KUALA LUMPUR: Kenanga Research is maintaining a positive outlook on Dialog Group Bhd
despite its F22 earnings result coming in below expectations.
In a report, the research firm said the group's long-term prospects remain intact with further development of the Pengerang Phase 3 to act as a potential re-rating catalyst.
"Looking ahead, further development of Pengerang Phase 3 will be Dialog’s key focus," it said.
"With the start-up of Petronas’ Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC), we believe this would help Dialog to expedite talks with potential partners.
"Dialog also has another 500 acres of land in the Pengerang area available for further developments for the longer term," it added.
Meanwhile, Kenanga noted that Dialog still has another 17 acres of land in Langsat following the completion of its current expansion of its Langsat terminals.
The additional land could potentially add another 200,000 cubic metres of storage capacity in the future, brining Langsat's total capacity to about one million cubic metres.
In FY22, Dialog's core profit was reported at RM508mil, which missed Kenanga's and consensus forecasts by 6% and 7% respectively, due to higher project costs in its downstream operations.
Kenanga cut its FY23 forecast to account for the weaker downstream margin.
It maintained "outperform" on the stock with a 6% lower target price of RM3.10 following the earnings cut.
"Overall, despite the short-term challenges, the group’s long-term outlook remains largely intact, with its mid-stream assets to also provide a degree of earnings defensiveness and resiliency.
"That said, any further development of its Pengerang phase 3 is expected to serve as potential re-rating catalyst for the stock," said the research firm.
