[ET Net News Agency, 22 June 2020] J.P. Morgan lifted its target price for China
Overseas Land & Investment (COLI)(00688) to HK$33 from HK$32 and maintained its
"overweight" rating.
The research house said COLI has underperformed MSCI China by 18% and the real estate
sector by 34% since 2017. This was driven mostly by consensus earnings downgrades,
particularly in 2017 due to the CITIC acquisition. Through these 3.5 years, there were
times when the stock outperformed cyclically, mainly in 2H 2018 when the company delivered
good interim results, but structurally, COLI has been performing just in line with the
sector.
JPM believes COLI has underperformed CR Land (01109) and Longfor (00960) due to a lack
of retail rental; and COLI has underperformed mid-cap peers due to slower growth.
Looking forward, JPM believes COLI's landbanking strategy could lead it to outperform
among IG (investment grade)-names, however, its SOE nature may limit its flexibility,
hence capping its growth. (KL)