Weekly News Wrap: Alibaba shares surge 60% as crackdown expected to ease; Pret bets on local tastes in Reliance tie-up

And BGF Retail wins big with a $2 lunch amidst surging inflation.

From Bloomberg:

Some of Wall Street’s biggest brokerages have reiterated their bullish calls for Alibaba Group, suggesting more gains may be in store after the e-commerce giant surged from a mid-March low.

The consensus estimate for the retailer’s earnings per share for the next 12 months has climbed more than 7% from a three-year low in late May, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Speculation that a crackdown on the tech sector may be drawing to a close is buoying bets on Alibaba, which has seen its shares in Hong Kong soar more than 60% from the record low reached in mid-March. The Hang Seng Tech Index has gained nearly 38% during that time.

“We expect Alibaba’s market share loss to gradually stabilize, and remain constructive on the company’s ability to expand its total addressable market,” Goldman Sachs analysts including Ronald Keung wrote in a note.

READ MORE: Alibaba Group retains post as Asia’s top retailer in 2021

From Reuters:

British snack chain Pret will adapt its menu to local tastes when it opens in Indian cities and airports under a partnership with retail giant Reliance to try to satisfy the nation's growing appetite for upmarket refreshment.

As part of its broader plan to target the most affluent 50 million of India's 1.3 billion people, Reliance announced a franchise deal with Pret.

The partnership has the potential to make India one of Pret's biggest markets and to challenge incumbents Starbucks and Coca-Cola's Costa Coffee, as well as Tim Hortons of Canada, which said in March it will launch in India this year.

"We are looking at 3%-4% of India's population ... It fits right into our strategy," Darshan Mehta, chief executive of Reliance Brands, told Reuters in an interview.

From Bloomberg:

One of South Korea’s stock market winners in the midst of surging consumer prices is the country’s largest convenience store operator BGF Retail.   

The stock has gained 30% this year as the broader Kospi has tumbled 21%, making the operator of the CU store chain among the top five winners in the blue-chip Kospi 200 index.

Analysts say the stock is a major beneficiary of consumers tightening their belts amidst sky-high prices whilst an easing of COVID-19 restrictions is leading to a surge in social gatherings. BGF retail is expected to post a 30% jump in its annual net income this year, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

More than 15,000 CU stores, omnipresent on almost every corner in major Korean cities, are seeing a spike in traffic with the government allowing sports, concerts and other outdoor events to take place without restrictions.