In today’s briefing:
- Alibaba (9988 HK): Daniel Steps Down as Jack Changes Strategy
- Taste Gourmet: Expansion in Full Swing, Set Up For A Great 2024
- Few Companies Are Serious About Ensuring Board Diversity, Spoiled by Lax “Effort Targets”
- Ricegrowers Limited (SunRice)- FY23 Earnings Beat and FY24-FY26 Upgrades
Alibaba (9988 HK): Daniel Steps Down as Jack Changes Strategy
- Daniel Zhang stepped down from the Chair and CEO and moved to be the head of cloud intelligence.
- The retail focus will move from physical store and branded product to a platform for third-party retailers.
- We believe the strategy change is correct in the weak consumption market.
Taste Gourmet: Expansion in Full Swing, Set Up For A Great 2024
- Taste Gourmet (8371 HK) reported earnings of 68 mn HKD for FY23 (including impairments of 3.2 mn HKD). Adjusting for impairments, earnings were in line with our estimates.
- The company signed ten new leases in HK, which are expected to commence over the next 5-6 months taking the total restaurant count in HK to 49.
- Trading at 5.6x PE FY24e with a dividend yield of 10.7% based on a 60 payout ratio, we see a further inflection in earnings in FY24 with new restaurant openings.
Few Companies Are Serious About Ensuring Board Diversity, Spoiled by Lax “Effort Targets”
- The “appointment of one female director at prime market company,” which 80% of companies have achieved, is an easy goal, but it’s impossible to ensure board diversity with one woman.
- There is concern that this “effort target without penalty” will give companies an escape route for not promoting board diversity, even with the lax target of 30% by 2030.
- Half of companies that set goals regarding female employees, but a few companies set goals regarding the %/number of board members and disclose “diversity” in skill-matrix for appointing board members.
Ricegrowers Limited (SunRice)- FY23 Earnings Beat and FY24-FY26 Upgrades
- Ricegrowers Limited, trading as SunRice (ASX:SGLLV), has reported its FY23 results and provided some outlook commentary for FY24.
- The FY23 result delivered adjusted revenue growth of 23%, EBITDA growth of 28%, NPAT growth of 18% and EPS growth of 14%, all above RaaS’ estimates.
- The full-year dividend was raised from $0.40/share to $0.50/share (fully franked yield of 7.3%) and we view this level as sustainable near- term given outlook comments and have increased our assumptions accordingly.
💡 Before it’s here, it’s on Smartkarma
Sign Up for Free
The Smartkarma Preview Pass is your entry to the Independent Investment Research Network
- ✓ Unlimited Research Summaries
- ✓ Personalised Alerts
- ✓ Custom Watchlists
- ✓ Company Data and News
- ✓ Events & Webinars
