Monday, March 02, 2015

NCB: The Beginning of Recovery?

Recent Results Update

For QE31/12/2014, NCB reported a net profit of RM9.1 million on a revenue of RM229 million. It recovered from its loss-making position, with a profit before tax of RM8.9 million, mainly due to PBT of RM34.8 million (a y-o-y increase of RM11.2 million) in the Port Operations which more than offset the LBT of RM25.8 million (a y-o-y increase of RM3.7 million) in the Logistics Operations.

The Port Operations revenue increased by 6.8% y-o-y to RM169.1 million. Container business being the main contributor of revenue registered a decrease in containers handled to 685,754 teus from 703,54 teus.

The logistics operations registered revenue of RM59.6 million which was a decrease of 11.1% over the same quarter previous year. The main reason for the decline in revenue was due to the lower than targeted scale of business activities in Government and Oil and Gas business, as well as the decision that ceased the businesses that were unprofitable including cross border, trucking and distribution.


Table: NCB's last 8 quarterly results


Chart 1: NCBs last 27 quarterly results

Valuation

NCB (at RM2.50 last Friday) is now trading at a PB of 0.6 time (based on NTA of RM3.98 per share). Assuming a full-year earning of 8 sen, PER is at 31 times.

Technical Outlook

NCB is now resting on its long-term uptrend line support st RM2.50.


Chart 2: NCB's monthly chart as at Feb 27, 2015 (Source: Share Investors)


Conclusion

Based on improving financial performance and possible technical rebound, NCB could be a good stock for long-term investment. In addition, we may have positive surprise in the form of corporate development as business tycoon, Syed Mokhtar was reported to be keen to acquire NCB.
 
Note: 
In addition to the disclaimer in the preamble to my blog, I hereby confirm that I do not have any relevant interest in, or any interest in the acquisition or disposal of, NCB.

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