[ET Net News Agency, 17 January 2020] Daiwa Research lowered its target price for Geely
Automobile (00175) to HK$19 from HK$20 and maintained its "buy" rating.
The research house cited Geely's CEO Gui Shengyue saying that he was not satisfied with
the 2019 results, but he was quite positive on Geely's outlook for 2020, with sales and
prices likely to see recoveries.
Management believes Geely can continue to gain market share and views its 2020 sales
growth target of 4% as conservative (Daiwa forecast 9%). Management also expects a stable
pricing trend for 2020, given the diminishing impact from the emission standards
transition.
As a result, Daiwa expects Geely's margins to improve significantly in 2020, amid the
ramp-up of the 3 plants (690k units in overall capacity) acquired in mid-2018. But it
lowered its 2019-21 EPS forecasts by 6-14% after factoring in management's conservative
guidance for 2019. (KL)