Earnings updates: First Pacific/Mtn group/Jardine/Ab Inbev
Hello, This is a follow up on my presentations on these companies. while the Substack articles are recent they were written before in my old blog during the year.
All these recommendations are solely my opinion and not formal advice.
1.First Pacific
Philex, the gold mining sub, “INCREASED CORE NET INCOME BY 116% TO Php1.865 BILLION FOR 9M2021 VS Php865 MILLION LAST YEAR”
PLDT, the Philippines telecom arm, “Telco core income, excluding the impact of asset sales and Voyager Innovations, climbed 10% year-on-year, or ₱2.1 billion, to ₱23.1 billion in the first nine months of 2021”
MPIC, the Philippines Infrastructure arm, “Consolidated Core Net Income of ₱9.5 billion for the first nine (9) months of 2021, up 23% from ₱7.7 billion in the same period last year. This substantial improvement from the 13% growth in the first half of the year was largely driven by improved traffic on its toll roads and higher volume of electricity sold by Manila Electric Company (“Meralco”).
Indofoods, the Indonesian Food conglomerate: “Income from operations increased 42% to Rp12.23 trillion from Rp8.63 trillion, and operating margin increased to 16.8% from 14.7%. Income for the period attributable to equity holders of the parent entity grew 44% to Rp5.41 trillion from Rp3.75 trillion, and net income margin improved to 7.4% from 6.4%. Core profit increased 29% to Rp5.62 trillion from Rp4.34 trillion.”.
We can see that all the businesses are growing well, a recovery for MPIC and Philex, and continued growth for PLDT and Infofoods. I also own Indofoods separately.
Buybacks continue daily, and the company bought back 15.16 million shares in two months, or 0.35% shares outstanding. Its not very important but welcome.
News:
Voyager’s PayMaya secures digital banking license
PLDT group has taken a great step forward in its digital banking development.
On 20 September 2021 Voyager, through its financial technology arm, PayMaya Philippines (“PayMaya”), announced that it had obtained the approval of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (“BSP”) to establish a digital bank – Maya Bank. PayMaya is firmly established as the country’s trusted e-wallet and payment processing system..
PayMaya is not yet profitable but it is huge in the country and number 1.
All in all, the company remains a great pick at the current prices, trading at a very cheap PE ratio of 3.9. It is a buy.
2.MTN Group
Revenue up 19%, Ebitda up 24%
Value of transactions on Mobile Money increased by 67.2% YoY to US$175.5 billion
Subscribers declined to 271 millions “resulted from the revised registration regulations in Nigeria”
Finance: Deleveraging with further sale of Towers in SA and stock in Nigeria. “Group leverage was comfortably within covenant limits, having remained flat at 0.6x. Holdco leverage remained within our medium-term target, coming in at 1.2x, from 1.4x at 30 June 2021.”
IHS Towers listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at a listing price of US$21/share.
H1 earnings per share ex non operating impact was 5.05 rands
Conclusion, The stock is at 163 Rands, giving a PE of 16. It is no longer a bargain and had amazing share price growth since covid (X4). The improved debt position should pave the way for growing dividend policy. It is a hold with capital returns on the way.
South African stocks have rerated a lot and for new buys I am currently looking elsewhere.
3.Jardine Cycle and Carriage
Not much new. The company has proven the strength and durability of the business model with the covid crisis.
Interim dividend doubled to 18c a share.
Profit has recovered 152% to 346$ for H1, market cap is 6.2B USD, which means current PE is just under 10. I think it is a good buy here.
4.AB Invev
The company disclosed their Medium Term ebitda growth plans of 4% to 8% and had good earnings results. This is very good for the deleveraging plan presented in my article. While not the cheapest stock around, I expect a rerating due to its relative value and it is a good anchor. Decent buy
Im long.