[ET Net News Agency, 12 March 2018] Citi Research lifted its target price for Sun Art
Retail Group (06808) to HK$9.68 from HK$5.13, and upgraded its rating to "neutral from
"sell".
The research house said it is incrementally positive on Sun Art. Citi trimmed its 2018
profit forecast by 2% (to reflect the front-end loaded cost regarding O2O integration)
but raised its 2019 profit by 2% (to factor in the early fruits of O2O, breakeven of
Feiniu and positive operating leverage).
The exit of Ruentex (which reduced its stake from 41.29% to 4.67%), investment from
Alibaba (to 36.17%) and recent board structure change have all demonstrated Sun Art's
strong commitment to New Retail, Citi said.
Citi believes traffic import from Taobao (to either RT-Mart Fresh APP or offline stores)
is a practical cure for its structural traffic decline at offline stores. It expects Sun
Art's top-line growth to accelerate to 4%/6% in 2018/19 (from 2% in 2017) and core margins
to improve in 2019. (KL)