Crown Resorts
Melco Crown Entertainment, Crown Resorts Ltd (ASX: CWN) joint venture (with interest of 34.3%) in Macau has posted revenues decline of 22% to $1,054.3 million in the first quarter of 2015, as compared to $1,357.3 million for the corresponding period in 2014. The decrease was mainly impacted by lower rolling chip and mass market table games revenues, due to slow down in Chinese economy. The Net income for the company witnessed more pressure slumping to $60.6 million, or $0.11 per ADS, from $239.5 million, or US$0.44 per ADS in first quarter 2014, with $36.8 million non-controlling interests from Studio City and City of Dreams Manila.
On the other hand, Crown Resorts is making efforts to offset its reliance on Melco Crown by focusing on the United States and Australia cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Las Vegas. The company is seeking to develop a luxury five star hotel and apartment complex along with Schiavello Group near its Melbourne complex. Moreover the firm’s subsidiary bought a 34.6 acre land in Las Vegas Boulevard last year and might invest over $400 million-$500 million in this development. The firm’s joint venture with Greenland Holdings for Queen's Wharf Brisbane site, is under review with the government. The firm is developing a six star hotel resort at Barangaroo South, Sydney. On an overall note, Crown Resorts has aggressive plans to diversify its investments and intends to spend over $2.8 billion of capital expenditure in 2010 to 2017. The firm hasrecently raised over $630 million at an issue price of $100 per Note II under the recent Subordinated Notes II offer.
Crown Resorts worldwide presence (Source: Company Reports)
Meanwhile, the shares of Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ:MPEL) has delivered a negative year to date returns of 18.8%. However, the stock of MelcoCrown rallied around 7.6% in the last four weeks only, as the Macau government made a reversal of its transit visa policy which was made tighter over a year ago. The mainland China passport holders transiting through Macau are now eligible to stay in Macau for seven days in Macau (from earlier period of five days) and can get second entry in 30 days only, as compared to the earlier duration of 60 days. This move by the government offers some respite to Melco Crown and consequently to Crown resorts.
We believe that the Crown Resorts aggressive expansion plans in United States and Australia, and improving landscape in Macau could drive the shares of Crown Resorts higher in the long term. While the stock generated a marginal year to date returns of over 1%, the shares have corrected slightly in the last three months by 3.5%. Accordingly, we believe that investors can use this opportunity to “BUY” the stock at current levels of $13.15.
Flexigroup
FlexiGroup Limited (ASX:FXL) has been performing well, witnessing an overall portfolio income year over year growth of 15% and 11% during FY 13 and FY 14 respectively, and a cash NPAT increase of 18% during both the years. The company has a developed a strong customer base of 700,000 finance customers, over 12,000 active retailers, and has around $1.35bn in receivables. The group has been focusing only on accretive acquisitions, and acquired Telecom Rental New Zealand this year during March quarter.
While the company has been doing well under the CEO and the Managing Director, Tarek Robbiati’s leadership, the recent announcement of his resignation raised concerns on the performance and growth prospects for FlexiGroup. As a result, the shares of FlexiGroup Limited slumped around 19.2% over the last four weeks, as Robbiati did not even finish two years of service. Meanwhile, the group has reaffirmed its guidance of cash operating net profit after tax (NPAT) in the range of $90 and $91 million for the fiscal year of 2015, and dividends are expected to be in the range of 50-60% of cash NPAT. By doing so the group wants to convey the non-impact of Robbiati’s resignation on the firm’s operations. The firm intends to maintain its Capex / Income ratio in the range of 4%-6%.
Cash NPAT growth and ROE (Source: Company Reports)
FlexiGroup has been increasing its receivables across major markets by offering value propositions to customers through its Certegy, Interest Free Cards, SME Leasing and Enterprise Leasing. The group’s focus on high quality growth assets helped it to achieve a capital efficient funding, as well as over 110bps improvement in cost of funds on pcp. FlexiGroup’s diversified products base, dividend prospects, lower interest rates and relatively lower P/E ratio of 14.42, make it an attractive stock for long term investors. The stock had delivered a return of equity of over 23%, which is higher as compared to the financial sector average. We view the recent correction as a buying opportunity, and therefore give a “BUY” recommendation to the stock at the current levels of $3.01
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