[ET Net News Agency, 27 November 2019] Daiwa Research lowered its target price for
China Gas (CGHL)(00384) to HK$29.9 from HK$31.6 and downgraded its rating to "hold" from
"outperform".
The research house said CGHL's 1H FY2020 results were above Daiwa's expectations. CGHL
is trying to speed up the AR (accounts receivable) collection and PetroChina is collecting
advanced payment from it for residential users at non-residential city-gate prices, which
could negatively affect gas sales dollar margin and sales volume of rural projects.
Management targets speeding up the AR collection to HK$5bn in FY2020 from HK$2.4bn
during FY2018-19. However, Daiwa sees this potentially negatively impacting the dollar
margin and gas sales volume.
For FY2021-22, assuming the overall residential citygate price is up by 27%, Daiwa
expects the dollar margin to drop to CNY0.5/m3 from CNY0.63/m3 in 2019-20, but be
unchanged at CNY063/m in 2020-21, if the subsidy remains. (KL)