In this briefing:
- China Blood Products: Deals Highlight Values
- Woori Bank: Overhang Versus Valuation
- SUTL: Puteri Harbor Construction Started Last Week, Membership Sales to Follow, Cash = 84% of MktCap
- Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 4 – Alam Sutera Realty (ASRI IJ)
- When Job ‘Quality’ Prevailed over ‘Headcount’
1. China Blood Products: Deals Highlight Values
Grifols SA (GRF SM) and Shanghai RAAS Blood Products Co Ltd (002252.SZ) recently announced an asset exchange that effectively combines the companies’ blood products operations in China. This transaction marks the third investment (two are cross-border) into the industry in the last two years. Despite some challenges arising from recent healthcare reforms, the industry has favorable supply/demand dynamics and high barriers to entry. US-listed China Biologic Products (CBPO US) trades at a significant discount to the implied private market values, but requires patience as management adjusts to the new operating environment.
2. Woori Bank: Overhang Versus Valuation
Given overhang risk, investors have been bailing out of Woori or taking short positions. Woori Bank Employees Stock Ownership Association seems to have absorbed part of the selling from the likes of Blackrock, Samsung Asset, SEB Investment, Northern Trust, State Street, Russell Investment, and JP Morgan Asset. We do note though that Vanguard and TIAA have increased their position during the HoldCo transition.
There is still to come the 12% stake in Woori Holdings that Woori Bank receives relating to the transfer of the credit card entity that needs to be sold. KDIC’s 18% stake adds to the overhang risk. With https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/woori-bank-holdco-conversion-current-status-trade-approach Sanghyun Park has detailed the risk.
We delve into the latest financials of Woori Financial Group. The picture is mixed. While efficiency advances were the main positive standout, we highlight sharply higher funding costs and a build-up of precautionary loans as main areas of concern. The bottom line was also boosted by much lower loan loss provisions as headline NPLs fell.
A constructive view of the Group is thus based on the credibility of what appears to be underlying asset improvement and the benefits of returning to HoldCo status.
We conclude that despite the overhang risk, shares are not expensive. Shares inhabit the highest decile of our global VFM (Valuation, Fundamentals, Momentum) rankings. There may though be a better entry point for bargain hunters.
3. SUTL: Puteri Harbor Construction Started Last Week, Membership Sales to Follow, Cash = 84% of MktCap
Sutl Enterprise (SUTL SP) did not grow revenues in 2018 as it continued to operate only its flagship Sentosa marina. Change is coming as it has 9 projects in the pipeline which could dramatically alter the financial future of the company by FY21.
The biggest news is the groundbreaking of Puteri Harbor in Malaysia last week. With a sales gallery opening by May 2019, it will be very interesting to follow the progress on this project and its contribution to SUTL’s top/bottom-line results in FY19/FY20.
SUTL is misunderstood by investors because management disclosure is lacking and liquidity is poor. The valuation of SUTL could be improved if investors had a better understanding of the earnings trajectory we could expect in FY19-FY21.
We realize the Tay family is not looking to sell its stake anytime soon so is not concerned about its current market cap. We caution that this might not be a smart way to run a publicly listed company as a more expensive ‘currency’ (stock price) might help the company be taken more seriously when attempting to make acquisitions overseas.
However, this does not alter the fact that 84% of the market cap is cash and the EV of this consistently profitable company is barely 6.7M USD. SUTL is undeniably one of the cheapest stocks on SGX.
4. Indonesia Property – In Search of the End of the Rainbow – Part 4 – Alam Sutera Realty (ASRI 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 fourth company that we explore is township developer Alam Sutera Realty (ASRI IJ), which provides an interesting exposure to a mix of landed housing, high-rise and low-rise condominiums through its Alam Sutera Township near Serpong and its Pasir Kemis township 15 km further out on the toll road.
Given the diminishing area of high-value land bank in Alam Sutera, the company has shifted emphasis towards selling low-rise condominiums and commercial lots for shop houses, which has been a success story.
Alam Sutera Realty (ASRI IJ) also has a contract with a Chinese developer, China Fortune Land Development (CFLD), to develop a total of 500 ha over a five year period in its Pasir Kamis Township. This has provided a fillip for the company during a quiet period of marketing sales and will continue to underpin earnings for the next 2 years.
The company stands to benefit from the completion of two new toll-roads, one soon to be completed to the south connecting directly to BSD City and longer term a new toll to Soekarno Hatta Airport to the north.
It will start to utilise new land bank in North Serpong in 2021, which will extend the development potential in the area significantly longer-term.
Management is optimistic about marketing sales for 2019 and expects growth of +16% versus last year’s number, which already exceeded expectations.
Alam Sutera Realty (ASRI IJ) has less recurrent income than peers at around 10% of total revenue but has the potential to see better contributions from the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Centre (GWK) in Bali.
The new regulations on the booking of sales financed by mortgages introduced in August 2018 will benefit Alam Sutera Realty (ASRI IJ) from a cash flow perspective. Given that the company is consistently producing free cash flow, this is also a strong deleveraging story.
One of the biggest risks for the company is its US$ debt, which totals US$480m and is made up of two bonds expiring in 2020 and 2022.
From a valuation perspective, Alam Sutera Realty (ASRI IJ) looks very interesting, trading on 4.9x FY19E PER, at 0.67x PBV, and at a 71% discount to NAV. On all three measures, at 1 STD below its historical mean. Our target price of IDR600 takes a blended approach, based on the company trading at historical mean on all three measures implies upside of 91% from current levels. Catalysts include better marketing sales from its low-rise developments at its Alam Sutera township and further cluster sales there, a pick-up in sales and pricing at its Pasir Kemis township, a sale of its office inventory at The Tower, a pick up in recurrent income driven by improving tenant mix at GWK. Given that the company has high levels of US$ debt, a stable currency will also benefit the company. A more dovish outlook on interest rates will also be a positive, given a large and rising portion of buyers use a mortgage to buy its properties.
5. When Job ‘Quality’ Prevailed over ‘Headcount’
- A 387k decline in employment didn’t weigh on the jobless rate of 5.2% according to the latest labor survey data. As the labor participation rate declined in 4Q18, roughly 2.1mn of those in the labor pool voluntarily passed up the job search, to ease any employment demand-supply mismatch.
- For those employed particularly in the non-farm, production sectors led by manufacturing and construction, the quality of jobs generated dominated the lack of headcount gains in determining incomes, if not, uplifting purchasing power. If we exclude direct government job creation from the labor stats, we obtain a non-farm, private job creation of 1.1mn (vs 3Q18: -8.6k) up 3.8%YoY. Average weekly work hours were 43.2 versus 40.6 a year-ago suggesting more overtime work. Salaried workers grew by 1.4mn (+5.6%YoY) employed mainly from private establishments. Underemployment fell to 15.6% in the latest job survey vs 18% a year-ago.
- As inflation recedes, the robust non-farm employment and better job quality won’t be compelling for policymakers to rush any form of monetary accommodation. Since the jobs data or GDP prospects are not as vulnerable to sharp downswings due to onshore catalysts, e.g., upbeat public investments, consumption recovery, despite a less-than-encouraging global backdrop, the Central Bank may focus on possible risk of a liquidity crunch and emergence of positive, real interest rates in determining the policy options for monetary accommodation this year.
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