Friday, 23 November 2012

Eng Kah Corp - Higher EBIT Margin of 21.7% in 3QFY12


Eng  Kah’s 9MFY12  earnings  of  RM10.2m  were  largely  in  line  expectations,  accounting  about  73.1%  of  our  and  72.4% of street’s full-year forecasts. A third interim single-tier dividend of RM0.05 was declared, in line with our expectation. 3QFY12 earnings were higher q-o-q on improved  margin.  We  like  Eng  Kah  for  its  solid  balance  sheet,  generous  dividend  payout,  new  MNC  customers  to  boost  its  sales and potential  growth  from  its  China  venture  over  the  long-term.  We  are  maintaining  our  Buy  call  on  Eng  Kah  with  a  revised  fair  value  of RM4.00, pegging at its 5-year average PER of 16.4x, based on its enlarged share outstanding post-bonus issue. 

Improved  bottom-line  in  3QFY12  despite  lower  top-line.  Eng Kah’s 3QFY12  bottom-line  of  RM3.8m  was  9.8%  higher  q-o-q  (+29.3% y-o-y) despite  a  drop  in  revenue  to  RM21.0m  (-5.1%  y-o-y;  -8.5%  q-o-q).  EBIT  margin  during  the  quarter  under  review  improved from  18.4%  in 2QFY12 to 21.7%. This is due to a change in product mix that fetches higher margin and improvement in working capital management as well as lower cost incurred for product trial run and testing. The personal care segment continued to be the key contributor, accounting for about 86.0%  of  its  total  sales,  while  the  remaining  14.0%  sales  came  from  household  products.  Its  9MFY12  net  earnings  of  RM10.2m  was  slightly lower than the corresponding period of FY11, no thanks to the higher cost incurred during 1HFY12 for product trial run and testing as well as additional expenses incurred for new market developments. Eng Kah announced its single-tier third interim dividend of 5 sen per share, in line with our expectation.

Slowly in place. Eng Kah’s 30%-owned joint-venture company Cosway China, known as V-Mart in China, has opened 20 stores thus far (as at end-2QFY12: 10 stores). We reaffirmed the view that Cosway China would not be able to meet its initial target to have 100 stores by end-2012. We believe a more pragmatic estimate of 25 stores is achievable. We see no major contribution from its China venture for FY12-FY13f, hence, we are maintaining our minimal contribution from this segment in our forecasts.

Maintain BUY with RM4.00 FV. We are maintaining our BUY call on Eng Kah with a revised fair value of RM4.00, pegging at its 5-year average PER  of  16.4x,  based  on  the  enlarged  share  outstanding  following  its  1-for-10  bonus  issue.    We  continue  to  like  Eng  Kah  for  its: (i)  prudent management,  (ii)  impressive  dividend  payout  track  record,  (iii)  solid  balance  sheet,  (iv)  new  MNC  clients  that  would  further boost  its  sales.  However, we think that Cosway China’s expansion plan would be a long-term  catalyst  and  would  not  have  major  impact  on  its  earnings in FY12-FY13f.
Source: OSK

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