Daily Brief Credit: Morning Views Asia: Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone and more

Lucror Analytics Morning Views comprise our fundamental credit analysis, opinions and trade recommendations on high yield issuers in the region, based on key company-specific developments in the past 24 hours. Our Morning Views include a section with a brief market commentary, key market indicators and a macroeconomic and corporate event calendar.

• Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone
• Indika Energy
• New World Development
• Tata Steel Thailand

• We maintain our Outperform recommendation on Cemex. The company benefits from favorable market trends in key markets, a strong commitment to further strengthening its credit profile, and credit-positive strategic priorities.
• Despite challenging conditions, Cemex’s top line for 2Q24 remained relatively flat yoy, missing analyst estimates, while adjusted EBITDA aligned with expectations, rising by 1.5% yoy.
• Cemex ended the quarter with $10.1 billion of total debt, down $357.0 million sequentially. Gross and net leverage declined by one tick sequentially to 3.0x and 2.8x, respectively. 

Tata Motors’ Q1/24-25 results were decent, with revenues and profit reaching record levels. However, net debt increased slightly following investment expenditure, preparations for the Range Rover EV launch and dividend payments. We share the company’s view that growth this year will likely be stable compared to the high base of FY 2023-24, due to: [1] consumer expectations surrounding the Range Rover EV launch and its initial revenue effects; and [2] the company’s profit margins decreasing slightly to cover the substantial initial costs for marketing, as well as the continuous quality improvements for new EV models. However, the company is confident about its FY 2025-26 target of a 10% EBIT margin. This may occur if the new electric models achieve stable quality rapidly, thus gradually reducing costs or even increasing the selling price.

Lucror Analytics Morning Views comprise our fundamental credit analysis, opinions and trade recommendations on high yield issuers in the region, based on key company-specific developments in the past 24 hours. Our Morning Views include a section with a brief market commentary, key market indicators and a macroeconomic and corporate event calendar.

• UPL Ltd