We gather from management recently that its international school remains on track for completion in May this year. Meanwhile, HELP has cut the capex allocated to its proposed flagship university campus in Sungai Buloh from RM160m to RM60m. We deem this slightly positive as management adopts more prudence in expanding capacity amid growing competition. Maintain NEUTRAL, FV unchanged at RM1.93, pending firmer signs of earnings recovery at its Fraser campus, as well as finalization of the funding for its proposed Subang 2 campus.
Ahead of schedule. HELP’s RM30m international school is on track to be completed by May this year to receive its first intake of 300 students. Management has allocated RM33m capex to the school and has commenced the recruitment of academics from various countries. At an average annual tuition fee of RM33k per student, this school may fetch additional income of more than RM20m a year when it hits full capacity of 3k students. There is likely to be upside to our earnings forecasts should classes commence on time as we have yet to incorporate this new segment into our numbers.
New campus on track. Earlier, HELP had initially proposed to build a new Subang 2 flagship university campus in Sungai Buloh for RM160m, but management has decided to cut this to RM60m, but leaving the 6k to 8k capacity unchanged. This is to avoid straining its balance sheet and spend prudently amid stiffening competition. Now that the capex is less than half the initial allocation, we believe that the new campus may possibly be fully funded via debt rather than equity issuance. With the groundworks well in progress, we expect the building to be completed by 3QCY14, with its first intake likely by 1QCY15.
NEUTRAL. While we stick to our numbers on expectation of the 1QFY13 numbers coming in line with our forecasts, we are tweaking our capex assumptions in tandem with management’s latest guidance. We came away from the meeting still positive on HELP’s venture on the lucrative private education sector. As such, our FV is unchanged at RM1.93 based on the existing 10x FY13 PE, with our target FY13 net cash per share of RM0.46. Maintain NEUTRAL pending more affirmative earnings recovery sign on its Fraser campus as well as the finalization of the financing for its proposed Subang 2 campus.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
1QFY13 results preview. HELP recorded FY12 net profit of RM13.5m that was below our expectations, due to weaker-than-expected performance from its Fraser campus. In the company’s upcoming 1QFY13 results, we believe that its numbers are likely to recover as management is looking to expand its enrolment base from 1.3k to 2k by end-FY13 at the currently loss-making campus.
Source: OSK
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