[ET Net News Agency, 10 August 2020] J.P. Morgan lifted its target price for
Uni-President China Holdings (UPC)(00220) to HK$9.8 from HK$9.6 and maintained its
"overweight" rating.
The research house said UPC's 1H sales/earnings growth of 3%/6.8%, behind market
expectation. JPM estimated adjusted EBIT declined 5%, with EBIT margin down 80bps to 9%,
stripping out non-recurrent items (disposal gain of selling land and financial investment
return).
Its earnings growth slowed to 3.9% (2Q) from 11.4% (1Q), mainly due to rising A&P
expense offsetting the benefits of easing input cost. JPM forecast UPC's sales/earnings to
grow 7.1%/11.9% in 2H, 5%/8.2% in 2020, and 5.7%/8.4% in 2021. (KL)