In this briefing:
1. Musashino Bank (8336 JP): Braking Bad
Musashino Bank (8336 JP) was one of the last regional banks to announce 3Q FY3/2019 results, and they were a nasty surprise: a consolidated net loss for the nine months to 31 December 2018, caused by heavy reserving in Q3 (October-December 2018) against the bank’s exposure to the troubled Akebono Brake Industry Co (7238 JP) . While the bank has slashed its full-year net profit guidance from ¥11.1 billion to ¥4.5 billion, this would still require an heroic level of profits in Q4 which the bank has never before achieved. The share price has fallen over 31% in the last twelve months. Valuations at current levels are still high (FY3/2019 PER is 17.6x) and we consider the share price to be vulnerable to further weakness. Caveat emptor (May the buyer beware) !
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