< The 2015 All-Japan Research Team
Kei Takahashi
Mizuho Securities Group
First-place appearances: 0
Total appearances: 4
Analyst debut: 2011
Repeating in second place is Mizuho Securities Group’s Kei Takahashi, 46. He reports on five Japanese telecommunications names, an increase of one over the past year, and is cautiously optimistic on the sector. In October the government announced that wireless services providers will be required to ease restrictions on the carrier networks that subscribers can choose. As of May all cell phones and tablets must ship with subscriber identity module, or SIM, cards unlocked upon customer request. This will allow users to sign up for alternative plans, such as those offered by mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, which lease bandwidth and generally offer cheaper voice and data options than the big providers do. Takahashi is monitoring the impact this change will have on the industry as a whole. “It’s getting much more difficult for telecom companies to differentiate their services,” he advises. “From the share price point of view, shareholder return policy should be very important, as well as new growth strategy.” He continues to dub KDDI Corp. his favorite in the group. “KDDI has a huge upside potential for the increase in shareholder return,” says Takahashi. The Tokyo-based mobile services provider’s bundled discount should maintain its competitiveness, he noted in May, reiterating his buy rating on the stock. In October he highlighted his positive stance again. By December he was pounding the table. “There is no longer reason why KDDI’s market cap is smaller than NTT DoCoMo’s, from a free-cash-flow point of view,” he noted at the time. The stock has rewarded his confidence, bolting 38.1 percent since May, to ¥8,186, and outperforming its domestic peers by 22.6 percentage points.