INVESTMENT HIGHLIGHTS

• FY18 earnings of RM42.5m (-21.2%yoy) came in below our expectation due to higher finance and tax costs

• However, these are mitigated by the lower operating expense in view of cost optimisation efforts

• Declared a final dividend of two sen, bringing cumulative FY18 dividend to 16sen

• Maintain NEUTRAL with revised TP of RM2.63 per share

FY18 earnings dropped by -21.2%yoy to RM42.5m. Pharmaniaga’s full financial year FY18 earnings came in at RM42.5m which is below ours and consensus earnings estimates at 70.4% and 65.8% respectively. The FY18 revenue for the rose modestly by +2.6%yoy while earnings dropped by -21.2%yoy.

Commendable revenue growth. Pharmaniaga’s FY18 higher revenue of RM2,385.0m (from RM2,324.0m in FY17) was mainly due to the higher revenue contribution coming from the logistics and distribution (L&D) division. The L&D segment revenue contribution rose by +6.3%yoy mainly attributable to the contribution from the concession business. This was partially mitigated by lower revenue from its Indonesian division which dipped by -5.4%yoy in view of the depreciation of the Malaysian Ringgit against the Indonesian Rupiah.

Earnings dropped due to a higher finance and tax costs. Pharmaniaga recorded a dropped in FY18 earnings of -42.5%yoy mainly driven by a higher cost incurred in relation to: (i) finance costs (+25.3%yoy) and; (ii) tax costs (+49.1%yoy). The latter was caused by a drawdown of about RM200.0m in borrowing (+51.8%yoy) while the latter was due to the underprovision of tax for prior years of about RM5.6m. In addition, a one-off compensation of about RM7.0m in relation to a previous joint venture company in China was also included in FY17. Nonetheless, these were mitigated by the fall in operating expenses of -10.2%yoy driven by the L&D division which reflects its efficiency in distributing pharmaceutical products to public hospitals in clinics in Malaysia.

Final dividend declared. Pharmaniaga declared a final dividend of 2.0sen per share for the quarter under review. This brings its accumulated dividend for the year to 16.0sen (vs FY17 of 19.0sen).

Source: MIDF Research - 22 Feb 2019