Protasco Bhd Initiating with BUY the Road and Dividend Masters Target Price (TP): RM2.90
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18 March 2014 | Initiating coverage Protasco Bhd Initiating with BUY The road and dividend masters Target Price (TP): RM2.90 INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS • Initiating coverage of Protasco Berhad (Protasco), a road RETURN STATS maintenance and construction player, with a BUY at a target Price (17th March 2014) RM1.64 price of RM2.90. Target Price RM2.90 • Total potential upside is >70%, not including its generous Expected Share Price dividends. Dividend track record is good. +76.8% Return • Orderbook currently stands at RM709m, but may hit RM1b this year. Earnings catalyst to come from property and its foray into Expected Dividend Yield +8.5% oil & gas production business in Indonesia. Expected Total Return +85.3% Impressive track record. Protasco was founded in 1991 by Dato’ Hasnur Rabiain bin Ismail and the present Group Managing Director, STOCK INFO Dato’ Sri Ir Chong Ket Pen. The group’s key clients include Projek KLCI 1,815.16 Penyelenggaraan Lebuhraya Bhd and Jabatan Kerja Raya. 5070 / PRTA Bursa / Bloomberg Six core principle activities. Protasco is principally involved in six MK businesses: (i) construction; (ii) maintenance; (iii) property development; Main / Board / Sector (iv) engineering and consultancy services; (v) education and; (vi) trading Construction and manufacturing. The group’s core earnings are derived from the Syariah Compliant Yes recurring income from roadwork maintenance concessions for federal Issued shares (mil) 332.8 and state roads in Malaysia. Par Value (RM) 0.50 Solid PATANCI growth. Protasco’s revenue grew at a solid 6-year compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of +9.1%, nearly hitting the Market cap. (RM’m) 545.8 RM1b mark in 2013. Meanwhile, its profit after tax and non-controlling Price over NTA 1.30x interest (PATANCI) continues to show stable growth, registering a 6- 52-wk price Range RM1.00–RM1.68 year CAGR of +11%. Beta (against KLCI) 0.78x Catalysts/risks: Going forward, the group’s earnings will be derived from: (i) strong construction jobs in the pipeline; (ii) continuation from 3-mth Avg Daily Vol 1.84m maintenance concession earnings; (iii) integrated flagship development 3-mth Avg Daily Value RM2.73m on 100-acre land in Bangi and 14.4-acre land in Pasir Gudang Johor; Major Shareholders: (iv) profit guarantee from oil & gas business and; (v) healthy balance sheet. Downside risks to our target price include (i) slowdown in property Ket Pen Chong 23.59% market; (ii) scaleback of government jobs and; (iii) delay in Por Yee Tey 17.77% implementation of 10th MP projects. Penmacorp S/B 9.05 % Initiating coverage with BUY. We are initiating coverage of Protasco with a BUY recommendation on a TP of RM2.90. Our TP is derived on Protasco Bhd 5.21% an FY15 sum-of-parts valuation, pegging its construction and road maintenance concessions earnings at PER15 of 9x, property development business with RNAV of RM503.7mil (after applying a 20% discount), and all other business segments at PER15 of 7x. KINDLY REFER TO THE LAST PAGE OF THIS PUBLICATION FOR IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES MIDF EQUITY BEAT Tuesday, 18 March 2014 INVESTMENT STATISTICS FYE Dec (RM’m) FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14F FY15F Revenue (RM‘m) 696.0 793.9 972.2 1,196.0 1,396.0 EBIT (RM’m) 74.3 108.6 104.5 174.5 223.7 Pre-tax Profit (RM’m) 72.2 106.6 101.6 171.7 220.6 Net Profit (RM’m) 31.8 37.5 48.6 79.4 102.0 EPS (sen) 9.6 11.3 14.6 23.9 30.7 EPS growth (%) -32.4 17.7 29.8 63.3 28.5 PER(x) 17.1 14.6 11.2 8.4 6.9 Net Dividend (sen) 8.0 14.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 Net Dividend Yield (%) 4.9 8.5 6.1 7.3 8.5 Source: Company, Forecasts by MIDFR COMPANY BACKGROUND Impressive track record. Protasco was founded in 1991 from humble beginnings in the road construction business. The business was spearheaded by HCM Engineering Sdn Bhd (HCM), championed by Dato’ Hasnur Rabiain bin Ismail and the present Group Managing Director, Dato’ Sri Ir Chong Ket Pen. The group was involved in subcontracting works for clients like Projek Penyelenggaraan Lebuhraya Bhd (PROPEL) and Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR) in the early years. Over the past 22 years, the group has gradually built up an impressive track record in road construction rehabilitation. It has also progressively expanded its scope of services to include maintenance works. Overall, it has completed more than RM3b worth of road and maintenance projects, both domestically and internationally. Listed in 2003. With its integrated specialty in road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance works, it has paved the way for its listing on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia on 8th August 2003. We believe that Protasco will continue to strive further on the back of the extensive international alliance and on-going implementation of infrastructure projects under 10th Malaysia Plan. Exhibit 1: Protasco’s corporate structure Source: Company data, MIDFR 2 MIDF EQUITY BEAT Tuesday, 18 March 2014 BUSINESS OPERATIONS Six core activities. Protasco is principally involved in the following businesses: (i) construction; (ii) maintenance; (iii) property development; (iv) engineering and consultancy services; (v) education and; (vi) trading and manufacturing. Core earnings are derived from the group’s recurring income from road maintenance concession of Malaysia federal and state roads. This key segment accounted for approximately 60% of its FY13 net profit while the group’s key earnings growth comes from property development on its solely owned 100-acre land in Bangi, coupled with construction business. Its other business segments’ contributions to group earnings are stable. Roadwork specialist. The group’s road construction activities are undertaken by its subsidiary HCM. Notable road construction and rehabilitation projects undertaken and successfully delivered include works on the KLIA expressway, road construction from Kuala Perlis to Changlun, construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of road from Muar to Melaka and Jalan Alor Setar - Kuala Nerang - Durian Burung in Kedah, upgrading and rehabilitation of road from Kapar to Sabak Bernam and Klang to Banting in Selangor, and road maintenance on Tarhuna - Ben Waled Road in Libya. Concession agreement. Through HCM and Roadcare (M) Sdn Bhd (Roadcare), the group is the country's leader in road maintenance specifically in various road pavement techniques. Given its vast experience in this line, it has been entrusted for two 15-year federal road maintenance concessions and three 7-year contracts for the maintenance of state roads in Selangor, Terengganu and Perak (see exhibit 2). The two 15-year federal road maintenance concessions cover federal roads in the states of Selangor, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan and divisions of Sibu, Mukah and Bintulu in Sarawak. Exhibit 2: Road Maintenance Concessions Concessions Length (km) Period (year) Federal Roads Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan & Selangor 7,104 2001-2016 Federal Roads Sarawak 478 2003-2018 State Roads Selangor n.a. 2009-2015 State Roads Terengganu n.a. 2010-2016 State Roads Perak n.a. 2013-2019 Source: Company data, MIDFR Engineering & consultancy gig small, but yields high margins. Led by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Kumpulan Ikram Sdn Bhd (KISB), the group has developed and carved a niche in providing a wide range of engineering and consultancy services to complement its construction business that suits local road construction. It is also sought after for solutions pertaining specifically to landslides, pavement and structural failures. Protasco acknowledges that most of the contracts awarded for this segment are small in value but typically yields high pre-tax margin of more than 15%. Its most recent job, undertaken by Ikram Premier Consulting, has certified the Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 to be safe and ready to be commissioned on 2 May 2014. Upping the ante in property development. Protasco ventured into the property development arena four years ago by completing its maiden project, the Unipark Condominiums at Unipark Suria on its solely owned 100-acre land in Bangi, Selangor. The successful completion of this project has paved the way for the group to embark on larger property development projects. Its latest integrated flagship development, De Centrum City (see exhibit 3) aims to develop its remaining undeveloped 85-acre land in Bangi, comprising commercial, residential, educational, convention centre, hotel and modern lifestyle attractions. This new urban development project has a sizeable projected Gross Development Value (GDV) of RM10b with a development period of 15 years (2012-2026). In 2012, the group launched Phase 1 on a 4.5-acre land, worth RM250m (see exhibit 4) which is now still under construction and scheduled for completion in 2015. The project is made up of service apartments, small office home office (SOHO) and a neighbourhood mall, which has been well received by buyers with a take up rate of 86% as of Feb 2014. 3 MIDF EQUITY BEAT Tuesday, 18 March 2014 Exhibit 3: Proposed De Centrum City Source: Company data, MIDFR Exhibit 4: Phase 1 of De Centrum City Source: Company data, MIDFR 4 MIDF EQUITY BEAT Tuesday, 18 March 2014 Tertiary education service provider. Protasco has developed 15-acres of the 100-acre Unipark Suria for its own Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur (IUKL), offering quality education in various fields. Currently, the IUKL community comprises 4,000 students from more than 50 countries and has extensive international partnering with universities from the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, and The People's Republic of China. Its student population now comprises 40% international and 60% local students. While we believe that the group has its own best-in-class education, we also understand that it provides training courses to groom small Bumiputera contractors that have done sub-contracting works for the group.