Stocks in the news (bmcl, epco, erw, eureka, mcot, psl) 14.01.14
BMCL
BMCL aims at 2014 passenger growth of 10% YoY supported by new properties at Ratchada. The political situation does not impact operations but supports passenger growth because people avoid driving. (Khao Hoon, 14/1/14)
EPCO
EPCO to build a 23MW solar cell plant worth Bt194.40 in Japan. It targets total capacity to reach 100MW by 2Q14 and revenues for 2014 to exceed Bt1bn from the increase sales in electricity. It plans to list “Bo Ploy Solar” on the stock exchange in 2H14. (Khao Hoon, 14/01/14)
ERW
ERW expects weak earnings in 1Q14 – Mrs. Kamonwan Wipulakorn, ERW president, said that the political situation in Bangkok since December last year has impacted the Thai tourism industry, particularly hotels in Bangkok, with room cancelations and this will hit earnings in 1Q14. Assuming an easing of the political situation in 2Q14, she expects strong recovery driven by Chinese and European tourists. The company has delayed its plan to increase room rate by 5-10% this year due to the unfavorable backdrop and will reconsider the increase rate in the second half of this year. (Post Today, January 14, 2014)
Comment: We think that a lot of the hospitality stocks have come off a lot (centel, minor, erw), things are looking cheapish again.
EUREKA
EUREKA expects 2014 revenue of Bt500mn, +25% YoY. Net profit is expected to be a high not seen for 11 years. Current backlog is more than Bt120mn, of which ~Bt100mn will be booked in 1Q14. It will more focus on the overseas market. (Khao Hoon, 14/1/14)
MCOT
MCOT confirms 2014 revenue target of Bt6bn and net profit growth of 3-4% YoY. It is ready to invest Bt2bn in digital TV payment, multiplexer, studio, and content. (Khao Hoon, 14/1/14)
PSL
PSL to sell cement carrier — PSL will dispose one more of its cement carrier ships of 16,922 DWT to help lower the average age of its fleet. It said its subsidiary will gain Bt48mn from the sale. (Khao Hoon, 14/01/14)
Comment: PSL to us is always a multi year horizon investment, when the global economy looks rubbish, this company does well in reducing its fleet size and then slowly rebuilds it again and that’s always the best time to enter.
todmorgan
Do you have any plans to visit Unimit Engineering in the near future? Head guy has been accumulating shares recently. Is it possible they will gain from Ptt group CAPEX?Will weak baht significantly depress their bottom line because they need to buy steel? Any thoughts?
Pon
Competition is the biggest issue for UEC, when we first met them in ’06 they were the only players in the pressure vessel market locally and essentially had a quasi-monopoly as foreigner competitors couldn’t be competitive due to taxes. Now you have over 10 domestic players (even STPI and BJCHI) doing the same business with higher gross margins, UEC to me has lost out b/c of size and took too long to expand when the opportunity came.
Also K. Phaibul appears to be more focused on his hotel business in Phuket than UEC, but the business is run by the CEO today.
So all in all, not really interested in visiting them anytime soon.
Now could they gain from PTT capex? Sure, I don’t remember the details but its entirely possible if there were pressure vessels and steel structures required. If memory serves me correct, TRC normally gets a lot of PTT related works.
todmorgan
Thank you.