Brief Equities Bottom-Up: Momo (MOMO): Paying Users Up 17%, Benefiting from Bankrupt Competitors, 80% Upside and more

In this briefing:

1. Momo (MOMO): Paying Users Up 17%, Benefiting from Bankrupt Competitors, 80% Upside
2. Snippets #20: Dark Clouds in Thai Equities
3. Meituan Dianping: Time to Bail? Relax, Core Business Progressing Toward Profitability
4. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 3 – Pakuwon Jati (PWON IJ)

1. Momo (MOMO): Paying Users Up 17%, Benefiting from Bankrupt Competitors, 80% Upside

• The stock price has risen 32% after the short seller J Capital slammed it.
• MOMO’s paying user base of live video increased 22% yoy in 3Q18 and 17% yoy in 4Q2018 even though the live show market shrank in 2018.
• We believe MOMO will benefit from small competitors’ bankruptcy.
• The growth rate of the main business revenues stopped declining.
• Our P/E band suggests upside of 80% for MOMO’s stock price.

2. Snippets #20: Dark Clouds in Thai Equities

Of the five interesting trends/events/developments we heard this month, we highlighted five and how they could impact Thai equities in the near term:

• Thai Raksa Chart Party dissolution. The dissolution of the TRC, the second largest Thaksinite party, poses some political risks but could affect sentiments for companies founded by Thaksin, such as Intuch and AIS.
• Thai Air Asia says no to Nok Air. After the briefest considerations, the larger airline came to the conclusion that they wouldn’t acquire a stake in struggling Nok Air.
• Capital Gains Taxes are currently under consideration by the government for the first time. If implemented, they are likely to have negative impact on overall equities but the brokers in particular.
• From LINE to BEC. LINE (Thailand)’s Country Manager Ariya Phanomyong has agreed to move to BEC. Though mildly positive, we believe improvements will revolve around distribution rather than the more key issue of content.
• True Move’s Request for 5G delay may sound odd at first glance, but we see it as a rational, if not very tactful, way of delaying a new round of capex.

3. Meituan Dianping: Time to Bail? Relax, Core Business Progressing Toward Profitability

• Conference call with Meituan Dianping (3690 HK) reveals that ballooning losses from new initiatives (incl. one-off expenses) largely contributed to record quarterly EBIT losses in 4Q18.
• Importantly, this masks Meituan Core’s (combined food delivery and in-store, hotel & travel divisions) continued progress toward profitability.
• Management is bullish on every division’s outlook in 2019, particularly guiding for 1) balanced growth and profitability strategy for food delivery and 2) disciplined investments in new initiatives.
• Meituan attractively trades at 2.9x 2019E P/S, only around half of peers’ valuation (5.5x).  

4. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 3 – Pakuwon Jati (PWON 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 third company that we explore is Pakuwon Jati (PWON IJ), the biggest retail mall operator, and mixed-use high rise and township developer since 1986. PWON has five major projects in the two biggest cities: Jakarta and Surabaya. 

Its recurring income base is the highest in the Indonesian property universe, playing a big role in the company’s solid earnings performance in the past few years of property downturn. However, currency depreciation, stricter mortgage regulations, and falling rental yields curb investors’ appetite for property investments, leading to weak presales in the past three years. Property development revenues are expected to be trending down going forward on lower presales in 2016-2018. Contrary to peers, cashflow generation remains very strong, led by the large recurring income base and thick margin. There is however no plan to increase dividends, but rather reserving the excess cash for future landbank acquisition.  

The weaker presales in 1H19 is widely anticipated, but we fear that there may be some selling pressure on each weak presales announcements, given PWON’s premium valuations and stock outperformance YTD. Nonetheless, potential portfolio inflow to high beta stocks and rising risk appetite for smaller-capped stocks should be beneficial for PWON. Our blended target price of IDR773 per share offers 21% upside.

Summary of this insight:

• PWON currently operates 7 retail malls, 4 office towers for lease, 4 hotels, and 1 serviced apartment as its recurring income base, representing 52% of revenues. Retail mall division is PWON’s single biggest revenue contributor, growing at 16% Cagr over the past 5 years, making up 40% of total revenues and 77% of total recurring incomes. 
• The company sells landed housings, condominiums, and offices in five project locations as its “non-recurring” property development revenues, which account for the remaining 48% of revenues. Condominiums and offices are PWON’s second biggest revenue generator, comprising about 30-40% of sales. PWON has been pushing more landed residential projects to mitigate the impact from slower condominiums and offices market.
• 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. PWON’s landbanks are located in strategic locations, essential to the success of its past projects in Jakarta and Surabaya.
• Presales are more sensitive to investment appetite and rental yield rather than BI rates. Cash and cash installments typically make up 65-85% of total payments, while mortgages comprise a minority 15-35%.

• Slower take up rate on high-rise projects leads to larger funding requirement. Condominiums can take up to four years to complete if it is part of a superblock project, and a big portion of the raw materials for construction has to be secured and paid upfront to lock in prices and ensure availability.  Meanwhile, the presales mortgage disbursement regulation issued in 2014 diminishes cash inflow from mortgage-paying customers. We constructed a cashflow simulation model for a typical condominium tower launch to analyze the monthly cashflow impact from slower take up rate and mortgage regulation changes.
• Pros: The operating cashflow remains positive and strong over the past five years of property downturn, the best among the property developers that we visited. The seven retail malls generate over IDR1tn cash per year in the past three years, enough to sustain company’s working capital and capex requirements. Free cashflow (FCF) is mostly positive with the exception of 2014 and 2015 when PWON had two big acquisitions. Net gearing peaked in 2015 and had slowly decreased over the years.

• Cons: For the first time since 2010, PWON’s advances-to-inventory ratio, which is an indicative figure for the property developers’ working capital, fell below 100%. We are expecting a slow recovery for PWON as its inventory account should continue to grow higher in the short term as the company plans to launch few new condominium towers in Surabaya and a new superblock in Bekasi.

• Cons: Election year to election year, we may see some similarity between the 2014 and 2019’s quarterly presales split. 1Q14 and 2Q14 contributed 36% to total FY14 presales, while 4Q14 contributed a chunky 36%. If we assume the same quarterly split for 2019 presales target, we may potentially see 4-32% 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: PWON share price is performing relatively in line with the JCI over the past year, outperforming its property peers. Its solid earnings and cashflow are rewarded with premium valuations against peers. The discount to net asset value (NAV) and price-to-earnings (PE) ratio are close to +1 standard deviation above the 5-yr historical mean. After a solid 45% bounce off recent lows, the stock is no longer cheap. However, with better interest rate environment and positive regulatory tailwinds, we may see improving activities after the election. Furthermore, potential portfolio inflow to high beta stocks and better sentiment towards the property sector should also benefit PWON. We derive an IDR773 target price per share for PWON, assuming discount to NAV, PB, and PE valuation re-rating to +1 standard deviation above mean.