COMMENTS ON KAREX BERHAD (5247) – UPDATE FEB 2021

FIGURE 1: KAREX BERHAD LAST 5 YEARS SHARE PRICE TREND

 

**analysis based on 2020 annual report.

1.   GENERAL INTRO: Karex’s core business is in manufacturing and selling condoms, sterile catheters, latex probe covers, lubricating jelly, latex sleeve, rubber finger gloves, hand gloves, and other rubber products. The company generates the majority of its revenue from the condoms business.

 

2.       NOTABLE POINTS:

a.   In FY2020, the Group recorded a revenue of RM395.1 million, representing an improvement from the previous financial year. However, profitability was affected due to the short term close down of manufacturing facilities during the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The disruption caused by the pandemic also caused an accumulation of inventories.

b.  In terms of corporate development, KAREX expanded its catheter and lubricant manufacturing capacity at its Thailand facility in FY2020. Upon the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, KAREX responded quickly to the developing crisis and re-tooled several of its lubricant manufacturing lines to produce hand sanitizers. In addition, it recognizes the future potential of medical gloves. With the COVID-18 pandemic still ongoing, the demand for medical gloves is expected to increase considerably in the future. Hence, KAREX is also venturing into the manufacturing of medical gloves, with plans to begin construction of its medical glove facility.

c.    In addition, KAREX increases automation in its current manufacturing processes to reduce its dependency on labour and improve its quality controls. It also incorporated machinery to improve its packing processes and testing processes. An improved inventory management system also enabled it to cope with the increasing variety of product variants, packaging and flavouring in its products catalogue.

 

3.       IS THIS COUNTER A STRONG GROWTH STOCK?        

a.      REVENUE RANGE (RM million): 395 million as reported in 2020 annual report, this is a medium revenue company.

b.    SHARE PRICE: from 2016-2021, share price overall decreased from ~ RM4.00 in 2016 gradually to the current level of around RM0.75. A small spike in share price to above RM1.00 in August 2020 coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This share price trend is similar to most of other gloves manufacturing counters, which experienced a surge of share price in tandem with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The share prices have since reduced but still at a higher level compared to pre-pandemic share prices. This shows that investors are overall optimistic on the outlook of this counter and its potential to produce medical gloves in the future.

c.    EARNING PER SHARE (EPS): earning per share in last 5 years was overall worsening, which decreased from 6.65 to 0.02 sen.

d.   PRICE TO EARNINGS (P/E) RATIO: current P/E ratio is at 163.92, which shows that KAREX’s share price is significantly overvalued compared to its earnings. The overvaluation may have stemmed from investors being optimistic about KAREX’s future earning potential as a medical gloves manufacturer.

e.      FUTURE POTENTIAL/PROSPECTS: share price expect to be stable in the next few years.

f.     CAPITAL EXPENDITURE (CAPEX): spending on purchase of new fixed assets and other investments amount to about RM 23.1 million, which is around 3% of total assets.

 

4.       IS THIS A STRONG DIVIDEND STOCK?             

a.    DIVIDEND YIELD: in 2020 financial year, KAREX declared a dividend payout of 1 sen per share to its shareholders, this amounts to a dividend yield of 1.32%.

b.      DIVIDEND PAYOUT RATIO: N/A

c.     CONSISTENCY: This counter’s dividend payout has been very consistent (dividend paid to shareholders in 5 out of 5 years), the dividend paid to shareholders in the last five years ranged from 0.5 to 2 sen per share.

 

5.       IS THE MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE GOOD?

a.    RETURN ON EQUITY (ROE): in 2020 financial year, KAREX reported a poor return of shareholders’ equity, at only 0.72%. In the last 5 years, its ROE decreased steadily from 13.92% to current level of 0.72%.

b.      COST-TO-INCOME RATIO: the cost-to-income ratio is 7510%, which is very high.

c.   DEBT-TO-EQUITY (GEARING) RATIO: Its gearing ratio is at 28%, whereby its debt level is less than its equity, resulting in a healthy balance sheet.

d.      CASH FLOW: cash flow is positive, at around RM 45 million, equivalent to RM 0.04 per share.

 

6.       OTHER INDICATORS:

a.    SUPPORT BY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS: this counter is not well supported by institutional investors, there are only 4 institutional investors at top 30 major shareholders list, not including investment funds and insurance funds. Its major shareholders are Karex One Limited (18.38%), Goh Yin (7.83%) and Goh Yen Yen (7.19%).

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