Tuesday 23 October 2012

Pantech Group Holdings - Bright Prospects


We  visited  Pantech  last  Friday  after  its  1HFY13  results  release  and  remained positive on the company’s future prospects.  We  have  identified  Nautic  Steel  and stainless steel divisions as two major growth nodes for Pantech in the upcomingyears.  It  has  achieved  50%  of  our  FY13  full-year  forecast.  Confident  that  the company  may  be  able  to  meet  our  forecast,  we  keep  our  BUY  recommendation and RM0.81 FV, pegged at a 6x FY2/14f PE. 
 
Outlook  remains  positive.  Last  Friday,  we  visited  Pantech  and  met  up  with  the Executive Director Mr Adrian Tan for more insights regarding the company’s future growth  and  prospects.  Pantech’s  outlook  remains  positive  as  we  have  identified  two major  growth  nodes  namely:  (i)  the  Nautic  Steel  in  UK,  and  (ii)  the  stainless  steel manufacturing division in Batu Pahat, Johor.

Growth  node  No.1:  The  Nautic  Steel.  Since  the  acquisition  of  Nautic  Steel  back  in March  2012,  Pantech  has  been  focusing  on  manufacturing  one  of  its  exotic  products only – the copper nickel. This was mainly due to the bottleneck problem in Nautic Steel
when Pantech first took over. Over the last two quarters, Mr Tan and his team in the UK had been working on restructuring the company and improving its efficiency, in the hope that Nautic Steel can produce other exotic products namely Duplex and Super Duplex, which  had  been  approved  by  the  oil  majors.  We  gathered  that  Pantech  has  bought  in machines  to  turn  its  elbow  manufacturing  line  into  a  fully  automated  one.  This  should improve  Nautic’s efficiency  and  boost  a  wider  range  of  products.  Moving  forward,  the company plans to install more machines to expand its product range.

Growth  node  No.  2:  The  Stainless  Steel.  We highlighted in our previous reports that Pantech  expects  a  breakeven  of  its  stainless  steel  division  by  end-FY13.  Despite incurring  losses  in  the  division  (getting  narrower),  the  company  is  able  to  report strong results for the last two quarters. Hence, we believe that once Pantech has overcome the steep learning curve in the stainless steel manufacturing process, the division would be another strong growth driver for the group.
 
Nautic’s brand name –  priceless.  Pantech  is  able  to  market  its  products  (other  than Nautic’s production) to the oil majors  by leveraging on Nautic’s brand name in the international platform. We think this will give the company vast business opportunities.
Continuous  expansion  locally  and  overseas.  In the last analysts’ briefing, we gathered that Pantech has installed  a  new  machine  for  its  carbon  steel  fittings  with  a  capacity  of  1,500  tonnes  per  annum,  bringing  its total  carbon  steel  production  capacity  to  18,000  tonnes  per  annum.  Its  carbon  steel  division  is  currently running at full capacity with two shifts per day. Meanwhile, the company has bought a piece of industrial land in the UK for Nautic Steel expansion to meet rising demand for its products.
 
Things going as planned. All in, we think that Pantech should be able to report commendable results in the coming  quarters.  Confident  in  its  sustainable  growth,  we  are  maintaining  our  FY13  and  FY14  earnings forecast. Pantech’s 1HFY13 results of  RM26.8m is in line with our FY13 full-year forecast of RM53.7m. We estimated  a  14.2%  FY14  growth  as  we  remain  conservative  on  its  stainless  steel  division,  which  may  need some time for a sales pickup, while normalising the growth impact contributed by the Nautic Steel in FY13.
 
Dividend may be able to meet 40% payout. To date, Pantech has declared a total of 2.2 sen dividends for FY13. We believe that the group will maintain its payout ratio of about 40% to reward its shareholders amid its continuous expansion plans.
 
Maintain  BUY,  FV  remained  at  RM0.81. We are keeping our BUY recommendation for Pantech and its FV at RM0.81 which was derived from a 6x FY2/14f PE, on the back of its sustainable growth plans tabled by the management as well as the positive outlook for the O&G sector.
Source: OSK

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