Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Engro Powergen: Public offerings on the way! ‘Subscribe’

Engro Powergen Qadirpur Limited (EPQL) is up for listing at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and provisional trading of the scrip will start from 17Sep'14 and will end on 24Oct'14. The company has already divested 12.5% (40.475mn shares) of its paid up capital through private placement at the rate of Rs30.02/share and its present offer is to divest further 12.5% of its paid up capital to general public at the same price i.e. Rs30.02/share. The date of public subscription will start from September 22nd to 24th, 2014 (both days inclusive). In today's Value Seeker we discuss different aspects of the transaction along with our recommendation for the same.
Strong financials to support overwhelming response
The profitability of Engro Powergen is continuously on rising trajectory since its COD back in 2010 except for CY13 where the generation and resultantly the profitability halted due to plant shutdown in 2HCY13 on technical issues. Those plant issues are now completely resolved and the plant is fully operational therefore financial performance has significantly improved in 1HCY14 as evident from the results in the table below.  Furthermore, being a power generation company it holds a strong payout history and we expect same healthy dividends going forward.

 
Principal utilization of offering amount
Under the present offer, Engro Corp will divest its total holding of Engro Powergen Ltd. which is 32mn shares while the other 8.475mn shares will be divested by Engro Powergen Ltd. from its own holding. The company would be able to collect Rs1.45bn from total divestment (Pre IPO 40.475mn+ IPO 8.475mn shares) and the same would be utilized to 1) pay-off its liabilities 2) finance new projects e.g. LNG terminal. The above utilization expected to save company's finance cost and will generate other income in case of investment in LNG terminal which will augment its bottom-line going forward.
Low cost generation from permeate gas - key attraction
Engro Powergen utilize permeate gas from Qadirpur field as major input. The permeate gas holds a low BTU value and was previously flared due to its limited use. So the input supply is expected to remain uninterrupted as the same has no industrial usage. Furthermore, due to lower cost and higher dispatch factor the company ranks higher in NEPRA's dispatch merit order list.
Internal O&M service provider- key risk
The company operates the plant through internal Operation and Maintenance (O&M) service providers while the other IPPs outsourced the same service. The risk associated with internal management is that the company can't pass on liquidated damages to third party in case the company fails to make sure the availability of the committed capacity.
Peer comparison and recommendation
The company is uniquely positioned when compared with existing listed IPPs as the same utilize low BTU gas (incase of unavailability of gas it can convert on HSD) as its primary raw material while the other IPPs used FO to generate electricity. However the company is comparable on the basis of guaranteed returns, similar tariff components and similar type of indexation factors. We took average leading P/E of 4 comparable IPPs and derive justified value of Rs36.84/share for the scrip. The stock entails 23% potential for price appreciation from its offer price. Furthermore a healthy 13% DY is also expected at subscription price of Rs30.02/share in CY14. Keeping in view the significant total return with limited downside, we recommend 'subscribe' for the scrip.
 
 
Written by: Invest Capital

lrfan Saeed

+92-21-35205520-22 (Ext 8635)
 

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