AEONTS is seeing a more promising business environment as farm income picks up, wages rise and opex and cost of funds come down. Growing contribution from CLMV subsidiaries will support L-T growth. We maintain BUY with unchanged TP of Bt115 (2.1x FY2016 BVPS).
Helped by better farm income, rising wages. AEONTS' business volume will, we believe, begin to pick up in the second half of this year, backed by the start of a recovery in farm income, plus government measures to help farmers and rising wages. Farm income growth returned to positive at 5% YoY in April, the first month since 2015 and we expect farm income to continue to get better as crop prices improve. Additionally, the cabinet just approved a budget of Bt45bn to help farmers via: 1) support for small business production (Bt38bn); 2) debt moratorium (Bt5.4bn) and 3) rice insurance (Bt2.1bn). It also approved a hike in minimum wage to Bt360-550/day from Bt300/day in five industries, which is expected to take effect in August. We have lifted our loan growth forecast slightly to 8% in FY2016 from 7% and to 10% in FY2017 from 9% vs. 7% in FY2015.
Easing opex growth with L-T benefit from national e-payment. We expect opex growth to fall to 6% in FY2016 from 7% in FY2015 and 10% in FY2014, thanks to a tighter policy and no more impact from April 2015's outsourcing of debt collection. AEONTS plans to freeze its staff count in FY2016 and has negotiated cost savings with vendors. Effective at the end of October this year, the BoT is kicking off the National e-Payment Master Plan with a new e-money transfer program called "PromptPay" which will allow money transfer for individuals by using the registered ID or phone number that is tied to a selected deposit account instead of deposit account number. The transaction fees for "PromptPay" of no more than Bt10 are well below fees on normal transactions of up to Bt120. PromptPay for transactions between companies and bill payment will be the next phase, which will benefit AEONTS in the form of lower transaction costs both for itself and its clients.
Further fall in cost on funds from credit rating upgrade. Cost of funds is expected to fall to below 4percent for the first time ever in 1QFY16 vs. 4.13% in 4QFY16 and 4.41% in FY2015 and a recent upgrade in credit rating to A- will help this come down even more. We thus forecast its net interest margin to widen 16 bps in FY2016.
Moving further in Cambodia and Myanmar. Its Cambodia subsidiary started a credit card business this year and the subsidiary in Myanmar reported a profit of Bt11mn in FY2015 with faster loan growth in the next few years since it can now access bank loans as an alternative to equity after the Myanmar government gave banking licenses to foreign banks. AEONTS targets 10% revenue contribution from its CLMV subsidiaries by FY2020 from ~1% now with a 5-year CAGR of 43%.
1QFY16 preview. We forecast earnings growth of 10% YoY but a fall of 13% QoQ in 1QFY16 (March-May) to Bt575mn. We expect a QoQ rise in provisions (rise in NPLs from the holiday season) and opex (from an abnormal low in 4QFY15) to wipe out a QoQ rise in net interest income (from easing cost of funds).
Maintain Buy. We see its valuation as undemanding at 9x PER and 1.7x PBV relative to 21% ROE for FY2016 with an expected a gradual pick up in loan growth, widening NIM, easing opex growth and rising contribution from its CLMV subsidiaries.