[ET Net News Agency, 28 November 2019] Morgan Stanley raised its target price for
Uni-President China (UPC)(00220) to HK$6.5 from HK$5.5 and retained its "underweight"
rating.
The research house said the stock is up 16% year-to-date. Morgan was too conservative on
UPC's margin improvement potential and underestimated the benefit from SKU
rationalization, VAT benefit, efficiency gain, and the success of its premium SKUs
(Tangdaren, Assam) and their positive impact on GPM.
The strong 1H earnings show that the underlying improvement in premiumization and
operating efficiency have both been ahead of Morgan's expectations. Thus, it increased its
earnings estimates by 19% for 2019 to Rmb1.39bn to factor in margin expansion. (KL)