YB new stock pitches (Wed, Mar 4)

Wise plc (WISE.L), trading at an £8.6 billion market cap (down 19% since January 2025), processes approximately $200 billion annually compared to SWIFT's $6 trillion daily, capturing only 0.47% of the $43 trillion non-wholesale cross-currency market and 0.01% of the $27 trillion SWIFT B2B payments market, representing a massive growth runway. The company's Wise Platform now powers over 100 financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, Nubank, Monzo, N26, and Itaú Unibanco, positioning it as critical infrastructure for international transfers rather than just a competitor to banks. Wise maintains a structural cost advantage of 20-50x cheaper than legacy banks and 3-13x cheaper than fintech competitors including blockchain alternatives, with the company strategically reducing its take rate from 0.52% toward 0.35% to gain market share and scale. The company holds £21 billion in customer balances (currently earning close to 3% NIM vs. their assumed 1% long-term target) and delivered 31% year-over-year growth with a 16% underlying profit margin in recent results. Recent expansions into wholesale banking (adding forward contracts and large-amount transfers), a 2023 partnership with SWIFT allowing legacy systems to use Wise rails, and entry into new markets like South Africa, Philippines, Japan, and India position the company to capture significantly more of the multi-quadrillion dollar cross-border payments opportunity. At 10% market share, Wise would generate over £1 billion in net profit annually, which at a 20x multiple implies a £22 billion valuation representing 150%+ upside from current levels, with the investment thesis centered on the company's ability to sacrifice short-term profitability to rapidly scale and dominate both the B2B/B2C space and break into the far larger wholesale market.

Read the full article here. Read time: 6 min

SK Square (402340.KS), a Korean holding company where SK Hynix represents over 96% of NAV, presents a compelling opportunity with three layers of potential re-rating: (1) SK Hynix trades at 6.1x 2026E P/E versus Micron's 12x despite being the leader in high bandwidth memory (HBM) with over 50% market share in a market experiencing structural growth from AI compute demand, where HBM commands 3-5x pricing premiums over traditional DRAM; (2) the broader Korea discount may compress as the government's Corporate Value-Up Program takes effect and SK Hynix considers issuing an ADR; and (3) SK Square trades at a 54% holding company discount versus management's stated 30% medium-term target. Dan Loeb's Third Point suggests SK Square raise capital via a margin loan at 20% loan-to-value collateralized by SK Hynix shares to repurchase 32.7% of shares outstanding, which would compound the discount at both levels and serve as its own catalyst. Applying a 9.0x P/E multiple (the midpoint between SK Hynix and Micron's current valuations) to 2026E consensus earnings and assuming the holding company discount compresses to the 30% target yields a price target of ₩1,342,264, representing 141% upside from current levels, with the memory cycle recovery, Korea market re-rating, and holding company discount compression serving as triple catalysts.

Read the full article here. Read time: 4 min

GreenX Metals (GRX.L) is a dual-option arbitration and copper mining investment where the company won two UNCITRAL arbitrations against Poland totaling £252 million (approximately A$383 million after fees) for expropriation of Polish coal assets, with Poland's set-aside attempts rejected by Singapore courts and 70-80% of proceeds planned for shareholder return representing roughly 100% of current market cap. Simultaneously, GreenX owns the Tannenberg copper-silver project in Germany's historic Richelsdorf Mining District covering 1,900 km², with a 1940 historical report estimating 728,000 tonnes of contained copper (approximately $9 billion in-situ value at 2.6% grade) plus significant silver mineralization. The company recently discovered 95 drillholes from 1935-1938 in East German archives saving tens of millions in exploration costs, with modern assays confirming high-grade mineralization up to 2.7% copper and 55 g/t silver, and the project was selected for BHP Xplor funding. Using the Polish KGHM mine as an analogue where 95% of copper was found in sandstone and limestone rather than shale, the Tannenberg resource could potentially be 10-20x larger than the 1940s estimate, representing multi-billion dollar potential. The company plans to complete a JORC-compliant report by 2026 and may benefit from EU Critical Raw Materials Act expedited permitting and Germany's billion-dollar raw materials fund. Risks include arbitration collection timing, potential judicial setbacks, early-stage development challenges, permitting delays, and significant dilution risk common to junior miners, though downside appears protected at approximately 30-40% given the arbitration award floor while upside potential could reach 20-30x current share price.

Read the full article here. Read time: 19 min