Kenanga Research said while MAHB passenger numbers will continue to grow as air travellers return, its earnings prospects are clouded by the Malaysian Aviation Commission’s proposal not to hike airport charges.
‘’We cut our FY2023-FY2024 net profit forecasts by 2% each, lower our target price by 3% to RM6.80 from RM7.00, and reiterate our ‘market perform’ call,” it said in a note.
MIDF Research said forward earnings in FY2023-FY2024 were revised down marginally by 1.3%, allowing it to derive a slightly lower TP of RM7.35 and maintain a “neutral” call on MAHB.
“We make no changes to our passenger traffic assumptions.
“Relative to their respective 2019 levels, in FY2023, we expect Malaysian passenger traffic to recover to 85% (domestic: 90%, international: 80%) and Turkish passenger traffic to recover to 107% (domestic: 95%, international: 120%),” it said.
Higher operating expenditure
CGS-CIMB cut its TP forecast to RM6.80 after reflecting on the airport operator’s future higher operating expenditure.
MAHB said the loss before tax (LBT) for its Malaysia operations narrowed to RM61.1 million from RM193.7 million in Q4 FY2021.
CGS-CIMB said MAHB’s FY2022 core net loss of RM221 million was wider than its RM60 million loss forecast, due to an unexpected surge in costs, including for staff bonuses.
It had returned back to profitability with a RM359.14 million net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2022 (Q4 FY2022) from a net loss of RM136.73 million a year earlier, boosted by higher revenue, reduction in utilisation fees and better share of results from joint ventures and associates.
MAHB had been in the red for 11 consecutive quarters since 1QFY2020.
Its full-year earnings rebounded with a net profit of RM187.2 million, compared with a RM766.44 million net loss in FY2021, as revenue jumped 86.91% to RM3.13 billion from RM1.67 billion.
Its Turkey operations recorded a profit before tax of RM504.4 million versus a loss before tax of RM22.3 million a year ago, while Qatar operations posted a higher PBT of RM1.9 million from RM1 million.
“After a tumultuous period of uncertainty and challenges, passenger traffic is steadily improving and recovering closer to pre-pandemic levels,” said MAHB managing director Iskandar Mizal Mahmood in a statement yesterday.
MAHB’s share price was up 11 sen to RM6.90 today, valuing the company at RM11.5 billion.