See: Hutchison Port Holdings Trust declares lower 1H DPU of 9.5 HK cents
In a Thursday report, lead analyst Deborah Ong notes that HPHT’s 4% increase in its Hong Kong throughput was in line with the research house’s full-year forecast of a 4% gain on the back of stronger transhipment cargoes enjoyed by the trust’s ports.
Although Yantian International Container Terminals (YICT) contributed to a strong throughput gain of 10% in 2Q, which Ong says “pleasantly beat [OCBC’s] expectations of a 2% decline for the whole year, the analyst says this was offset by a larger-than-expected 5% in its average selling price (ASP) following discussions with merger members.
As such, she expects HPHT’s YICT and Hong Kong throughput growth to come in at the 4-6% range, with ASP for each forecasted to dip by 5%.
“We continue to believe that HPHT’s deep water assets will offer it a comparative advantage in the coming years when streamlining measures by the alliances exert pressure on transshipment volumes. Nonetheless, the trust is currently trading 14.2% above our fair value. Given the recent unit price appreciation, we encourage investors to take profit,” concludes Ong.
As at 11:18am, units of HPHT are trading 6.25% lower at 45 US cents.
