Industry recovery and market share gains through high-end products.We expect the liquid milk industry to grow by 6% in 3Q17(vs. 7% in 1H17)and Yili's market share in liquid milk to increase from 33.6% in June to34% in September. High-end products, including UHT yoghurt, high-endyoghurt and pro biotic drinks, are the key sales drivers. Meanwhile, weexpect the lower tier region and special channel to deliver higher salesgrowth helped by Yili's increasing penetrations. Our recent channel check indicates that its sales growth remainsstrong in 3Q. The Shanghai distributor indicated that its room temperateproducts grew at 8% in both 1H17and 3Q; the Shenzhen distributorindicated its sales grew at higher than 10% YTD. Meanwhile, we find thatMengniu and Yili are revising up ex-factory price and retail price from July,implying that industry competition continues to ease down. 90bps yoy expansion of recurring EBIT margin. Our recent channelcheck indicates the price competition is stabilizing. We believe themore balanced supply/demand in upstream should also lead to a stablecompetition environment. Accordingly, we forecast a yoy flattish sellingexpense/sales ratio in 3Q17. The yoy EBIT margin expansion is mainlyhelped by lower G&A/sales from a high base in 3Q16, while partly offsetby lower gross margin on rising packaging cost and milk powder price. Sales growth to accelerate in 2017-19 Liquid milk growth is recovering from low single digits in 2016to high single digitsin 2017. Firstly, we think this is mainly helped by more balanced supply from2017, and we expect raw milk cycle to turn from over-supply in 2014-16to undersupplyin 2018-19. Secondly, the recovery is also helped by trading up demandfrom low-end milk beverage to pure milk and yoghurt. Thirdly, this is helped byYili's increasing penetration in lower tier regions and special channels. We believethese drivers are sustainable. We forecast Yili's sales CAGR to improve from 8%in 2014-16to 11% in 2017-18E.

Event 1- Clarification of potential investment in Luoyang LYC and Tianjin FAW On 19Sep 2017, Gree confirmed it had teamed up with Luoyang LocalGovernment and IIT Committee of Henan province, to participate in the “Luoyangintelligent equipment manufacturing production base project”, reported by thepress on 15Sep 2017. Total investment of this project is around RMB15bnincluding a site area of 5000mu, and the estimated production value will reachRMB30bn per annum after completion. Gree will also participate in the stateownedenterprise Reform of LYC Bearing; the investment amount from Gree hasyet to be defined. The company will make a further announcement if necessary. Meanwhile, Gree denied it intended to acquire Tianjin FAW Xiali as Souhu.comreported on 16Sep 2017. Gree clarified that it has never discussed the acquisitionof Xiali with Tianjin FAW. Event 2- Acquisition of 5% stake in Shanghai Highly Group Gree resumed trading on 19Sep and announced on 20Sep 2017that it hadsuccessfully bid for 43m shares of Shanghai Highly Group (600619.SS, NR)between 29Aug 2017and 19Sep 2017from its controlling shareholder, ShanghaiElectric Group (601727.SS, NR). Following the purchase, Gree owns a 5% stakein Shanghai Highly. Rationale for the purchase – to be an international company with well-rounded supply chain capability. Through this acquisition, Gree targets to expand itssupply chain base and consolidate quality capacity and resources in the market.It will also leverage on its international vision as a Shanghai company, on humanresources, information and innovation.It also mentioned the possibility of increasing its stake in Shanghai Highly in thenext 12months, although it does not intend to be the controlling shareholder ofHighly at the moment. It stated that: 1) it will not sell the purchased shares in thenext 12months; 2) it will continue to participate in the bidding for Highly’s sharesin the next 12months should Highly’s controlling shareholder, Shanghai Electric,plan to sell its stake in Highly. Deutsche Bank view – maintaining Buy We believe that business diversification remains as one of the key strategies forGree, and is in line with what it mentioned in its 2016annual report. Automationin the manufacturing process is one of the focuses for all upstream players. In1H17, Gree's manufacturing equipment business sales grew by 270%. As theinvestment of RMB15bn will be contributed by various partners, we believe Gree'sinvestment in Luoyang LYC can be funded from internal resources and will notaffect Gree's cashflow or dividend payout. To recap, as of end-2016, Gree hasnet cash of RMB84bn including net working capital. In 2016, its dividend payoutratio was 59%. Gree bought its interest in Highly at a price of RMB11.6-15.5/share (withinHighly's trading range during the period), which indicates Gree’s total investmentinto Highly is around RMB556-578m. The consideration implies a 2016PE of63-66x, EV/EBITDA of 11~12x, PB of 2.8-2.9x. The impact on the P&L should bevery minimal, in our view. The reason for this acquisition is mainly to verticallyintegrate its supply chain, as explained by Gree. Shanghai Highly is the leadingcompressor manufacturer in China with a 31.4% share of non-self-supportingcompressors in 1H17, according to Highly's interim report. As the largest clientfor Highly, Gree purchased 6m sets of compressors from Highly (total productionof 25m sets) in 2016. Other air conditioners, e.g., Midea and Haier, are all clientsof Highly. Gree also owns a compressor manufacturer, i.e., Zhuhai Landa, asubsidiary of Gree. We believe the investment in Highly will further secure Gree’scompressor supply and help it to gain market share and strengthen its dominantposition in the air-conditioner market, particularly in a high demand market.

Retail price declined from Rmb1550/bottle in July to Rmb1330-1350in the past two weeks in both Shenzhen and Shanghai. This is likelymainly due to increasing supply from Moutai from August 15andimplementation of 30% sales on the e-commerce platform policy. Theretail price of other customized Moutai which the company didn't enforcea price control kept rising. For example, the 350ml Moutai's retail priceincreased from Rmb1000/bottle in January to Rmb2000/bottle currently.Sales volume: The Shanghai distributor indicated that it has used up itsfull year procurement quota in 2017, and is currently beginning to usethe 1Q18quota. This implies that the distributors' actual sales volumein first nine month has achieved its full year target. To recap, Mr. WangChonglin, director of Moutai group sales company, said that the companywould sell 5600tons Feitian Moutai and 600tons of customized Moutaibetween 8/15to 9/30.。 Channel stockings: The Shanghai distributor believed there are somedemands from channel restockings, especially for private owneddistributors and wholesalers. However the Shenzhen distributor indicateda different current purchase behavior - with consumers typically buyingMoutai in cases, while normally buying Moutai in bottles - we think thisalso implies consumers are stocking up.。 Impacts from "restricting drinking liquor" policy from some localgovernments announced recently. Both Shenzhen and Shanghaidistributors feel the impact is limited, because they think 1) this is nota new regulation given there is already a similar regulation from 2012;2) the public sector's purchase portion is already low, which is less than30% according to the Shanghai distributor.。 Impacts from Moutai Cloud E-commerce platform (Moutai Yunshang).。 The distributors indicate that the real impacts will depend on how strictMoutai will monitor the sales volume on the platform. Though distributorsare required to put 30% of volume on the platform to sell at Rmb1299。

OP margin expanded 120bps to 12.2% in 2Q17, helped by 245bps expansion inGP margin due to better product mix and stablizing raw material price, while partlyoffset by higher A&P expense ratio. Three reasons for the strong sales recovery Yili's recurring sales growth improved from 6% yoy in 1Q17to 20% in 2Q17.We think this is mainly due to three reasons. Firstly, consumer staple sectorgenerally saw demand recovery from 2Q17, helped by recovering infrastructureand property investment from 2016and a lower base; secondly, competition inliquid milk is easing, thanks to more balanced supply and demand; and thirdly,Yili's strong distribution network and branding in high-end products makes it wellpositioned in the recovery. We believe these reasons should continue to driveYili's sales in the near-term. Reiterating Buy We revise up our earnings forecast by 10-12% in 2017-19E, mainly to factor inhigher sales growth driven by industry recovery and Yili's product mix upgrade.

Valuation remains inexpensive at 11/11x 17/18PE and 5% yield Gree’s 2Q17NP beat DB/market estimates by 35%/17% due to sales growthacceleration and operating leverage. We believe channel inventory remains at ahealthy level at the beginning of the cold year (end of July). Thus, we raised oursales forecasts for 2017-2019by 7-9%. Meanwhile, we lower our 2017GPMforecast by 1.6ppt to reflect raw material price hike pressure in 2H17. Although2018will be a tough year given high base in 2017due to property boom andrestocking, we believe product upgrades and relatively inexpensive valuationwith 5% yield warrants a Buy recommendation. 2H17outlook – channel inventory remains healthy but more pressure on GPM For 2H17, we expect Gree to report a 19% rise in sales with 10% increase involume as we believe the current channel inventory level remains healthy(~21m units). Meanwhile, we expect GPM to decline 1.3ppt to 31.4% from32.7% in 1H17due to continuous raw material price increase. However, opexratio might remain low as demand remains strong. We expect EBITM of 15%in 2H17(15.5% in 1H17). 2Q17NP beat due to sales growth acceleration and operating leverage 2Q17saw NP up 68% on sales up by 60% vs 1Q sales/NP up by 19%/27%,mainly thanks to restocking cycle and strong demand from retail end. GPMshrank 8ppt to 30.2% affected by raw materials cost hike, while opex ratiocontracted 12.6% to 14.1%. Thus, the company still enjoys an operatingleverage with EBIT margin improving 7.6ppt to 16%. Raising target price to RMB44.4from RMB38.87; risks We use DCF to value the company with a new target price of RMB44.4(oldRMB38.87), as we raise our FY17-FY19NP forecast by 7-9%. Our target priceimplies 13x/12x FY17/18PE, which is at a premium to its historical valuationpoint during de-stocking of channel inventory, and dividend yield at 4.6% forFY17E. Downside risks include competition, subsidy policy, and M&A.

To increase ex-factory volume from August 15 Kweichow Moutai will supply more than 4500tons of mainstream "FeitianMoutai" between 15August to 30September, according to the media reportsfrom China Securities Daily. This implies 100tons/day during the peak season.Meanwhile, the company has delivered 150tons on August 15according to thenews. Through increasing supply, Moutai management aims to ease down thesupply shortage in retail end during the peak consumption seasons (Mid-AutumnFestival and National Holidays). It also target to control the retail price belowRmb1299/bottle. This implies over 40% volume growth in 3Q17 This implies over 40% volume growth in 3Q17for main stream products, if itdelivers more than 100tons per day from August 15. To recap, Moutai's dailyvolume was 55tons in 3Q16, and we estimate the daily volume was 60-70tonsbefore August 15. In addition, we expect its average selling price for premiumMoutai continue to increase driven by increasing portion of super premiumcustomized Moutai. This is higher than 36% yoy sales growth in 1H17andconsensus estimates at 20% yoy sales growth for 2H17. Channel restocking to continue; maintaining Buy In next 6month, Moutai will experience two traditional peak consumptionseasons - the mid-Autumn festival & National holiday in October and Chinese NewYear in Feb 2018. We expect supply shortage to continue, driven by increasingretail demand and distributor's channel stocking up. Our recent channel checkin Shanghai and Beijing also indicates that most retail stores are running out ofinventories. (For Moutai's re-stocking and de-stocking cycle history, please referto report "The restocking cycle is just beginning; reiterating Buy" ) . Within theshortage environment, we expect Moutai to increase its sales volume and reportaccelerating sales growth. We maintain Buy.

Net profit growth accelerate in 2Q17 Kweichow Moutai reported 1H17 results with sales increased 33.1% toRMB24.19bn and net profit increased 27.8% yoy to RMB11.25bn, in line withour forecast at 11bn. Gross margin declined 2.3ppt to 89.6% in 1H17, mainlydue to faster sales growth form lower-end sub-brands. Management increasedmarketing efforts on lower end brands and its SG&A/sales ratio increased1.7ppt YoY to 14.1% in 1H17. In 2Q17, revenue/NPAT was up 33%/31% yoy, accelerated from +33%/+25%yoy in 1Q17. According to our channel check, Moutai's main products are stillshort of supply even in traditional slack season post Chinese New Yearholidays. We believe this is driven by industry demand recovery anddistributors' channel re-stockings with expectations of retail price hikes. As aresult, the advance from consumers is largely stable at Rmb17.8bn by end-2Q17, which is only 6% lower than 1Q17 even within a slack season. Maintaining Buy We reiterate Buy on Moutai due to its high earnings visibility backed byindustry demand recovery and channel restocking. Our TP at Rmb550 is basedon DCF approach (factoring in 9.5% WACC and a 2% terminal growth rate). Main downside risks: shorter-than-expected restocking cycle; governmentpolicy changes; food safety incidents.

Three-year growth targets reiterated; 2Q17update Management reiterated its 2017-19targets, including (1) a sales CAGR of 25%, (2) a net profit CAGR of 30% as well as (3) built-in products to reach 20% of itssales (vs. 10% in 2016). Management has strong ambitions for built-inproducts (microwaves, ovens, steam ovens, dishwashers and water purifiers)and it set a 10-year target for embedded products to account for 50% of itssales. For 2Q17, management expects sales growth to track in line with its 25% growth target. The gross margin should not be significantly impacted by hikingraw material costs, thanks to Robam’s raw material reserves as well as a ~5%hike in its wholesale price (on 1April 2017). We note that raw materialsrepresent 80% of Robam’s cost of goods sold.Cooling tier-1city property could have an impact, but lower tiers remain strongManagement stated that it normally takes 9-12months for the government’sproperty control measures to take effect. Approximately 80% of demand forRobam’s products comes from new flats. As a result, management estimatesthe tier-1city slowdown could have some impact on its revenue in 4Q17and1Q18. That said, tier-1cities represent 17% of Robam’s sales, with tier-2andbelow accounting for 45% and 38%, respectively. Plans to enhance competitiveness and marketing efficiency Management attributes Robam’s premium ROE to its strong pricing power,thanks to its first mover advantages in the high-end kitchenware market andtechnology leadership. To widen its lead, Robam plans to focus more onproduct innovation and increase R&D spending from 3% of sales now to 5% inthe next three years. Robam believes its emerging competitors (Midea andHaier) have not yet established premium branding and lag in productinnovation.Robam also plans to nimbly reallocate its marketing resources by focusing lesson TV commercials and shifting to online/digital. With higher returns onmarketing expenditure, management hopes to keep marketing expenses incheck. Channel reform and e-commerce ASP upgrade Finally, Robam plans to reform its wholesaler network to introduce a moresophisticated level of coverage and branch into lower-tier cites. Its ecommerceASP tends to be lower than it is for its off-line channel. Thecompany plans to reduce the gap in ASP in order to eventually promote high-ASP built-in products online.

Moutai Group: sales and earnings growth accelerate QoQ in 2Q17 On July 10, Moutai Group (the controlling shareholder of list-co Kweichou Moutai)indicated that sales (VAT included) increased 31% yoy to RMB31bn and profitbefore tax ("PBT") increased 24% yoy to RMB16bn in 1H17, according to newsrelease from its official website. This news implies Moutai Group's sales/earningsgrowth is accelerating from 24%/13% in 1Q17 to 40%/36% in 2Q17. According to the news, the strong growth has been mainly driven by 1) goodgrowth from high-end customized liquor and lower-end sub-brands; 2) overseassale; and 3) strong demand for main stream "Feitian Moutai". It indicates Moutai'smain products are still short of supply even in traditional slack season postChinese New Year holidays. Further, we believe this is also driven by distributors'channel re-stockings with expectations of retail price hikes (refer to our report"The restocking cycle is just beginning " published on June 22). Implications for the Listco: 1H17 growth tracks ahead of market consensus The listco Kweichou Moutai ("Moutai")'s sales/earnings growth trend tracksclosely with Moutai Group (refer to 1) since 2012, and the listco's sales accountsfor 93% of Moutai Group's total revenue in 2016. We believe it indicates thatlistco's sales/earnings growth also speed up QoQ in 2Q17. The sales/earningsgrowth of Moutai group in 1H17 is higher than market forecasts at 20%/25% forthe listco in 2017. We reiterate Buy on the stock. We expect above-mentioned drivers, especially thechannel restocking, to drive its sales growth in the near term. Our TP at Rmb550is based on DCF approach (factoring in 9.5% WACC and a 2% terminal growthrate). Main downside risks: shorter-than-expected restocking cycle; governmentpolicy changes; food safety incidents.

Channel restocking to be more relevant driver in 2H17-18 Revisiting Different from the market consensus that Moutai’s recent recovery has been driven mainly by recovering private consumption, we expect channel restocking to be a stronger growth driver from 2017. Based on our proprietary channel models, we think Moutai entered a new restocking cycle from late 2016 and this new cycle will continue in 2017-19. As indicated by historical experience, Moutai often increases its supply and raises ex-factory prices during a re-stocking cycle. Raising TP by 34%, to Rmb550, and reiterating Buy. Revisiting the channel restocking and destocking cycles of 2009-16 Owing to Moutai’s unique nature ? long shelf value, high-value items and limited supply perception, channel players demonstrate a strong impetus to store up on Moutai’s products when a price appreciation expectation emerges. In 2009-12, Moutai’s growth was driven firstly by demand recovery from infrastructure investments, and then by channel restocking, due to (and resulting in) a retail price hike expectation. In 2013-16, demand for Moutai’s products was firstly affected by anti-extravagant measures and then by channel destocking, which resulted in a retail price collapse. Entering a new restocking cycle from 2017 After building a channel inventory model, we find that, owing to heavy channel destocking and increasing consumption in 2013-16, Moutai’s current channel stocking is at a seven-year low. From 2017, driven by price appreciation expectations, Moutai has started to enter a new channel restocking cycle. We expect this cycle to continue into 2017-19. As a reaction to the restocking cycles, we expect Moutai to increase its supply and raise its ex-factory prices in the near term. Raising target price (TP) by 34%; reiterating Buy; risks We raise our TP by 34%, to Rmb550, based on a DCF approach (factoring in 9.5% WACC and a 2% terminal growth rate), and we reiterate our Buy rating. Moutai is trading at 22x 2018E P/E, with a 24% earnings CAGR in 2016-19E, compared with its peers’ average P/E of 24x. Reiterating Buy. Main downside risks: shorter-than-expected restocking cycle; government policy changes; food safety incidents.

This is in line with Haier’s long-term strategy. PML operates production ofautomation & customized intelligent equipment mainly for RF and WM,and provides solutions for factory management system. Qingdao Haier Co.,Ltd believed that the deal would help the company to further enhance itsintelligence manufacturing capability by integrating PML’s COSMOlineintelligence manufacturing digital platform into its own COSMOPlatplatform. We believe net margin should improve for both. This deal is the first step for materializing commitment. To recap, QingdaoHaier acquired 20% of FPA in 2009 and acquired the remaining stake ofthe company at a consideration of USD701m (RMB4.5bn) in 2012. In orderto avoid competition between Qinghai Haier and FPA, Haier Groupannounced in January 2011 that it will inject white goods asset to QingdaoHaier within five years. Though, this has been delayed as Haier Groupbelieves that FPA’s financial performance was short of expectations andneeds more time for integration. In 2015, Haier Group agreed to inject FPAasset into Qingdao Haier by June 2020.

A quality growth stock Sales growth remains good in near-term Yili attended Deutsche Bank’s global consumer conference in Paris and also visited investors in the UK last week. We summarize investors’ top 5 questions on page 2. Investors generally agreed on the good growth potential for China’s dairy sector and were impressed by Yili’s strong execution capability. We think Yili is a good proxy for investing in China’s consumption trade-up trend in nutritional products. We reiterate our Buy rating. Sales growth remains good in near-term Management expects sales growth in 2Q17 to improve vs. 1Q17 (it was 3% yoy in 1Q17), helped by stabilizing competition and a lower base (it disposed of Youran farm in April 2016). Meanwhile, major raw material costs, i.e. packaging and sugar, are also stabilizing in 2Q17 vs 1Q17, albeit partly offset by less use of low-cost raw material inventory. We forecast gross margin to be stable vs. 1Q17. For the full year, management maintains its guidance at 7% sales growth and 6.5% PBT decline (on lower government subsidy income). Multiple drivers to achieve Rmb100bn sales in long-term In the long term, management maintains its target of achieving Rmb100bn sales and becoming a global top five dairy company. Firstly, it expects to achieve higher-than-peers growth in basic dairy products. Secondly, the major driver will come from plant-based milk (it will launch soy milk in 2H17), organic milk (it is bidding for US Stonyfield), and chilled yoghurt. Thirdly, it is also open to entering the non-dairy healthy food category. On EBIT margin, Yili is already higher than most global peers, but it thinks there is still expansion potential through better product mix and the launch of high-margin categories. We reiterate Buy We like Yili for its experienced management team, strong distribution network, and good track record in new product launches. We expect it to achieve higher-than-peers growth through gaining market share, category expansion and M&A. We reiterate our Buy on Yili with TP of Rmb22, based on DCF model, factoring in 9.5% WACC (3.9% RFR, 5.6% ERP, 1.0 beta, debt-free structure) and 2% TG.. Key downside risks: higher-than-expected raw material increases, food safety incidents and worse-than-expected competition.

Maintaining Buy with new target price of RMB16.51 Premiumization strategy bearing fruit We maintain our Buy recommendation on Qingdao Haier thanks to its globalization and premiumization strategy. Its core business started to pick up since 2H16 and expects to see a robust growth in terms of sales and NP. The synergy of GEA is also ahead of expectation and thus it raised the accumulated synergy effect benefit from USD130m to USD310m for 2016-2019F, as stated in the annual report. We estimate the company to report NP CAGR of 18% for the three years vs. FY17 PE16x, which is inexpensive. Premiumization strategy bearing fruit To cater for current consumption upgrade trend, Qingdao Haier has laid out clear brand segmentation, specifically with premium brands, e.g. GEA to penetrate high-end market. It also sees additional RMB3bn revenue from high-end home furnishing and decoration channels. This strategy enabled Haier to secure growth with ASP increase, thus becoming a defensive margin player (GPM expanded 3.1ppt/1.5ppt to 31%/30% in 2016/1Q17). We conservatively expect GPM to improve to 32.2% in 2019. Across-the-board growth acceleration in 2017 The company expects RF and WM to see a better-than-industry growth in 2017 (we forecast the industry growth for RF will decline 1.1%, while that for WM will increase 3.9% in 2017 in volume vs China IOL’s projection of - 4.7%/+3.6%). AC will even grow faster and continue gaining market share. 1H trend will remain consistent with 1Q momentum across the board. We lift our DCF-based target price by 35.3% to RMB16.51 (old: RMB12.20) Our DCF-based target price is RMB16.51, as we raise our forecast by 8-9% for 2017-18 and roll over our DCF forecast we used a blended COE of 8.5%, long-term growth rate of 1.5% and a target capital structure with zero debt assumption. This translates into 16/14x FY17/18E P/E, which is in line with its historical PE multiple. Downside company risks: 1) slower-than-expected revenue growth in domestic and overseas markets, 2) smooth transition of the acquired business, 3) failure to achieve synergy, and 4) unfavorable FX.

Maintaining Buy with new target price at RMB38.87 We expect domestic market sale-in volume to rise 16% to 70m in 2017 We maintain our Buy recommendation on Gree as we believe it will benefit from its strategy of offsetting the rise in raw material prices with new model launches. This move to not raise its retail prices too aggressively will help gain volume. However, given its lion’s share in the market, we expect Gree’s share to increase 2ppt to 45%. Meanwhile, its plan to diversify the business from AC is likely a mid-term strategy, which is unlikely to have key contributions in the short term. We raise our NP for FY17/18 by 21%/15% and introduce the 2019 forecast. We raise our TP by 36.5% to RMB38.87, which is a combination of earnings revisions and is based on rolling over of our first DCF forecast year. We expect domestic market sale-in volume to rise 16% to 70m in 2017 This is based on a 2.2% rise in retail demand to 69m sets (buoyant property market and government promoting central AC) and ~3m inventory channel restocking. Please refer to Figure 19 and Figure 20 for our retail demand model. Outlook for Gree We expect a 21% rise in sales in 2017, of which 81% would come from AC, up 23%. In our model, we expect a 19% rise in sales volume to 42.9m in 2017, which will likely normalize to 6% each year for 2018/19. We expect overall GPM to increase 0.5ppt to 34% due to launch of new models and we expect EBITM to improve 1.7ppt to 14.2%. Raising target price to RMB38.87from RMB28.48; risks We use DCF to value the company with a new target price of RMB38.87 (old RMB28.48), as we roll over the DCF forecast year to 2027 and raise our FY17/18 forecast by 21%/15% (details on page 3). We also introduce the 2019 forecast. Our target price implies 12x/11x FY17/18 PE, which is at a premium to its historical valuation point during de-stocking of channel inventory, and dividend yield at 4.6% for FY17E. Downside risks include competition, subsidy policy, and M&A.

We adjusted our TP and EPS by a factor of 1.3x to reflect the increase in number of shares to 949m shares as a result of the company’s announcement of 3 bonus shares for every 10 existing shares. The ex date was on 10 May.