[ET Net News Agency, 22 August 2019] Nomura raised its target price for Samsonite
International (01910) to HK$15.5 from HK$15.3 and maintained its "neutral" rating.
The research house said Samsonite's 1H net profit was a strong beat due to better cost
controls and a lower tax rate, excluding the one-off impairment costs. A key positive in
1H is the improvement in operating cash flow, which went up 98% to US$113mn (excluding
IFRS16 impact) through much tighter working capital control.
Looking into 2H, Nomura expects sales and margins in the US to remain weak, with sales
down, and higher tariff to erode GPM. It lifted its FY2019-21 earnings forecasts by 1-4%
to reflect better cost controls but slightly offset by lower GPM and one-off impairment
costs for FY2019. (KL)