Japan Specialist

Mark Chadwick

Over 20 years experience in equities and asset management in Asia and Japan. Qualified CFA with experience analyzing companies as a buy-side analyst. In-depth knowledge of company fundamental analysis, corporate governance and valuations.

Fast Retailing (9983) | Q1 Preview - Slight Miss

Battle Lines Drawn As BABA Builds Out First/Last-Mile Capacity; But Who Will Fund 75+ Bn CNY CapEx?

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul>
<li>We had thought that Fast Retailing may just miss Q1 numbers due to the warm weather; it beat on strong November and 270bps improvement in gross margin. </li>
<li>Following the slightly better results, we maintain our sales forecast at 3.1 trillion yen, but revise our operating profit estimate from 439 billion yen to 455 billion yen.</li>
<li>Overall, we do not think the market will be overly surprised by the results and we maintain our view that the stock is over priced.</li>
</ul>


We had thought that Fast Retailing may just miss Q1 numbers due to the warm weather; it beat on strong November and 270bps improvement in gross margin. 
Following the slightly better results, we maintain our sales forecast at 3.1 trillion yen, but revise our operating profit estimate from 439 billion yen to 455 billion yen.
Overall, we do not think the market will be overly surprised by the results and we maintain our view that the stock is over priced.


Fast Retailing (9983) | Another Stylish Quarter