Wednesday, August 8, 2012

KFima Co Visit | 7 August 2012

We meet with Kumpulan FIMA recently and here are our 5 key takeaways:
 
1.     Mini conglomerate. Kumpulan FIMA is a mini conglomerate with businesses in:
a.     Manufacturing (RM54.3m PBT, 29% of Group) – manufacture and trading of security documents mainly for the government
b.     Plantation (RM47.2m, 26% PBT of Group) – mostly palm oil with small exposure to pineapple (<5% of segment revenue contribution)
c.     Bulking (RM34.7m PBT, 19% PBT of Group) - bulk handling and storage of various types of liquid and semi-liquid products
d.     Food (RM17.1m PBT, 9% of Group) – manufacture of canned fish (mackerel and tuna)
2.     Flattish outlook for manufacturing and bulking segment. Earnings from manufacturing segment and bulking businesses is likely to be flattish going forward as a result of lower margin arising from higher competition in the market:
a.     Manufacturing of security documents (bank notes, stamps and passports) is facing declining demand as more governments switch to electronic payment and document
b.     Bulking businesses revenue stream is not stable as the customer is secured for short term basis (~ 3 months).
3.     Growth will like come from plantation and food segment:
a.     Plantation – 6000 ha of its palm oil estate in Indonesia average age profile is only 7 years old, hence more FFB production is expected in the next 3 years. Another 5500 ha of its palm oil estate in Sarawak is still immature currently (2 years old) but will provide long term growth from 2014 onwards as the tree mature.
b.     Food – KFIMA owns a canned fish production plant in Papua New Guinea with capacity of 30,000 mt per year. Previously, the idea is to utilize 100% of this capacity for mackerel, which resulted in underutilization of about 35% - 40%. The company is now switching 40% of its capacity to produce tuna which will ultimately result in overall higher utilization of the plant.
4.     5% earnings growth. Overall, management guided for about 5% YoY earnings growth in both FY12E-FY13E, translating into FY12E-FY13E net income of RM84.9m-RM89.2m.
5.     Target Price of RM2.54. By applying 7.5x Fwd PE to FY13E EPS of 33.85 sen, our back of envelope Target Price for KFIMA is RM2.70. We believe the single digit valuation is likely to sustain for KFIMA as the Company is not expected to consolidate its listed subsidiary FIMACORP in the short term. The mini conglomerate status with operations in 4 segments also does not bode well as investors may prefer to invest in Companies with single exposure to certain sector.
6.     Our 7.5x PE is based on the highest historical PE achieved for KFIMA is the last 5 years, based on Bloomberg estimate.
KFIMA – Additional notes
-       Plantation: Group has 12kha of plantation oil palm. Management first target is to bring total planted area to 20kha, looking more of brownfields following issues faced in Indonesia.
-       Manufacturing: Prints Stamps, travelling doc (passport) and bank notes. Expecting flattish growth as more transactions are done thru email and MEPS.
-       Food: Tuna business just started last year. They are still at the learning phrase to maximise the yield per fish. Chunks are sold to Europe while flakes (remainder) are sold in local market. Chunks price is USD6k while flake is USD2.5k. Hence yield is important. Management believes earning could double for division in 2 years as they add another shift and work 24hours. Tuna exported to Europe country has a 24% exemption.
-       Others: Management is committed to a sustainable dividend yoy. Apr-June earnings could be lower due to recognition for its Indonesia plantation. Goods are exported by barges and in 2000MT hence assuming 1 or 2 barges earnings are not recognise it could impact the bottomline (timing issue). Jul-Sept expect to see strong quarter as plantation normally peaks and they have additional contracts for its printing business.
-       Conclusion: Trades at only 6.5xPE with 50% earnings in relatively resilient business. However lacked earnings catalyst for next year until Miri plantation fruition and Tuna business turns profitable. Unlikely to bump up dividend given its CAPEX requirement of RM35mil pa for next 2 years. Unlikely to trade at higher premium unless Analyst coverage is increased.