Equity Bottom-Up

Brief Equities Bottom-Up: JD.com (JD): Cancels Delivery Man’s Basic Salary, Adapts to Growth of Commission Business and more

In this briefing:

  1. JD.com (JD): Cancels Delivery Man’s Basic Salary, Adapts to Growth of Commission Business
  2. Taiwan Business Bank: Catching the Sun’s Rays
  3. HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Air China and Great Wall Motor (2019-04-04)
  4. Indonesia Property-In Search of the End of the Rainbow- Part 7 – Kawasan Industri Jababeka (KIJA IJ)
  5. OUE C-REIT, OUE H-TRUST – First Thoughts on Merger Scenario

1. JD.com (JD): Cancels Delivery Man’s Basic Salary, Adapts to Growth of Commission Business

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* JD cut delivery men’s salary by 25% last week.

* JD ever generated cash flows by accounts payable in direct sales, but cost control is necessary when the commission business grew faster than the direct sales business.

* We believe that the overwhelming majority of delivery men will stay with JD after the salary cut, as many small delivery companies went bankrupt in 2018.

* we believe JD will be able to control costs well and keep close-to-zero net margin in 2019.

2. Taiwan Business Bank: Catching the Sun’s Rays

Taiwan Business Bank (2834 TT) ticks most of the boxes with a PH Score of 10. This is a top decile performance globally in terms of fundamental trends from our quantamental value-quality gauge.

We would caution that the asset quality is not as crystalline as the reduced NPL ratio indicates given that rising impaired loans represent 5x NPLs. We await greater granularity from further analysis of the NPL breakdown by category. Having said that, the impaired loan ratio is still pretty low and manageable at 1.48% while Provisioning -on an upward trend- should reflect increasing non-NPL but impaired assets.

Results were markedly impacted by a palpable reduction in Loan Loss Provisions which will be a response, we assume, to lower problem loans or NPLs as well as very strong recoveries (net negative charge-offs), rather than higher impaired Loans.

In addition, the trend in Efficiency may not be as good as it appears to be given that OPEX expansion outpaced “Underlying Income” expansion. The latter was impacted by a sharp increase in Interest Expenses from Deposits especially, as well as a tepid Fee Income performance. While Interest Income from non-credit assets rose robustly, the core Interest Income on Loans firmed by 11.4% YoY, for a YoY gain of NT2.3bn, despite a modest decrease in the Loan portfolio in such a low margin environment. Interestingly, Loan recoveries also saw a NT2.3bn gain.

Valuation is quite appealing given the tailwinds of a high PH Score. FV, P/Book, and Earnings Yield stand at 6%, 0.9x, and 10%, respectively.

3. HK Connect Discovery Weekly: Air China and Great Wall Motor (2019-04-04)

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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 insight, we will highlight Air China and Great Wall Motor. 

4. Indonesia Property-In Search of the End of the Rainbow- Part 7 – Kawasan Industri Jababeka (KIJA IJ)

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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. 

In the seventh company in ongoing Smartkarma Originals series on the property space in Indonesia, we now look at Indonesia’s oldest Industrial Estate developer and operator Kawasan Industri Jababeka (KIJA IJ). The company’s largest and the original estate is in Cikarang to the East of Jakarta and comprises 1,239 hectares of industrial land bank and a masterplan of 5,600 ha. 

It has a blue chip customer base both local and foreign at Cikarang including Unilever Indonesia (UNVR IJ), Samsung Electronics (005930 KS), as well as a number of Japanese automakers and their related suppliers.

The company has also expanded its presence to Kendal, close to Semarang in Central Java, where it has a joint venture with Singapore listed company Sembcorp Industries (SCI SP). This estate covers a total area of 2,700 ha to be developed in three phases over a period of 25 years and is focused on manufacturing in industries.

The company also has successfully installed a 140 MW gas-fired power station at its Cikarang, providing a recurrent stream utility-type earnings, which cushion against the volatility in its industrial estate and property earnings. After some issues with one of its boilers (non-recurrent) and issues early last year with PLN, this asset now looks set to provide a stable earnings stream for the company.

KIJA has also built a dry-port at Cikarang estate which has been increasing throughput by around +25% every year, providing its customers with the facility for customs clearance at a faster pace of that at the Tanjong Priok port, as well as logistics support. 

After two difficult years where the company has been hit by a combination of problems at its power plant, foreign exchange write-downs, and slower demand for industrial plots, the company now looks set to see a strong recovery in earnings in 2019 and beyond.

The company has seen coverage from equity analysts dwindle, which means there are no consensus estimates but it looks attractive from both a PBV and an NAV basis trading on 0.85x FY19E PBV and at a 73% discount to NAV. If the company were to trade back to its historical mean from a PBV and PER point of view, this would imply an upside of 33% to IDR325, using a blend of the two measures. An absence of one-off charges in 2019 and a pick up in industrial sales should mean a significant recovery in earnings, putting the company on an FY19E PER multiple of 9.7x, which is by no means expensive given its strategic positioning and given that this is a recovery story. 

5. OUE C-REIT, OUE H-TRUST – First Thoughts on Merger Scenario

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Last evening, Wall Street Journal reported that Oue Commercial Real Estate Investment Tr (OUECT SP) and Oue Hospitality Trust (OUEHT SP) are in discussions to merge in a cash and stock deal. OUE Commercial will offer to buy OUE Hospitality to create a single entity that will remain listed on the SGX.

The enlarged entity will have a combined portfolio value of S$6.7 bil, propelling the enlarged entity to become one of the biggest REITs in Singapore in terms of portfolio size. 

Based on last traded prices, the combined entity will have an enlarged market capitalization of S$2.83 bil, making it the 11th biggest S-REIT in terms of market capitalization.

For OUE C-REIT, it enjoys fewer benefits from enlarged portfolio but a merger will alleviate concern on the CPPU timebomb.

For OUE H-TRUST, unitholders benefit more from an improve asset/sector diversification and also a potential cash payout.

For sponsor OUE LTD, it will find it easier to recycle assets in an enlarged REIT.

OUE C-REIT and OUE H-TRUST have announced trading halts this morning pending release of announcements. A clarification announcement on the merger is likely to be issued.

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