Citi Research lifted its target price for Lee & Man Paper (L&M) (02314) to HK$8.4 from HK$6.2 and reiterated its "buy" rating.
The research house said L&M's net profit of HK$3.65bn came in higher than Citi's estimate of HK$3.2bn. This implies 2H20 profit gained 42% to HK$2.25bn.
If stripping out non-cash FX loss HK$249m in 2020 and FX gain in 2019, the adjusted net profit in 2020 increased 26% to HK$3.90bn or 2H 2020 implied profit surged >70%. Citi said this looks even higher than Nine Dragons Paper's (02689) profit growth of 63% based on 2H 2020 profit before FX.
Citi raised its 2021/22 profit forecast by 28/13%.