Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: SVW) group operates in industrial services, media, energy and investments. WesTrac Group is the only authorized Caterpillar dealer in certain regions in Australia like New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. Also, WesTrac China is an authorized dealer in North Eastern China territories. The group have a 45% stake in Coates Hire, which is the Australia’s major equipment hire business. Seven Group is growing its Energy business by investing as well as acquiring business in this space to expand the group’s its presence in the oil and gas projects in Australia and the United States. SGH energy was successfully formed post the acquisition of Nexus business during December 2014 for $236 million. As per the media segment, Seven group has over 35% stake in the Seven West Media. The group has also invested in other media firms like Yahoo! 7, Presto, Seven Network, Pacific Magazines and West Australian Newspapers.
Seven Group Holdings organization structure (Source: Company Reports)
First half of 2015 highlights
Seven Group reported a decline of 11% of its trading revenues from $1,397.8 million as compared to $1,577.1 million in first half of 2014 due to challenging market conditions. The net underlying profit fell 10% yoy to $118.7 million in the first half of 2015, but delivered better results as compared to its November guidance update. With regards to the group’s division highlights, WesTrac Australia Product support revenues soared by 16% yoy to $750 million, driven by the growing focus on the maintenance work for earlier product sales, subsequently changing its revenue mix. Accordingly, the WesTrac Australia reported a trading revenue of $1.07 billion. The ongoing restructuring of the business as well as shifting revenue mix drove the underlying EBIT margin to 8.1%, against 7.5% in 1H14.
WesTrac Australia trading revenue performance (Source: Company Reports)
As per the WesTrac China, the product sales improved by 2% yoy as the revamped demand from Chinese oil and gas sector drove solid engine and power systems. The group improved underlying EBIT by 25% to USD 11.4 million as compared to USD 9.1 million in first half of 2014, as a part of its cost reduction initiatives. As a result, the underlying EBIT margin rose to 4.1%, against the 3.7% margin during the corresponding period of 2013.
WesTrac China financial performance (Source: Company Reports)
Coates Hire revenues fell 14% on a year over year basis, impacted by the falling demand from mining and energy customers. The underlying EBIT plunged to $68 million, against the $113 million in 1H14, due to tough market conditions. Coates had employed Michael Byne as the new Chief Executive officer, and is forming a new management team. The division’s net debt fell $92 million during the period.
Seven West Media underlying EBIT plunged 9% yoy to $226.9 million and reported a non-cash impairment of $1.1 billion for intangible assets.
Seven West Media EBIT breakdown by division (Source: Company Reports)
SVW is also maintaining a decent balance sheet and managed to decrease its net debt by $110.4 million. The group generated a cash of $238.4 million from operations, wherein the underlying EBITDA cash conversion stood at 136%. The group finished its buy back of 11.9 million shares, and intends to buy back a total of 17.7 million shares during this year. The group maintained a fully franked interim ordinary dividend of 20 cents per share, which is a payout ratio of 57% of the underlying earnings per share.
Growing dividends over the years (Source: Company Reports)
Seven group reported a significant charges of $195.5 million related to the impairment carrying value of investment in seven west media. WesTrac China distribution network impairment was $71.4 million, while tax adjustments of $142.3 million was related to the SGH formation.
Outlook
SVW have recently been undergoing several management changes, and has appointed Mr. Ryan Stokes as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of the company. Mr. Don Voelte AO has resigned as the Director of the Company. Under Don Voelte’s leadership, the group bought or invested in several energy assets last year including Nexus Energy and Oil exploration tenements in Texas. However, the pressure on SGH energy have been ongoing with the falling Oil prices. The reduced capital expenditure by mining firms due to tough market conditions have been hitting the SGH industrial division. The stock of Seven West Media also delivered a negative year to date returns of 31.5%. As a result of the group’s division’s pressure, the shares of SVW fell over 24.7% over the last three months, while it rallied over 31.1% from beginning of January till May 29
th.
On the other hand, revamped demand for Caterpillar products, heavy stimulus packages from China and improving oil prices can drive the shares of seven group higher. Moreover, SVW has a very high dividend yield of 7.18%, as compared to its peers. We believe that the recent correction needs to be used as a buying opportunity by the investors.
Accordingly, we give a “BUY” recommendation to the stock at the current price of $5.44
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