[ET Net News Agency, 24 July 2020] Morgan Stanley lifted its target price for
PetroChina (00857) to HK$3.5 from HK$2.67 and upgraded its rating to "overweight" from
"equal-weight".
The research house said PetroChina will consolidate its pipeline assets into the
National Pipeline Company (NPC) with a valuation of 1.21x P/B.
Morgan views this as a positive catalyst for PetroChina, given (1) this will reduce the
uncertainty that has been hanging over the company for the past 3-5 years; (2) the
pipeline is valued above book value, while PetroChina stock is trading at just 0.4x 2020
P/B, implying that the stock is pricing in a pipeline valuation of 0.6x P/B. The latest
valuation suggests that actual results are much better than the consensus expectation, or
Rmb134bn value enhancement, equivalent to 28% of the company's latest market cap. (KL)