MONEY MASTER

Reiterate MARKET PERFORM with an unchanged target price (TP) of RM9.50 SIME recently announced a tender invitation for the repurchase of its 2018 and 2023 sukuk totalling USD800.0m. Meanwhile, SPSETIA announced the acquisition of 342.5 acres land in Bangi from SIME’s 40%- owned associate Seriemas for RM447.6m. We are neutral on both developments, though we upgrade FY18E NP by 6% to reflect one-off gains. Maintain MARKET PERFORM with unchanged TP of RM9.50 based on SoP. Sukuk repurchase and associate’s land sale.  Sime Darby Berhad (SIME) recently invited eligible holders of its outstanding 2018 and 2023 sukuk to tender the respective sukuk (totaling USD800.0m) for repurchase. The company also announced a consent solicitation seeking the substitution of Sime Darby Plantation Sdn. Bhd. (Plantation) as the new obligor for the said sukuk, among other adjustments to the terms and conditions. Separately, SP Setia Berhad (SPSETIA) recently announced the acquisition of 342.5 ...

Retain OUTPERFORM with higher target price (TP) of RM3.22 Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd (April 18, RM2.69) Maintain outperform with a higher target price (TP) of RM3.22:  We met with Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd recently to get updates on business operations and strategies moving forward. Despite current cautious consumer sentiment and weak advertisement expenditure (adex), we believe Astro’s earnings will remain resilient on the back of its subscription-based business model with a vast 5.1 million household customer base. Its advertising income has consistently outperformed the industry, with an overall +10% year-on-year (y-o-y) adex growth in the financial year 2017 (FY17) compared with a 2% contraction for the industry. The pay TV segment is anticipated to remain challenging, with management expecting pay TV subscribers base to remain flat at about 3.4 million to 3.5 million household base. The group will be focusing on the upselling of premium content and val...

Upgrade to outperform with unchanged target price (TP) of RM3.02 9M17 core PATAMI of RM482m came in within expectation, mainly underpinned by higher e-commerce and adex revenues. A third interim single-tier dividend of 3.0 sen was announced. Post-results, we have raised our FY17E/FY18E core PATAMI marginally after fine-tuning but keep our DCF- derived target price unchanged at RM3.02. Our stock rating on ASTRO, however, is raised to OUTPERFORM (from MARKET PERFORM previously) as the recent share price weakness provides great opportunity for bargain hunting. In Line.  9M17 core PATAMI of RM482m (4% YoY) came in within expectations at 76%/74% of our/consensus full-year estimates, mainly driven by higher performance in e-commerce and adex. Note that the normalised PATAMI excluded post-tax impact of unrealised forex loss of RM4.4m due to revaluation of M3B transponder lease liability. As expected, a third interim single-tier dividend of 3.0 sen was declared ...

Retain BUY with unchanged target price (TP) of RM1.63 News/ Comments Sasbadi Learning Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sasbadi Holdings Bhd, has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with University of Malaya (UM). The MoA was signed for the collaborative research and product development of Robotics Education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. As Malaysia’s oldest university, UM has a top-notch reputation amongst Malaysians. UM is working on providing its students with fast-track access to become equipped with advance knowledge and skills on computer science and information technology. We are positive on the MoA as the implicit endorsement from UM will further put Sasbadi in the limelight as a coveted applied learning products provider. We believe the MoA is a step in the right direction for Sasbadi as it grows and adapts to the changing education landscape, putting focus on STEM education. A successful collaboration wou...