[ET Net News Agency, 1 June 2020] Goldman Sachs lowered its target price for Wharf
Holdings (00004) to HK$21 from HK$24 and maintained its "buy" rating.
The research house said Wharf's two malls in Hong Kong have already suffered from the
social unrest, with sales down 23%/19% at Harbour City/Time Square in 2019 (versus -11%
for the broader market).
Judging from the fact that many of the product categories which its malls are exposed to
(e.g., clothing/footwear, consumer durables, jewelry & watches) have taken a harder hit
year-to-date given the travel restrictions, Goldman expects the malls to continue
underperforming the broader HK retail market.
As for its malls in mainland China, although Wharf has not disclosed any official
figures year-to-date, Goldman said it would not be surprised to see a similar magnitude of
the decline of 20-30% as reported by Swire (00019). (KL)