Monday 19 January 2015

Midas Holdings

OCBC on 16 Jan 2015

Midas Holdings Ltd (Midas) generates a large portion of its revenue from China’s railway sector, where its major customers had been China’s two largest licensed train manufacturers – CSR Corp (CSR) and CNR Corp (CNR). On 30 Dec 14, the merger of CSR and CNR to form a single entity – CRRC was announced. Between CSR and CNR, the latter had always been Midas’ main customer. While the merger may bring in more international contracts for CRRC, we remain neutral on the impact as it is still too early to determine the benefits, if any, which could flow down to Midas. As we continue to expect muted earnings in the upcoming few quarters, we retain our current assumptions. Hence, based on 0.6x target blended FY15F P/B, our FV estimate remains unchanged at S$0.30 for now. Maintain HOLD.

Key customers merged to boost global competitiveness
Midas Holdings Ltd (Midas) generates a large portion of its revenue from China’s railway sector, where its major customers had been China’s two largest licensed train manufacturers – CSR Corp (CSR) and CNR Corp (CNR). On 30 Dec 14, the merger of CSR and CNR to form a single entity – CRRC was announced, through a share-swap where each CNR share will be exchanged for 1.1 CSR share. The key rationale is to increase their competitiveness in the global railway market while eliminating bidding competition between them. At first glance, the merger looks positive for Midas, but we think it is still too early to determine how CRRC may allocate contracts to their existing suppliers.

Neutral on impact of the merger for now
Between CSR and CNR, the latter has always been Midas’ main customer. While the merger may bring in more international contracts for CRRC, we expect the impact on Midas to be more mixed than positive: 1) post-merger, we believe CRRC is likely to win more overseas railway contracts, which could benefit Midas, assuming contracts for train car bodies flow down to Midas, 2) however, CRRC will also have higher bargaining power over suppliers, as it becomes the giant in the domestic railway market, which increases its ability to squeeze the margins of Midas, 3) another perspective is that when merged, CRRC will be able to save costs by eliminating overlapping expenses such as those on R&D, reducing need to pressure its suppliers, and lastly, 4) while Midas may have higher possibility of winning more contracts from CSR when CSR’s businesses are carried over into CRRC, it will also face intense competition from CSR’s existing suppliers. Hence, we remain neutral on the impact as it is still too early to determine the benefits, if any, which could flow down to Midas.

FV unchanged; maintain HOLD
As we continue to expect muted earnings in the upcoming few quarters, we retain our current assumptions. Hence, based on 0.6x target blended FY15F P/B, our FV estimate remains unchanged at S$0.30 for now. Maintain HOLD.

No comments:

Post a Comment