Affin Hwang positive on Scicom's Cambodia project

KUALA LUMPUR: Affin Hwang Capital Research is positive on Scicom (MSC) Bhd's recent project win from Cambodia's Ministry of Tourism to develop and operate a fully integrated Cambodia Tourism Management System.

This announcement came on the back of modest earnings results with 6MFY18 core net profit slipping 4% on-year to RM21mil due to lower revenue.

"6MFY18 revenue fell by 14% yoy due to lower contribution from both tne Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Education Malaysia Global Services (EMGS) segments," it said.

Affin Hwang Research maintained its buy call on the counter with an unchanged target price of RM2.54.

The research firm said the anticipated revenue from the Cambodia contract is predicted on the number of air travellers to and from Cambodia, and should give the company a slice of the country's fast-growing air traveller's market.

"Statistic reports from Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism indicate that the number of international tourists arrivals by air grew by 13%-CAGR from 1.48m in 2011 to 2.70m in 2016," it said.

It added that Vinci Airports had in 2016 double the capacity of the Phnom Penh and Siam Reap airports to 10 million passengers. The Cambodian government has also recently approved plans to build a US$1.5bil airport in Kandal province, south of Phnom Penh.