[ET Net News Agency, 24 February 2020] Morgan Stanley said the NDRC's decision to
reduce gas prices to help gas end users/enterprises will bring about some negative impact
on PetroChina's (00857) gas business.
Some investors expect the negative impact could reach Rmb10-20bn, but the research house
expects a hit of just Rmb5bn. Although that would equal 11% of its overall 2020 earnings,
it's just 1% of market cap, and Morgan views the event as highly likely to be one-off.
Thus, Morgan believes it is unlikely to have a long-term negative impact on PetroChina
- the winter gas price premium should come back in 4Q 2020-1Q 2021. (KL)