Can someone here (those who have registered for the AGM) please request some further explanation from the management at tomorrow AGM and some guidance on earnings in coming quarters?
The income tax rate in Q1FY2022 was exceptionally high at 48.7%, Maybank report says it was due to Cukai Makmur. With net profit of RM28m in Q1 annualised to just RM112m, how much cukai makmur will be imposed? I thought cukai makmur shall be imposed on earnings above RM100m?
Maybank analyst has revised up income tax rate to 45% for FY2022 and a "normalised" 40% for FY2023 and FY2024 based on management guidance. Why still high at 40% for 2023 and 2024?? What is management going to do with it?
dragon328 just one line of explanation - "mainly due to seasonal year end annual rebate recognition in the preceding quarter". I think shareholders deserve more explanation than this. 18/05/2022 8:40 PM ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Who cares about brick and mortar retailers anymore when most of us are buying stuffs from online Apps.....Things can be undervalued for very long time if management cannot show how they can grow the business despite the challenges faced by rising online retailing
True that many people buy stuffs from online merchants or platforms but there are certain things you do not buy online from Shopee or Lazada. DO you buy a carton of milk or some potatoes and fresh vegetables from Lazada?
AEON has embarked on aggressive promotion for its online sales with same day delivery within 3 hours. Its online sales have jumped up many folds over the past 1 year and will continue to register triple digit growth for this year and next. Soon online sales may make up over 10% of total retails sales.
Furthermore, the jewels in AEON Bhd are its 28 shopping malls in communities and various townships. Its property management services segment registers operating cash flows of close to RM500 million a year. It is in fact the owner of the largest shopping mall footprint in Malaysia with 13.4 million square feet of lettable space, more than Mid Valley or Pavilion in terms of net lettable space as well as operating cash flows.
AEON shopping malls have been enjoying resilient and high occupancy over 92% despite a temporary blip during the pandemic years. With the pandemic largely behind us, retails footfalls to shopping malls have come back. AEON malls are packed now again.
With the hot weather now, many patrons just go inside shopping malls like AEON malls in the community for the cool and clean environment, for grocery shopping, for visiting bookstore, for lunch and dinner, for drinks, etc. You can continue locking yourself at home and buy things online but how long can you do that for? It will drive you nuts and become narrow minded.
Yes, AEON is facing challenges from online retail merchants as well as other traditional retailers like Tesco, but we can see that AEON management has been trying hard to defend and grow its market reach - (1) embark on digital transformation to increase online sales which have shown multiple folds of increase in past 12 months, (2) rejuvenile existing malls like Alpha Angle to improve shoppers' experience and increase retails footfalls, (3) install solar power systems at its shopping malls to save on electricity costs, (4) invite a lot more local and domestic suppliers from communities to participate in retailing of food and grocery goods in its malls, (5) increase local supplies and reduce imported goods to just 3% of supplies to contain inflation, (6) increase sales commission-based tenancy income mix from fixed tenancy income in its retail shop leasing to take advantage of rebounding retails sales of retail shop merchants in its malls, (7) raise minimum wage to RM1,500 per month for its local employees well before government directives and reduce on foreign labour employment which has become scarce and more expensive, hence reduce overall operating costs while creating more job opportunities for local communities and stronger bonds with local communities
While we see that other competitors like Giant are making losses, AEON has been able to maintain and grow operating cash flows over the years, thanks to management efforts. You can see that its operating cash flows are so strong that AEON has managed to reduce borrowings by half from over RM900m to now just about RM450m nett debt.
While shareholders have been complaining of reducing net profit over the past 9 years from over RM230m in FY2013 to just RM85 million in FY2021, but you need to look at the more important operating cash flows and EBITDA that has increased by over 50% in past 9 years.
Why net profit has come down is due to: (1) higher depreciation charges (from higher asset base due to mall expansion over the years) (2) higher interest expenses (due to higher borrowings for mall expansion) (3) high income tax rate of over 40% (due to non-deductible expenses)
To resolve these issues and hence to improve on net profits and dividend payouts, the natural solution is to inject all AEON malls into a new REIT as: (1) a REIT does not need to depreciate its assets (2) proceeds from REIT listing will reduce borrowings to zero and save on interest expenses (3) a REIT does not need to pay income tax as long as it distributes over 90% earnings as dividends
Therefore, when AEON injects its malls into a REIT, we will straightaway see that its net profit will jump up by : (1) RM330 million from removing the non-cash depreciation charges (2) RM22m interest expenses every year (3) about RM100 million of income tax payments every year or a total increase of RM450 million per year from FY2021 of RM85m to well over RM500 million of net profit level
AEON will increase shareholders' value by RM10 billion by creating a new REIT. Just by listing up 30% stakes of the REIT (while retaining 70% majority control), AEON will see cash proceeds of RM3 billion coming in which will be handy to reduce borrowings, for future expansion and for special dividends of almost RM2.00 per share!
Trading volume of AEON has been unusually high at 4m to 6m per day since early May, compared to average 1m in Jan-Mar 2022. This operator pushed the share price to year high of RM1.69 only to push it down again to 1.43 now. Not sure why.
It could be due to a general sector downgrade as fears of food inflation creeps in. AEON has dropped 15% from recent peak of 1.69 BJFood down 15% from recent peak of 4.85 Padini dropped 19% from recent peak of 3.58 Bonia down 10% from recent peak InNature down 13%
I will call for patience. Though AEON profit margin may suffer a small setback while it delays price hikes of certain product sales, but it will help a lot to retain loyal customers and help to clear off inventory at old prices. The management effort to help curb inflation and cut operating costs to maintain profitability should be applauded. I see this as the preferred way to fight inflation while retaining loyal customers by delivering extra customer services. It will help its retails business to gain market shares and we shall see such effort to bear fruits in next few quarters.
AEON Annual Report 2021 said - True to the spirit of AEON Sayap Bagimu, AEON have recently announced a major initiative as it adjusted AEON’s minimum wage upwards to RM1,500 from RM1,200 a month in recognising that ther AEON People are the most important asset and who are critical for the long-term sustainability of the organisation. This change took effect from 1 January 2022, and it has benefitted 2,738 AEON People, indicating its commitment to prioritising the welfare of AEON People.
AEON has already raised minimum wage from RM1200 to RM1500 since 1 Jan 2022, so the effect of higher wage has already been reflected in its March quarterly result, at least partially
Post a Comment
People who like this
New Topic
You should check in on some of those fields below.
Title
Category
Comment
Confirmation
Click Confirm to delete this Forum Thread and all the associated comments.
New IPO: The onshore and offshore support services provider for the O&G industry, Steel Hawk Bhd aims to list on the Ace Market!
MQ Trader 2944 views | 2 d ago
0:17
New IPO: The largest mini-market player and a leading groceries retailer in Malaysia, 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings Bhd aims to list on the Main Market!
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
dragon328
2,378 posts
Posted by dragon328 > 2022-05-18 20:42 | Report Abuse
Can someone here (those who have registered for the AGM) please request some further explanation from the management at tomorrow AGM and some guidance on earnings in coming quarters?