Equity Bottom-Up

In this briefing:

1. IQiyi (IQ): In 4Q18, Baidu’s Growth Engine Lost Control Over Content Cost
2. HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Geely, Great Wall Motor and Sands China (2019-02-22)
3. CSE Global: Gaining Momentum
4. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 1 – Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ)
5. Maxis Revenues Stabilizing. Ambitious Long Term Goals in Enterprise and Connectivity

1. IQiyi (IQ): In 4Q18, Baidu’s Growth Engine Lost Control Over Content Cost

• We notice that the growth rate of cost of revenues exceeded the growth rate of membership revenues.
• We believe that the margins will continue to decline even if the advertising business recovers.
• IQ has the largest monthly active users in the video market, but it does not have an obvious advantage over Tencent Holdings (700 HK) .

2. HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Geely, Great Wall Motor and Sands China (2019-02-22)

In our Discover HK Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of southbound trades via the Hong Kong Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by mainland investors in the past seven days.

We split the stocks eligible for the Hong Kong Connect trade into three groups: component stocks in the HSCEI index, stocks with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion, and stocks with a market capitalization between USD 500 million and USD 1 billion.

In this week’s HK Connect Discovery, we highlight the strong inflow to automobile stocks and Sands China. 

3. CSE Global: Gaining Momentum

• Investors who have bought CSE Global on dips since my last note would have profited ~18%.
• The upbeat guidance by management and supply-demand environment should give some legs to the recent rebound.
• While risks of slower global growth may weigh on the stock, the stock is trading below its five-year average PE despite significantly improved cash flow from operations and a healthy order intake (three-year high). 

4. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 1 – Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ)

In this series under Smartkarma Originals, CrossASEAN insight providers AngusMackintosh and Jessica Irene seek to determine whether or not we are close to the end of the rainbow and to a period of outperformance for the property sector. Our end conclusions will be based on a series of company visits to the major listed property companies in Indonesia, conversations with local banks, property agents, and other relevant channel checks. 

The first company that we explore is Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ), a township developer with 38 years of track record. With 75 ongoing township projects in 33 cities, CTRA has the widest coverage of any developer in Indonesia. However, tightening policies by the Bank Indonesia (BI), in particular the presales mortgage disbursement regulation caused a significant drop in operating cashflow and increased gearing level.

Earnings have been on a downtrend, as slower revenue recognition coupled with higher interest costs have weighed on the bottom line. As BI has recently started to relax property regulations, we may begin to see some positive impact on cash flows over the next few quarters, although earnings are likely to remain weak from declining presales over the past three years.

As we enter the election year, presales announcements may not be positive in the short term, but activities may improve after the electoral contest, helped by a pick up in sentiment and boosted by a better interest rate environment and positive regulatory tailwinds. Potential portfolio inflow to high beta stocks and rising risk appetite for smaller cap underperforming stocks should also drive CTRA’s share price outperformance in 2019. We see a 50% upside to our target price of IDR1,352 per share.

Summary of this insight:

• The property development product portfolio includes landed housing, high-rise condominiums, and offices. Landed housing projects are still CTRA’s bread and butter, comprising more than half of the company’s revenue and more than two-thirds of presales. As the property demand is currently dominated by the end-users, CTRA’s product offering is shifting towards smaller more affordable units. We have put together an example mortgage calculation and determine a key affordability level based on the average income per capita in the Greater Jakarta to illustrate how much should a housing unit be worth for the end users market.
• The investment properties portfolio consists of 4 malls, 9 hotels, and 4 hospitals across the major cities in Indonesia, making up 13%, 8%, and 6% of 9M18 total consolidated revenues respectively. This is a 68% increase in revenue contribution versus five years ago. The company has been actively building its investment property portfolio to weather out the volatility in the non-recurring or development revenue.
• Accessibility is a key factor to land appreciation and hence, company’s total NAV. With the traffic worsening around the Greater Jakarta area, time to commute is an increasingly important factor in determining where to stay and access to public transportation such as MRT and LRT will be a powerful driver going forward. CTRA has a very diverse property development portfolio, hence the benefit of the infrastructure rollout is more widespread across the different projects.
• 65% of CTRA’s presales are generated from units priced IDR2bn and below, which indicate that the majority of CTRA’s buyers are in the middle to middle-low segments. These buyers are price sensitive and are highly dependent on financing. CTRA’s mortgage and in-house installment proportion is one of the highest in our property universe, making the company more susceptible to the changes in the property mortgage regulation by the Central Bank (BI).

• The property mortgage regulation in Indonesia has had few rounds of changes in the past decade, with a series of tightening measures taking place between 2013-2014, and the start of loosening measures in 2016-2018. We will discuss in depth the various property regulations issued and its impact on CTRA’s cashflow. We also constructed a cashflow simulation time series for a sample housing sale to determine the time needed for the project to turn net cashflow positive and when can the developer reinvest for future landbank of equivalent value.
• Pros: as we expect a better rate of cash inflow from future mortgages, our model shows that the advances-to-inventory ratio, which is an indicative figure for the property developers’ working capital, will begin to rise in 2019, leading to an inflection point for CTRA’s FCF. One-off adjustment in the earlier booking of 2019’s first mortgage disbursement is the key driver. 

• Cons: CTRA booked three consecutive years of negative presales growth with a decline rate of -11% Cagr. This indicates that the accounting revenue growth will more likely be weaker over the next 12-18 months. We also estimate that margin should continue to trend down until 2020. As we continue to see a larger proportion of units priced below IDR1bn in the past 2 years, it is unlikely to see a pick up in margin in 2019-2020.

• Cons: Election year to election year, we may see some similarity between the 2014 and 2019’s quarterly presales split. 1Q14 and 2Q14 contributed 41% to total FY14 presales, while 4Q14 contributed a chunky 33%. If we assume the same quarterly split for 2019 presales target, we may potentially see 13%-27% YoY declines in the next three quarters of presales reporting. Note however that the BI issued its first round of tightening regulations at the end of 2013 and this may have an impact to the 1H14 presales. Also there is a difference in the election schedules as the 2014 election was dragged on until late August, while the 2019 contest will be done by end of April.
• Recommendation & catalyst: CTRA share price has underperformed the JCI by 24% in the past 12 months. Though the share price has a nice 28% rebound from its 5-year low point, CTRA’s discount to net asset value (NAV) and price-to-book (PB) ratio is still at more than -1 standard deviation below its historical mean. Its price-to-earnings (PE) ratio however is only slightly below the historical mean. Improving risk appetite for high beta stocks, better interest rate environment, accomodative policies from the government, and potential pick up of activity after the election are a few of the key catalysts for the stock and sector. This underlines our BUY recommendation on CTRA with 50% upside. Our bull case scenario of rerating to +1 standard deviation above mean valuation offers 26% additional upside to our TP. 

5. Maxis Revenues Stabilizing. Ambitious Long Term Goals in Enterprise and Connectivity

In late January, we upgraded our view on the Malaysian telecom sector after 6 years of being negative. We also and noted that Maxis was best placed to benefit from increased bundling and Enterprise opportunities (due to low cost access to Telekom Malaysia’s (T MK) (TM) fibre infrastructure).  We see signs the current round of results (4Q18) as being supportive of this view. While Maxis 4Q numbers were affected by one offs, the key is a return to service revenue growth while we think the market will view Maxis’ long term revenue guidance positively. Longer term, Maxis announced aggressive longer term revenue targets based on a move into Enterprise and fixed connectivity which should deliver significant revenue growth.

In this briefing:

1. HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Geely, Great Wall Motor and Sands China (2019-02-22)
2. CSE Global: Gaining Momentum
3. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 1 – Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ)
4. Maxis Revenues Stabilizing. Ambitious Long Term Goals in Enterprise and Connectivity
5. BBTN: Indonesia Has Special Mention Problems Too

1. HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Geely, Great Wall Motor and Sands China (2019-02-22)

In our Discover HK Connect series, we aim to help our investors understand the flow of southbound trades via the Hong Kong Connect, as analyzed by our proprietary data engine. We will discuss the stocks that experienced the most inflow and outflow by mainland investors in the past seven days.

We split the stocks eligible for the Hong Kong Connect trade into three groups: component stocks in the HSCEI index, stocks with a market capitalization between USD 1 billion and USD 5 billion, and stocks with a market capitalization between USD 500 million and USD 1 billion.

In this week’s HK Connect Discovery, we highlight the strong inflow to automobile stocks and Sands China. 

2. CSE Global: Gaining Momentum

• Investors who have bought CSE Global on dips since my last note would have profited ~18%.
• The upbeat guidance by management and supply-demand environment should give some legs to the recent rebound.
• While risks of slower global growth may weigh on the stock, the stock is trading below its five-year average PE despite significantly improved cash flow from operations and a healthy order intake (three-year high). 

3. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 1 – Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ)

In this series under Smartkarma Originals, CrossASEAN insight providers AngusMackintosh and Jessica Irene seek to determine whether or not we are close to the end of the rainbow and to a period of outperformance for the property sector. Our end conclusions will be based on a series of company visits to the major listed property companies in Indonesia, conversations with local banks, property agents, and other relevant channel checks. 

The first company that we explore is Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ), a township developer with 38 years of track record. With 75 ongoing township projects in 33 cities, CTRA has the widest coverage of any developer in Indonesia. However, tightening policies by the Bank Indonesia (BI), in particular the presales mortgage disbursement regulation caused a significant drop in operating cashflow and increased gearing level.

Earnings have been on a downtrend, as slower revenue recognition coupled with higher interest costs have weighed on the bottom line. As BI has recently started to relax property regulations, we may begin to see some positive impact on cash flows over the next few quarters, although earnings are likely to remain weak from declining presales over the past three years.

As we enter the election year, presales announcements may not be positive in the short term, but activities may improve after the electoral contest, helped by a pick up in sentiment and boosted by a better interest rate environment and positive regulatory tailwinds. Potential portfolio inflow to high beta stocks and rising risk appetite for smaller cap underperforming stocks should also drive CTRA’s share price outperformance in 2019. We see a 50% upside to our target price of IDR1,352 per share.

Summary of this insight:

• The property development product portfolio includes landed housing, high-rise condominiums, and offices. Landed housing projects are still CTRA’s bread and butter, comprising more than half of the company’s revenue and more than two-thirds of presales. As the property demand is currently dominated by the end-users, CTRA’s product offering is shifting towards smaller more affordable units. We have put together an example mortgage calculation and determine a key affordability level based on the average income per capita in the Greater Jakarta to illustrate how much should a housing unit be worth for the end users market.
• The investment properties portfolio consists of 4 malls, 9 hotels, and 4 hospitals across the major cities in Indonesia, making up 13%, 8%, and 6% of 9M18 total consolidated revenues respectively. This is a 68% increase in revenue contribution versus five years ago. The company has been actively building its investment property portfolio to weather out the volatility in the non-recurring or development revenue.
• Accessibility is a key factor to land appreciation and hence, company’s total NAV. With the traffic worsening around the Greater Jakarta area, time to commute is an increasingly important factor in determining where to stay and access to public transportation such as MRT and LRT will be a powerful driver going forward. CTRA has a very diverse property development portfolio, hence the benefit of the infrastructure rollout is more widespread across the different projects.
• 65% of CTRA’s presales are generated from units priced IDR2bn and below, which indicate that the majority of CTRA’s buyers are in the middle to middle-low segments. These buyers are price sensitive and are highly dependent on financing. CTRA’s mortgage and in-house installment proportion is one of the highest in our property universe, making the company more susceptible to the changes in the property mortgage regulation by the Central Bank (BI).

• The property mortgage regulation in Indonesia has had few rounds of changes in the past decade, with a series of tightening measures taking place between 2013-2014, and the start of loosening measures in 2016-2018. We will discuss in depth the various property regulations issued and its impact on CTRA’s cashflow. We also constructed a cashflow simulation time series for a sample housing sale to determine the time needed for the project to turn net cashflow positive and when can the developer reinvest for future landbank of equivalent value.
• Pros: as we expect a better rate of cash inflow from future mortgages, our model shows that the advances-to-inventory ratio, which is an indicative figure for the property developers’ working capital, will begin to rise in 2019, leading to an inflection point for CTRA’s FCF. One-off adjustment in the earlier booking of 2019’s first mortgage disbursement is the key driver. 

• Cons: CTRA booked three consecutive years of negative presales growth with a decline rate of -11% Cagr. This indicates that the accounting revenue growth will more likely be weaker over the next 12-18 months. We also estimate that margin should continue to trend down until 2020. As we continue to see a larger proportion of units priced below IDR1bn in the past 2 years, it is unlikely to see a pick up in margin in 2019-2020.

• Cons: Election year to election year, we may see some similarity between the 2014 and 2019’s quarterly presales split. 1Q14 and 2Q14 contributed 41% to total FY14 presales, while 4Q14 contributed a chunky 33%. If we assume the same quarterly split for 2019 presales target, we may potentially see 13%-27% YoY declines in the next three quarters of presales reporting. Note however that the BI issued its first round of tightening regulations at the end of 2013 and this may have an impact to the 1H14 presales. Also there is a difference in the election schedules as the 2014 election was dragged on until late August, while the 2019 contest will be done by end of April.
• Recommendation & catalyst: CTRA share price has underperformed the JCI by 24% in the past 12 months. Though the share price has a nice 28% rebound from its 5-year low point, CTRA’s discount to net asset value (NAV) and price-to-book (PB) ratio is still at more than -1 standard deviation below its historical mean. Its price-to-earnings (PE) ratio however is only slightly below the historical mean. Improving risk appetite for high beta stocks, better interest rate environment, accomodative policies from the government, and potential pick up of activity after the election are a few of the key catalysts for the stock and sector. This underlines our BUY recommendation on CTRA with 50% upside. Our bull case scenario of rerating to +1 standard deviation above mean valuation offers 26% additional upside to our TP. 

4. Maxis Revenues Stabilizing. Ambitious Long Term Goals in Enterprise and Connectivity

In late January, we upgraded our view on the Malaysian telecom sector after 6 years of being negative. We also and noted that Maxis was best placed to benefit from increased bundling and Enterprise opportunities (due to low cost access to Telekom Malaysia’s (T MK) (TM) fibre infrastructure).  We see signs the current round of results (4Q18) as being supportive of this view. While Maxis 4Q numbers were affected by one offs, the key is a return to service revenue growth while we think the market will view Maxis’ long term revenue guidance positively. Longer term, Maxis announced aggressive longer term revenue targets based on a move into Enterprise and fixed connectivity which should deliver significant revenue growth.

5. BBTN: Indonesia Has Special Mention Problems Too

Bank Tabungan Negara Persero (BBTN IJ) appears to have a nasty combination of high Special Mention Loans (SMLs) and elevated “past due but unimpaired Loans”.

The implication is that provisioning levels are insufficient in an environment of eroding asset quality.

But the bank continues to grow credit by around 20% YoY.

The bank is hugely exposed to the retail real estate market (91% of Loans).

In fact, the Indonesian Banking Sector is rife with high SMLs and in some cases elevated “past due but unimpaired Loans”.

SMLs are traditionally associated with Chinese under-reporting of underlying bad loans, and hence the production of a somewhat flattering Asset Quality picture.

Maybe, the health and valuation of the Indonesian Banking Sector needs to be reassessed with implications for IDR.

In this briefing:

1. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 1 – Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ)
2. Maxis Revenues Stabilizing. Ambitious Long Term Goals in Enterprise and Connectivity
3. BBTN: Indonesia Has Special Mention Problems Too
4. Westpac Banking: Looking Fragile
5. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned

1. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 1 – Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ)

In this series under Smartkarma Originals, CrossASEAN insight providers AngusMackintosh and Jessica Irene seek to determine whether or not we are close to the end of the rainbow and to a period of outperformance for the property sector. Our end conclusions will be based on a series of company visits to the major listed property companies in Indonesia, conversations with local banks, property agents, and other relevant channel checks. 

The first company that we explore is Ciputra Development (CTRA IJ), a township developer with 38 years of track record. With 75 ongoing township projects in 33 cities, CTRA has the widest coverage of any developer in Indonesia. However, tightening policies by the Bank Indonesia (BI), in particular the presales mortgage disbursement regulation caused a significant drop in operating cashflow and increased gearing level.

Earnings have been on a downtrend, as slower revenue recognition coupled with higher interest costs have weighed on the bottom line. As BI has recently started to relax property regulations, we may begin to see some positive impact on cash flows over the next few quarters, although earnings are likely to remain weak from declining presales over the past three years.

As we enter the election year, presales announcements may not be positive in the short term, but activities may improve after the electoral contest, helped by a pick up in sentiment and boosted by a better interest rate environment and positive regulatory tailwinds. Potential portfolio inflow to high beta stocks and rising risk appetite for smaller cap underperforming stocks should also drive CTRA’s share price outperformance in 2019. We see a 50% upside to our target price of IDR1,352 per share.

Summary of this insight:

• The property development product portfolio includes landed housing, high-rise condominiums, and offices. Landed housing projects are still CTRA’s bread and butter, comprising more than half of the company’s revenue and more than two-thirds of presales. As the property demand is currently dominated by the end-users, CTRA’s product offering is shifting towards smaller more affordable units. We have put together an example mortgage calculation and determine a key affordability level based on the average income per capita in the Greater Jakarta to illustrate how much should a housing unit be worth for the end users market.
• The investment properties portfolio consists of 4 malls, 9 hotels, and 4 hospitals across the major cities in Indonesia, making up 13%, 8%, and 6% of 9M18 total consolidated revenues respectively. This is a 68% increase in revenue contribution versus five years ago. The company has been actively building its investment property portfolio to weather out the volatility in the non-recurring or development revenue.
• Accessibility is a key factor to land appreciation and hence, company’s total NAV. With the traffic worsening around the Greater Jakarta area, time to commute is an increasingly important factor in determining where to stay and access to public transportation such as MRT and LRT will be a powerful driver going forward. CTRA has a very diverse property development portfolio, hence the benefit of the infrastructure rollout is more widespread across the different projects.
• 65% of CTRA’s presales are generated from units priced IDR2bn and below, which indicate that the majority of CTRA’s buyers are in the middle to middle-low segments. These buyers are price sensitive and are highly dependent on financing. CTRA’s mortgage and in-house installment proportion is one of the highest in our property universe, making the company more susceptible to the changes in the property mortgage regulation by the Central Bank (BI).

• The property mortgage regulation in Indonesia has had few rounds of changes in the past decade, with a series of tightening measures taking place between 2013-2014, and the start of loosening measures in 2016-2018. We will discuss in depth the various property regulations issued and its impact on CTRA’s cashflow. We also constructed a cashflow simulation time series for a sample housing sale to determine the time needed for the project to turn net cashflow positive and when can the developer reinvest for future landbank of equivalent value.
• Pros: as we expect a better rate of cash inflow from future mortgages, our model shows that the advances-to-inventory ratio, which is an indicative figure for the property developers’ working capital, will begin to rise in 2019, leading to an inflection point for CTRA’s FCF. One-off adjustment in the earlier booking of 2019’s first mortgage disbursement is the key driver. 

• Cons: CTRA booked three consecutive years of negative presales growth with a decline rate of -11% Cagr. This indicates that the accounting revenue growth will more likely be weaker over the next 12-18 months. We also estimate that margin should continue to trend down until 2020. As we continue to see a larger proportion of units priced below IDR1bn in the past 2 years, it is unlikely to see a pick up in margin in 2019-2020.

• Cons: Election year to election year, we may see some similarity between the 2014 and 2019’s quarterly presales split. 1Q14 and 2Q14 contributed 41% to total FY14 presales, while 4Q14 contributed a chunky 33%. If we assume the same quarterly split for 2019 presales target, we may potentially see 13%-27% YoY declines in the next three quarters of presales reporting. Note however that the BI issued its first round of tightening regulations at the end of 2013 and this may have an impact to the 1H14 presales. Also there is a difference in the election schedules as the 2014 election was dragged on until late August, while the 2019 contest will be done by end of April.
• Recommendation & catalyst: CTRA share price has underperformed the JCI by 24% in the past 12 months. Though the share price has a nice 28% rebound from its 5-year low point, CTRA’s discount to net asset value (NAV) and price-to-book (PB) ratio is still at more than -1 standard deviation below its historical mean. Its price-to-earnings (PE) ratio however is only slightly below the historical mean. Improving risk appetite for high beta stocks, better interest rate environment, accomodative policies from the government, and potential pick up of activity after the election are a few of the key catalysts for the stock and sector. This underlines our BUY recommendation on CTRA with 50% upside. Our bull case scenario of rerating to +1 standard deviation above mean valuation offers 26% additional upside to our TP. 

2. Maxis Revenues Stabilizing. Ambitious Long Term Goals in Enterprise and Connectivity

In late January, we upgraded our view on the Malaysian telecom sector after 6 years of being negative. We also and noted that Maxis was best placed to benefit from increased bundling and Enterprise opportunities (due to low cost access to Telekom Malaysia’s (T MK) (TM) fibre infrastructure).  We see signs the current round of results (4Q18) as being supportive of this view. While Maxis 4Q numbers were affected by one offs, the key is a return to service revenue growth while we think the market will view Maxis’ long term revenue guidance positively. Longer term, Maxis announced aggressive longer term revenue targets based on a move into Enterprise and fixed connectivity which should deliver significant revenue growth.

3. BBTN: Indonesia Has Special Mention Problems Too

Bank Tabungan Negara Persero (BBTN IJ) appears to have a nasty combination of high Special Mention Loans (SMLs) and elevated “past due but unimpaired Loans”.

The implication is that provisioning levels are insufficient in an environment of eroding asset quality.

But the bank continues to grow credit by around 20% YoY.

The bank is hugely exposed to the retail real estate market (91% of Loans).

In fact, the Indonesian Banking Sector is rife with high SMLs and in some cases elevated “past due but unimpaired Loans”.

SMLs are traditionally associated with Chinese under-reporting of underlying bad loans, and hence the production of a somewhat flattering Asset Quality picture.

Maybe, the health and valuation of the Indonesian Banking Sector needs to be reassessed with implications for IDR.

4. Westpac Banking: Looking Fragile

Westpac Banking (WBC AU) is facing a class action suit regarding alleged irresponsible lending in home loans since 2011. This is the first class action against a major Australian bank since the publication of the royal commission’s final report.

The ramifications of the royal commission report remain a source of debate with elections coming up. But, in general, banks will not be allowed to conduct operations in a “business-as-usual way”. There will be consequences for credit provision.

Westpac’s Balance Sheet looks decidedly fragile as it stands. The bank is entering a slowdown from a position of weakness.

Exposures to Australia’s slowing economy (not unrelated of course to China), the dovish turn at the Central Bank, and in particular its bubbly housing market make us hyper cautious. The highly volatile Aussie dollar tumbled from levels above $0.7200 to below $0.7100 following reports that China banned coal imports from the country at a major port.

Despite the sinking share prices of Australia’s main banks, valuations may still be too high given the varied headwinds.

5. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned

Celltrion Healthcare (091990 KS) reported preliminary 2018 results that were dramatically short of expectations as the company cut shipments to reduce distributors’ inventories. Management had announced plans to shift to a direct sales model to get better control over pricing decisions, but the magnitude of Q4’s shortfall (94% decline in revenue) raises questions about the role of “channel stuffing” in boosting prior periods’ results. In addition, we expect some spillover effect on Celltrion Inc (068270 KS)‘s Q4’s results. This Insight discusses the results in brief and contrasts Celltrion Healthcare’s results with those of Samsung Bioepis. 

We continue to avoid these stocks.

In this briefing:

1. Maxis Revenues Stabilizing. Ambitious Long Term Goals in Enterprise and Connectivity
2. BBTN: Indonesia Has Special Mention Problems Too
3. Westpac Banking: Looking Fragile
4. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned
5. EPG: Revising Down Earnings by 10-12% While Long-Term Outlook Still Intact

1. Maxis Revenues Stabilizing. Ambitious Long Term Goals in Enterprise and Connectivity

In late January, we upgraded our view on the Malaysian telecom sector after 6 years of being negative. We also and noted that Maxis was best placed to benefit from increased bundling and Enterprise opportunities (due to low cost access to Telekom Malaysia’s (T MK) (TM) fibre infrastructure).  We see signs the current round of results (4Q18) as being supportive of this view. While Maxis 4Q numbers were affected by one offs, the key is a return to service revenue growth while we think the market will view Maxis’ long term revenue guidance positively. Longer term, Maxis announced aggressive longer term revenue targets based on a move into Enterprise and fixed connectivity which should deliver significant revenue growth.

2. BBTN: Indonesia Has Special Mention Problems Too

Bank Tabungan Negara Persero (BBTN IJ) appears to have a nasty combination of high Special Mention Loans (SMLs) and elevated “past due but unimpaired Loans”.

The implication is that provisioning levels are insufficient in an environment of eroding asset quality.

But the bank continues to grow credit by around 20% YoY.

The bank is hugely exposed to the retail real estate market (91% of Loans).

In fact, the Indonesian Banking Sector is rife with high SMLs and in some cases elevated “past due but unimpaired Loans”.

SMLs are traditionally associated with Chinese under-reporting of underlying bad loans, and hence the production of a somewhat flattering Asset Quality picture.

Maybe, the health and valuation of the Indonesian Banking Sector needs to be reassessed with implications for IDR.

3. Westpac Banking: Looking Fragile

Westpac Banking (WBC AU) is facing a class action suit regarding alleged irresponsible lending in home loans since 2011. This is the first class action against a major Australian bank since the publication of the royal commission’s final report.

The ramifications of the royal commission report remain a source of debate with elections coming up. But, in general, banks will not be allowed to conduct operations in a “business-as-usual way”. There will be consequences for credit provision.

Westpac’s Balance Sheet looks decidedly fragile as it stands. The bank is entering a slowdown from a position of weakness.

Exposures to Australia’s slowing economy (not unrelated of course to China), the dovish turn at the Central Bank, and in particular its bubbly housing market make us hyper cautious. The highly volatile Aussie dollar tumbled from levels above $0.7200 to below $0.7100 following reports that China banned coal imports from the country at a major port.

Despite the sinking share prices of Australia’s main banks, valuations may still be too high given the varied headwinds.

4. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned

Celltrion Healthcare (091990 KS) reported preliminary 2018 results that were dramatically short of expectations as the company cut shipments to reduce distributors’ inventories. Management had announced plans to shift to a direct sales model to get better control over pricing decisions, but the magnitude of Q4’s shortfall (94% decline in revenue) raises questions about the role of “channel stuffing” in boosting prior periods’ results. In addition, we expect some spillover effect on Celltrion Inc (068270 KS)‘s Q4’s results. This Insight discusses the results in brief and contrasts Celltrion Healthcare’s results with those of Samsung Bioepis. 

We continue to avoid these stocks.

5. EPG: Revising Down Earnings by 10-12% While Long-Term Outlook Still Intact

We revise down EPG’s net profit forecast by 10-12% in 2019-21E. However, we still maintain our positive outlook toward its FY20-21E earnings driven by growth in every business units: 1) sales and margins recovery for EPP segment (22% of revenue in FY9M19) from changing its product mix toward more on food packaging; 2) consistent revenue growth for automotive and thermal insulators (50% and 28% sales contribution). The new target price at Bt9.90 derived from its 2-years average trading range of 23xPE’19E.

• A slash down in earnings to factor in lower-than-expected sales growth in Aeroflex and EPP. Meanwhile, raising up SG&A to sales ratio to reflects operation enhancement program in Australia.
• Turn bearish view toward on TJM which contributed 12% in total revenue in 9MFY19 (April-December 2018), due to difficulty in running businesses given high labor cost in Australia and production scale that still far behind the rival.
• EPP’s gross margin was already bottomed out and expect to normalize on the back of low material price sourced in 4Q18, and, higher contribution from high margin products on food segment.

In this briefing:

1. PLAT: Already Priced in the Delay in Opening a New Project
2. A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan
3. Semiconductor Downturn Hurts Tokyo Electron; Stock Is Still Overvalued
4. Tochigi Bank (8550JP): Red Flags but No White Flags (Yet)
5. This Week in Blockchain & Cryptos: Revisiting LINE’s Crypto Plans

1. PLAT: Already Priced in the Delay in Opening a New Project

PLAT reported 4Q18 net profit of Bt198m (-3%YoY, +6%QoQ) and in-line with our expectation.

• Slow sales growth (+3%YoY) due to the delay in opening The Market Bangkok project from Dec 18 to 14 Feb 2019 caused a YoY drop in 4Q18 performance. In summary, 2018 earnings grew 2%YoY driven by 5%YoY in sales growth. We also believe current share price already priced in this delay.
• Despite a drop in 4Q18 earnings YoY, we expect strong recovery in 1H19 earnings driven by opening The Market Bangkok (70% booked).
• We maintain our positive view toward its outlook back by the rise in average rental rate trend after long term contracts expiration in 2020-2021E.
• Announced an annual dividend payment of Bt0.2 (XD on 4 Mar), which is equivalent to 2.6% upcoming dividend yield.

We maintain BUY rating with a target price of Bt9.4 based on DCF (10.8%WACC, 0% TG)*.

2. A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan

• In this report, we compare the recent dynamic foreign tourists trend to Korea and Japan. In January 2019, the number of foreign visitors to Japan rose 7.5% YoY to 2.69 million. A total of 0.78 million from South Korea visited Japan in January (DOWN 3% YoY) followed by 0.75 million people from China (up 19.3% YoY).
• According to Korea Ministry of Economy & Finance (MoEF), the number of people from China to Korea increased 35.1% YoY in January 2019.
• As evidenced by the better than expected Chinese visitors to Korea and worse than expected South Korean visitors to Japan in January, there is an increasing indication that this trend could continue in 2019. Many of the Korean related cosmetics stocks have positively reacted to the recent data. One of the interesting trades to be long on a basket of Korean cosmetics related stocks and be short on a basket of Japanese cosmetics related names. 

3. Semiconductor Downturn Hurts Tokyo Electron; Stock Is Still Overvalued

• Tokyo Electron (8035 JP) is a semiconductor equipment manufacturer based in Japan. The company has been operating in the semiconductor space for several decades and generates nearly 90.0% of its revenue from the sale of semiconductor equipment.
• The company revenues are highly correlated with worldwide semiconductor revenues. The current softness in the semiconductor market has already caused a decline in company earnings for 3QFY03/19 and we expect the company earnings to deteriorate further as the market has just begun witnessing the demand decline.
• Even though IoT, cloud, big data, 5G and AI are expected to drive semiconductor revenues and make up for the declining demand from smartphones, tablets and PCs, we do not expect this to drive a significant change in semiconductor demand for another few years as the technologies are still not fully developed.
• Based on our valuation, the company share price is still overvalued despite the stock losing more than 20% to-date since the market started decelerating in mid-2018. As the current semiconductor cycle nears its worst, we feel the company share price will dip further with the earnings outlook deteriorating.

4. Tochigi Bank (8550JP): Red Flags but No White Flags (Yet)

If one were looking for evidence of the inherent dangers of risk concentration in the banking industry, one need only look to tiny secondary regional bank Tochigi Bank (8550 JP), which reported its earnings for the nine months to end-December 2018 on 31 January 2019.  Having made consolidated net profits of ¥1.57 billion in 1H FY3/2019, the bank plunged into the red in 3Q by ¥1.80 billion as a result of losses on disposing of fixed-rate US$-denominated securities.  Rather surprisingly, foreign investors own just over 21% of outstanding shares.  Tochigi Bank may not be the only small Japanese bank to run into trouble with its foreign securities portfolio in CY2019.  Caveat emptor!  (May the buyer beware)!

5. This Week in Blockchain & Cryptos: Revisiting LINE’s Crypto Plans

LINE Corp (3938 JP) is one of the top Japanese names in our “Watchlist” of listed companies in Japan and South Korea that are adopting blockchain technologies or have exposure to cryptocurrencies. 

Since being added to the “Watchlist” in May last year (2018), LINE has launched a cryptocurrency, a cryptocurrency exchange, and a blockchain venture fund. In this note, we revisit LINE’s blockchain and cryptocurrency plans.

In this briefing:

1. BBTN: Indonesia Has Special Mention Problems Too
2. Westpac Banking: Looking Fragile
3. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned
4. EPG: Revising Down Earnings by 10-12% While Long-Term Outlook Still Intact
5. TWPC: Sign of Recovery from 4Q18 Earnings

1. BBTN: Indonesia Has Special Mention Problems Too

Bank Tabungan Negara Persero (BBTN IJ) appears to have a nasty combination of high Special Mention Loans (SMLs) and elevated “past due but unimpaired Loans”.

The implication is that provisioning levels are insufficient in an environment of eroding asset quality.

But the bank continues to grow credit by around 20% YoY.

The bank is hugely exposed to the retail real estate market (91% of Loans).

In fact, the Indonesian Banking Sector is rife with high SMLs and in some cases elevated “past due but unimpaired Loans”.

SMLs are traditionally associated with Chinese under-reporting of underlying bad loans, and hence the production of a somewhat flattering Asset Quality picture.

Maybe, the health and valuation of the Indonesian Banking Sector needs to be reassessed with implications for IDR.

2. Westpac Banking: Looking Fragile

Westpac Banking (WBC AU) is facing a class action suit regarding alleged irresponsible lending in home loans since 2011. This is the first class action against a major Australian bank since the publication of the royal commission’s final report.

The ramifications of the royal commission report remain a source of debate with elections coming up. But, in general, banks will not be allowed to conduct operations in a “business-as-usual way”. There will be consequences for credit provision.

Westpac’s Balance Sheet looks decidedly fragile as it stands. The bank is entering a slowdown from a position of weakness.

Exposures to Australia’s slowing economy (not unrelated of course to China), the dovish turn at the Central Bank, and in particular its bubbly housing market make us hyper cautious. The highly volatile Aussie dollar tumbled from levels above $0.7200 to below $0.7100 following reports that China banned coal imports from the country at a major port.

Despite the sinking share prices of Australia’s main banks, valuations may still be too high given the varied headwinds.

3. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned

Celltrion Healthcare (091990 KS) reported preliminary 2018 results that were dramatically short of expectations as the company cut shipments to reduce distributors’ inventories. Management had announced plans to shift to a direct sales model to get better control over pricing decisions, but the magnitude of Q4’s shortfall (94% decline in revenue) raises questions about the role of “channel stuffing” in boosting prior periods’ results. In addition, we expect some spillover effect on Celltrion Inc (068270 KS)‘s Q4’s results. This Insight discusses the results in brief and contrasts Celltrion Healthcare’s results with those of Samsung Bioepis. 

We continue to avoid these stocks.

4. EPG: Revising Down Earnings by 10-12% While Long-Term Outlook Still Intact

We revise down EPG’s net profit forecast by 10-12% in 2019-21E. However, we still maintain our positive outlook toward its FY20-21E earnings driven by growth in every business units: 1) sales and margins recovery for EPP segment (22% of revenue in FY9M19) from changing its product mix toward more on food packaging; 2) consistent revenue growth for automotive and thermal insulators (50% and 28% sales contribution). The new target price at Bt9.90 derived from its 2-years average trading range of 23xPE’19E.

• A slash down in earnings to factor in lower-than-expected sales growth in Aeroflex and EPP. Meanwhile, raising up SG&A to sales ratio to reflects operation enhancement program in Australia.
• Turn bearish view toward on TJM which contributed 12% in total revenue in 9MFY19 (April-December 2018), due to difficulty in running businesses given high labor cost in Australia and production scale that still far behind the rival.
• EPP’s gross margin was already bottomed out and expect to normalize on the back of low material price sourced in 4Q18, and, higher contribution from high margin products on food segment.

5. TWPC: Sign of Recovery from 4Q18 Earnings

TWPC 4Q18 recurring profit was Bt86m (+135%YoY, +975%QoQ). The easing in cassava supply help supporting TWPC both selling volume and profitability.

• The strong revenue at Bt2.1bn (+12%YoY, +25%QoQ) and GPM at 17.2% (+0.7ppts YoY, +3.2ppts QoQ) should reflect the easing cassava supply and mark its earnings bottom out.
• TWPC FY2018 recurring profit was Bt197m (-48% YoY), largely eroded by starch industry downturn.
• TWPC announced a dividend payment of Bt0.32 (XD on 07-May-19), which is equivalent to 4.0% dividend yield.

We maintain our BUY rating with 2019E target price of Bt10.0, derived from 16.5x PE. We believe 2019 will be turnaround year for TWPC as the starch business down-cycle should have already ended. We like TWPC for its scalability with its strong brands in large markets both starch and food (Vermicelli and noodles).

In this briefing:

1. Indian Housing Finance Companies-Series 2- LIC Housing Finance
2. ASML. Safe Harbor In A Semi Storm.
3. Spotify: Playbook for Online Platforms to Turn Profitable – Implications for Meituan Dianping
4. MAJOR: Impressive 4Q18 Earnings
5. REIT Discover: The Three R’s Driving Starhill Global REIT (SGREIT SP)

1. Indian Housing Finance Companies-Series 2- LIC Housing Finance

We have recently written a report on Housing Finance Industry (please click here) where we delved on the outlook of the industry that has witnessed significant support from the government as it opened up the funding stream for the NBFC sector including HFCs who in the past relied heavily on banks. In addition, the government has also focussed on improving the housing demand through reforms like RERA, Housing For All etc. that has helped revive sales in the recent quarters.

We concluded the report by saying that the forthcoming articles in the form of a series will elaborate on some HFCs that are likely to be the key beneficiaries of an expected revival of the residential real estate. These HFCs have shown high corporate governance standard and their asset quality has not been compromised for growth. And this could be ascertained by the highest credit rating of AAA awarded to these HFCs by the noted credit rating agencies in India.

In continuation of the series, this article provides detail on Lic Housing Finance (LICHF IN) , the second largest HFC in the country. The company has witnessed robust growth in the past with an asset quality that is among the best in class. We initiate coverage on the company through this report that would delve on the outlook of the company along with some glaring risks that have lately emerged and may likely have an impact on the asset quality going forward.

2. ASML. Safe Harbor In A Semi Storm.

Dutch lithography bellwether ASML is unique among its WFE peers in forecasting 2019 as yet another growth year for the company, making it eight such years in a row. While the likes of Applied Materials and Lam Research anticipate YoY revenue declines in the mid-to-high teens, ASML is sheltered from the worst excesses of the downturn by virtue of its technological moat, namely its EUV lithography tools. Customers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Samsung Electronics and Intel  are critically depending on ASML to deliver thirty of those tools in 2019 in order to ramp their latest process nodes. 

On the latest earnings call, ASML underscored its confidence in the company’s prospects by proposing a 50% increase in dividends to €2.10 per share. Currently trading at a 17% discount to its 52-week high, ASML is a safe harbor in the current semiconductor storm. 

3. Spotify: Playbook for Online Platforms to Turn Profitable – Implications for Meituan Dianping

• Our analysis of how Spotify Technology Sa (SPOT US) turned profitable in 4Q18 reveals three key ingredients: critical mass in sales, GM progression, and core business diversification.
• With sales reaching critical mass, this would allow fixed costs to be spread out in such a way that opex/unit is lower than GP/unit.
• Progression in GM and core business diversification strategy are worth monitoring.
• Implication: Meituan Dianping’s (3690 HK) core business is ahead of iQIYI Inc (IQ US) in terms of profitability inflection point timeline.

4. MAJOR: Impressive 4Q18 Earnings

MAJOR 4Q18 net profit was Bt259m (+247%YoY, +26%QoQ). The impressive earnings was driven by solid guests admission (+97%YoY).

• 4Q18 revenue was Bt3.0bn (+59%YoY, +44% QoQ). Interesting movies lineup was the factor, pushing admission revenue (+88%YoY) and concession revenue (+70%YoY).
• Gross profit margin was strong at 37.6% from 28.7% in 4Q17 and 30.8% in 3Q18, thank to the higher contribution of concession revenue, which has decent margin.
• SG&A to sales was under control at 27.0%, compared to 34.3% in 4Q17 and 26.7% in 3Q18.

We maintain a BUY rating on MAJOR with 2019E target price of Bt31.00, derived from a PER of 24.2x, which is +1 SD of its 3-year trading average. We expect MAJOR to continuously deliver robust earnings in 2019E, given the fascinating movies lineup and advertising sales model changing from direct selling to selling through agencies.

5. REIT Discover: The Three R’s Driving Starhill Global REIT (SGREIT SP)

REIT Discover is an insight series featuring under-researched and off-the-radar REITs in an attempt to identify hidden gems and gems in-the-making. The spotlight is on Starhill Global REIT (SGREIT)’s unit price under-performance and deep discount to net asset value (NAV) after two years of declining revenues, net property income (NPI) and distribution per unit (DPU). Looking ahead, SGREIT looks poised for a re-rating based on the three R’s – review, recovery, revitalization.  

Review – Master leases to Toshin and Katagreen (YTL Group), collectively representing 36% of gross portfolio rent as at 31 December 2018, are due for rent review and lease renewal in June 2019. The 12-year master lease to Toshin covers the retail strata area of Ngee Ann City owned by SGREIT. It provides SGREIT with potential rental upside every three years starting from June 2013. The master lease to Katagreen for its Malaysia properties Starhill Gallery and Lot 10 is due to expire in June 2019. The renewal proposal, which includes an asset enhancement initiative for Starhill Gallery, is being evaluated.

Recovery – 2Q18/19 revenue and NPI jumped 10.6% and 20.2% y-o-y respectively on office portfolio recovery. The committed occupancy for the REIT’s Singapore office portfolio rose to 93.6% as at 31 December 2018 from 89.4% as at 31 December 2017. The committed occupancy for Myer Centre Adelaide has also seen a big improvement. SGREIT’s office portfolio accounts for 13% of gross revenue in 2Q18/19.

Revitalization – Amidst a soft retail climate, SGREIT’s retail portfolio maintained a high average occupancy rate albeit at a softer rent, particularly at Wisma Atria. On 30 January 2019, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and National Parks Board (NParks) unveiled plans to strengthen Orchard Road’s position as a must-visit lifestyle destination. In addition, the impending completion of Thomson-East Coast Line’s (TEL) Orchard MRT Station in 2021 is expected to further transform Orchard Road and thus benefit SGREIT’s Singapore retail portfolio. Future mixed-use development will be built at the new Orchard MRT interchange station, which may provide investment opportunities for the REIT.

As an overview, SGREIT’s S$3.1bn property portfolio comprises 10 mid- to high- end retail properties in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China and Japan. The Singapore properties accounted for 69.5% of total asset value and 62% of gross revenue in 2QFY18/19 (financial year-end 30 June) and are made up of interests in two landmark properties in the heart of the Orchard Road shopping belt, Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City. The REIT strikes a good balance between long and short term leases. Master leases and long-term leases, incorporating periodic rent reviews, represent about 49.4% of gross rent as at 31 December 2018, providing income stability. 

Current annualized DPU yield of 6.5% appears attractive for a REIT with a resilient retail and office portfolio in stable and mature markets. We believe the revenue decline in recent years have been priced-in. Potential risks, other than foreign currency exchange-related risks and slower-than-expected recovery in its retail and office portfolio, include challenges in finding yield-accretive acquisitions due to its steep discount to net asset value (0.78x Price/NAV). The lack of scale in certain markets e.g. China and Japan, and strata-ownership of properties could explain SGREIT’s prolonged discount to NAV. Perhaps a portfolio reconstitution may hold the key to narrowing the discount.

In this briefing:

1. A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan
2. Semiconductor Downturn Hurts Tokyo Electron; Stock Is Still Overvalued
3. Tochigi Bank (8550JP): Red Flags but No White Flags (Yet)
4. This Week in Blockchain & Cryptos: Revisiting LINE’s Crypto Plans
5. LG Uplus: Risks Now Largely Priced In. Raise to Neutral on CJ Hello Deal Synergies

1. A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan

• In this report, we compare the recent dynamic foreign tourists trend to Korea and Japan. In January 2019, the number of foreign visitors to Japan rose 7.5% YoY to 2.69 million. A total of 0.78 million from South Korea visited Japan in January (DOWN 3% YoY) followed by 0.75 million people from China (up 19.3% YoY).
• According to Korea Ministry of Economy & Finance (MoEF), the number of people from China to Korea increased 35.1% YoY in January 2019.
• As evidenced by the better than expected Chinese visitors to Korea and worse than expected South Korean visitors to Japan in January, there is an increasing indication that this trend could continue in 2019. Many of the Korean related cosmetics stocks have positively reacted to the recent data. One of the interesting trades to be long on a basket of Korean cosmetics related stocks and be short on a basket of Japanese cosmetics related names. 

2. Semiconductor Downturn Hurts Tokyo Electron; Stock Is Still Overvalued

• Tokyo Electron (8035 JP) is a semiconductor equipment manufacturer based in Japan. The company has been operating in the semiconductor space for several decades and generates nearly 90.0% of its revenue from the sale of semiconductor equipment.
• The company revenues are highly correlated with worldwide semiconductor revenues. The current softness in the semiconductor market has already caused a decline in company earnings for 3QFY03/19 and we expect the company earnings to deteriorate further as the market has just begun witnessing the demand decline.
• Even though IoT, cloud, big data, 5G and AI are expected to drive semiconductor revenues and make up for the declining demand from smartphones, tablets and PCs, we do not expect this to drive a significant change in semiconductor demand for another few years as the technologies are still not fully developed.
• Based on our valuation, the company share price is still overvalued despite the stock losing more than 20% to-date since the market started decelerating in mid-2018. As the current semiconductor cycle nears its worst, we feel the company share price will dip further with the earnings outlook deteriorating.

3. Tochigi Bank (8550JP): Red Flags but No White Flags (Yet)

If one were looking for evidence of the inherent dangers of risk concentration in the banking industry, one need only look to tiny secondary regional bank Tochigi Bank (8550 JP), which reported its earnings for the nine months to end-December 2018 on 31 January 2019.  Having made consolidated net profits of ¥1.57 billion in 1H FY3/2019, the bank plunged into the red in 3Q by ¥1.80 billion as a result of losses on disposing of fixed-rate US$-denominated securities.  Rather surprisingly, foreign investors own just over 21% of outstanding shares.  Tochigi Bank may not be the only small Japanese bank to run into trouble with its foreign securities portfolio in CY2019.  Caveat emptor!  (May the buyer beware)!

4. This Week in Blockchain & Cryptos: Revisiting LINE’s Crypto Plans

LINE Corp (3938 JP) is one of the top Japanese names in our “Watchlist” of listed companies in Japan and South Korea that are adopting blockchain technologies or have exposure to cryptocurrencies. 

Since being added to the “Watchlist” in May last year (2018), LINE has launched a cryptocurrency, a cryptocurrency exchange, and a blockchain venture fund. In this note, we revisit LINE’s blockchain and cryptocurrency plans.

5. LG Uplus: Risks Now Largely Priced In. Raise to Neutral on CJ Hello Deal Synergies

LG Uplus (032640 KS) shares have fallen around 20% from the highs of January when the market was excited by 5G. That always seemed overly optimistic given the lack of viable business cases and unknown investment requirements and we were comfortable with our Sell rating from mid October and KRW15,000 target price.  Following weak results, an easing of 5G  enthusiasm and the recently announced CJ Hello (037560 KS) deal the share price has fallen to around the KRW15,000. Alastair Jones now thinks a lot of bad news is in the price and the available synergies from CJ Hello offset a weaker earnings outlook. 

In this briefing:

1. Westpac Banking: Looking Fragile
2. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned
3. EPG: Revising Down Earnings by 10-12% While Long-Term Outlook Still Intact
4. TWPC: Sign of Recovery from 4Q18 Earnings
5. PLAT: Already Priced in the Delay in Opening a New Project

1. Westpac Banking: Looking Fragile

Westpac Banking (WBC AU) is facing a class action suit regarding alleged irresponsible lending in home loans since 2011. This is the first class action against a major Australian bank since the publication of the royal commission’s final report.

The ramifications of the royal commission report remain a source of debate with elections coming up. But, in general, banks will not be allowed to conduct operations in a “business-as-usual way”. There will be consequences for credit provision.

Westpac’s Balance Sheet looks decidedly fragile as it stands. The bank is entering a slowdown from a position of weakness.

Exposures to Australia’s slowing economy (not unrelated of course to China), the dovish turn at the Central Bank, and in particular its bubbly housing market make us hyper cautious. The highly volatile Aussie dollar tumbled from levels above $0.7200 to below $0.7100 following reports that China banned coal imports from the country at a major port.

Despite the sinking share prices of Australia’s main banks, valuations may still be too high given the varied headwinds.

2. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned

Celltrion Healthcare (091990 KS) reported preliminary 2018 results that were dramatically short of expectations as the company cut shipments to reduce distributors’ inventories. Management had announced plans to shift to a direct sales model to get better control over pricing decisions, but the magnitude of Q4’s shortfall (94% decline in revenue) raises questions about the role of “channel stuffing” in boosting prior periods’ results. In addition, we expect some spillover effect on Celltrion Inc (068270 KS)‘s Q4’s results. This Insight discusses the results in brief and contrasts Celltrion Healthcare’s results with those of Samsung Bioepis. 

We continue to avoid these stocks.

3. EPG: Revising Down Earnings by 10-12% While Long-Term Outlook Still Intact

We revise down EPG’s net profit forecast by 10-12% in 2019-21E. However, we still maintain our positive outlook toward its FY20-21E earnings driven by growth in every business units: 1) sales and margins recovery for EPP segment (22% of revenue in FY9M19) from changing its product mix toward more on food packaging; 2) consistent revenue growth for automotive and thermal insulators (50% and 28% sales contribution). The new target price at Bt9.90 derived from its 2-years average trading range of 23xPE’19E.

• A slash down in earnings to factor in lower-than-expected sales growth in Aeroflex and EPP. Meanwhile, raising up SG&A to sales ratio to reflects operation enhancement program in Australia.
• Turn bearish view toward on TJM which contributed 12% in total revenue in 9MFY19 (April-December 2018), due to difficulty in running businesses given high labor cost in Australia and production scale that still far behind the rival.
• EPP’s gross margin was already bottomed out and expect to normalize on the back of low material price sourced in 4Q18, and, higher contribution from high margin products on food segment.

4. TWPC: Sign of Recovery from 4Q18 Earnings

TWPC 4Q18 recurring profit was Bt86m (+135%YoY, +975%QoQ). The easing in cassava supply help supporting TWPC both selling volume and profitability.

• The strong revenue at Bt2.1bn (+12%YoY, +25%QoQ) and GPM at 17.2% (+0.7ppts YoY, +3.2ppts QoQ) should reflect the easing cassava supply and mark its earnings bottom out.
• TWPC FY2018 recurring profit was Bt197m (-48% YoY), largely eroded by starch industry downturn.
• TWPC announced a dividend payment of Bt0.32 (XD on 07-May-19), which is equivalent to 4.0% dividend yield.

We maintain our BUY rating with 2019E target price of Bt10.0, derived from 16.5x PE. We believe 2019 will be turnaround year for TWPC as the starch business down-cycle should have already ended. We like TWPC for its scalability with its strong brands in large markets both starch and food (Vermicelli and noodles).

5. PLAT: Already Priced in the Delay in Opening a New Project

PLAT reported 4Q18 net profit of Bt198m (-3%YoY, +6%QoQ) and in-line with our expectation.

• Slow sales growth (+3%YoY) due to the delay in opening The Market Bangkok project from Dec 18 to 14 Feb 2019 caused a YoY drop in 4Q18 performance. In summary, 2018 earnings grew 2%YoY driven by 5%YoY in sales growth. We also believe current share price already priced in this delay.
• Despite a drop in 4Q18 earnings YoY, we expect strong recovery in 1H19 earnings driven by opening The Market Bangkok (70% booked).
• We maintain our positive view toward its outlook back by the rise in average rental rate trend after long term contracts expiration in 2020-2021E.
• Announced an annual dividend payment of Bt0.2 (XD on 4 Mar), which is equivalent to 2.6% upcoming dividend yield.

We maintain BUY rating with a target price of Bt9.4 based on DCF (10.8%WACC, 0% TG)*.

In this briefing:

1. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned
2. EPG: Revising Down Earnings by 10-12% While Long-Term Outlook Still Intact
3. TWPC: Sign of Recovery from 4Q18 Earnings
4. PLAT: Already Priced in the Delay in Opening a New Project
5. A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan

1. Celltrion Healthcare: Well, We Were Warned

Celltrion Healthcare (091990 KS) reported preliminary 2018 results that were dramatically short of expectations as the company cut shipments to reduce distributors’ inventories. Management had announced plans to shift to a direct sales model to get better control over pricing decisions, but the magnitude of Q4’s shortfall (94% decline in revenue) raises questions about the role of “channel stuffing” in boosting prior periods’ results. In addition, we expect some spillover effect on Celltrion Inc (068270 KS)‘s Q4’s results. This Insight discusses the results in brief and contrasts Celltrion Healthcare’s results with those of Samsung Bioepis. 

We continue to avoid these stocks.

2. EPG: Revising Down Earnings by 10-12% While Long-Term Outlook Still Intact

We revise down EPG’s net profit forecast by 10-12% in 2019-21E. However, we still maintain our positive outlook toward its FY20-21E earnings driven by growth in every business units: 1) sales and margins recovery for EPP segment (22% of revenue in FY9M19) from changing its product mix toward more on food packaging; 2) consistent revenue growth for automotive and thermal insulators (50% and 28% sales contribution). The new target price at Bt9.90 derived from its 2-years average trading range of 23xPE’19E.

• A slash down in earnings to factor in lower-than-expected sales growth in Aeroflex and EPP. Meanwhile, raising up SG&A to sales ratio to reflects operation enhancement program in Australia.
• Turn bearish view toward on TJM which contributed 12% in total revenue in 9MFY19 (April-December 2018), due to difficulty in running businesses given high labor cost in Australia and production scale that still far behind the rival.
• EPP’s gross margin was already bottomed out and expect to normalize on the back of low material price sourced in 4Q18, and, higher contribution from high margin products on food segment.

3. TWPC: Sign of Recovery from 4Q18 Earnings

TWPC 4Q18 recurring profit was Bt86m (+135%YoY, +975%QoQ). The easing in cassava supply help supporting TWPC both selling volume and profitability.

• The strong revenue at Bt2.1bn (+12%YoY, +25%QoQ) and GPM at 17.2% (+0.7ppts YoY, +3.2ppts QoQ) should reflect the easing cassava supply and mark its earnings bottom out.
• TWPC FY2018 recurring profit was Bt197m (-48% YoY), largely eroded by starch industry downturn.
• TWPC announced a dividend payment of Bt0.32 (XD on 07-May-19), which is equivalent to 4.0% dividend yield.

We maintain our BUY rating with 2019E target price of Bt10.0, derived from 16.5x PE. We believe 2019 will be turnaround year for TWPC as the starch business down-cycle should have already ended. We like TWPC for its scalability with its strong brands in large markets both starch and food (Vermicelli and noodles).

4. PLAT: Already Priced in the Delay in Opening a New Project

PLAT reported 4Q18 net profit of Bt198m (-3%YoY, +6%QoQ) and in-line with our expectation.

• Slow sales growth (+3%YoY) due to the delay in opening The Market Bangkok project from Dec 18 to 14 Feb 2019 caused a YoY drop in 4Q18 performance. In summary, 2018 earnings grew 2%YoY driven by 5%YoY in sales growth. We also believe current share price already priced in this delay.
• Despite a drop in 4Q18 earnings YoY, we expect strong recovery in 1H19 earnings driven by opening The Market Bangkok (70% booked).
• We maintain our positive view toward its outlook back by the rise in average rental rate trend after long term contracts expiration in 2020-2021E.
• Announced an annual dividend payment of Bt0.2 (XD on 4 Mar), which is equivalent to 2.6% upcoming dividend yield.

We maintain BUY rating with a target price of Bt9.4 based on DCF (10.8%WACC, 0% TG)*.

5. A Comparison of Recent Visitors Trend to Korea and Japan

• In this report, we compare the recent dynamic foreign tourists trend to Korea and Japan. In January 2019, the number of foreign visitors to Japan rose 7.5% YoY to 2.69 million. A total of 0.78 million from South Korea visited Japan in January (DOWN 3% YoY) followed by 0.75 million people from China (up 19.3% YoY).
• According to Korea Ministry of Economy & Finance (MoEF), the number of people from China to Korea increased 35.1% YoY in January 2019.
• As evidenced by the better than expected Chinese visitors to Korea and worse than expected South Korean visitors to Japan in January, there is an increasing indication that this trend could continue in 2019. Many of the Korean related cosmetics stocks have positively reacted to the recent data. One of the interesting trades to be long on a basket of Korean cosmetics related stocks and be short on a basket of Japanese cosmetics related names.