CIMB Research maintains Outperform on Mah Sing

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Equities Research is positive on Mah Sing Group and it is maintaining its OUTPERFORM rating, earnings forecasts and target price of RM3.30, based on 14.5 times P/E.

It said on Thursday, July 21 that it had organised a conference call with Mah Sing for over 20 local and foreign investors to give investors the opportunity to assess whether there are valid reasons to be more cautious on property stocks and to gauge the outlook for the sector.

“The key positive takeaway from the conference call was Mah Sing’s impression from its correspondence with the authorities that the latter appears to be very careful in implementing any policy that could hurt the property sector.

“This is because of the knock-on effects it would have on 140 sub-sectors, the impact it could have on Iskandar Malaysia and the fact that there are no conclusive signs of a property bubble in Malaysia,” it said.

CIMB Research said it continued to view last week’s selldown as excessive and advise investors to accumulate positions. Mah Sing remains an OUTPERFORM and its top pick in the property sector, it said.

“We make no changes to our earnings forecasts and target price of RM3.30, which is based on an unchanged target market P/E of 14.5x. Potential re-rating catalysts include 1) yesterday’s reassuring conference call, 2) the very good response to the recent weekend maiden public launch of Icon City, 3) continued strong sales by the group and 4) landbanking newsflow which should pick up pace in 2H,” it said.