Crescendo Corp Bhd (Dec 27, RM1.49)

Maintain outperform with a lower target price (TP) of RM1.55: Crescendo Corp Bhd’s first nine months of financial year 2018 (9MFY18) core net profit (CNP) of RM32.6 million is in line at 77% of our full-year estimate. No consensus estimates available. Property sales of RM154.4 million are also on track to meet our target of RM221 million. No dividends were declared, as expected. There are no changes to our FY18 to estimated FY19 earnings.

The company’s 9MFY18 CNP registered a strong year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 51% underpinned by decent improvements, namely in revenue (+21%) and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) margins by two percentage points (ppts) to 27%. These improvements in revenue and margins are mainly due to decent progressive billings and contributions from industrial properties. Quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), the third-quarter (3QFY18) CNP declined 43% mainly due to weaker revenue (-18%) stemming from lower property sales in industries.

Going forward, Crescendo is looking to launch 24 units of cluster factories at Taman Perindustrian Cemerlang, 102 units of mid-market landed residential properties at Bandar Cemerlang, 54 units of shop offices at Bandar Cemerlang and Taman Desa Cemerlang as well as 426 units of affordable housing at Bandar Cemerlang and Tanjung Senibong in Johor with a combined gross development value of more than RM300 million. Unbilled sales stood at RM168.4 million, providing at least one year’s visibility.

We make no changes to our FY18 estimate (E) to FY19E earnings estimates and keep our FY18E sales target at RM221 million. We maintain our “outperform” call after considering its decent sales performance and better mix of industrial product sales coupled with improving profitability. However, we lower our TP to RM1.55 (from RM1.60) based on an updated -1.0 standard deviation level historical revised net asset value discount of 76% (from 75%). We believe such valuation levels are fair considering its full exposure to Johor. Our TP implies 9.2 times FY19E price-earnings ratio which is below its historical average of 11 times. — Kenanga Research, Dec 26

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Dec 28, 2017.

For more stories, download EdgeProp.my pullout here for free.

SHARE
RELATED POSTS
  1. Johor welcomes federal govt's move to amend MM2H programe conditions
  2. Property sales hit fresh record RM196.8 bil in 2023; Johor sees highest price rise, says Napic
  3. Iskandar Waterfront outlines RM4.3b development projects in Johor in 10-year plan