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005305.KS - Lotte Chilsung Preferred


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This is an interesting cheap "double-double".  The company itself trades at a significant discount to other peers.  Lotte Chilsung is the largest beverage producer in Korea.  It also sells beer and other Korean alcoholic beverages along with a large stakes Pepsi Cola Philippines and Myanmar and has a large RE development in Korea along with listed securities.  If you don't pull out the non-op assets, it sells for 7.0x EBITDA and 4.0x EBITDA with the assets pulled out a substantial discount to FMV (30 % for securities and JV and 50% for real estate).  Other comps in Korea CJ Chilsung and LG H&H sell for 13x EBITDA.  US and international comps range from 12 to 20x EBITDA.  This is not a small company either it has a market cap of US $1.9b. 

 

On top of this the preferred shares at a 56% discount to the common.  Lotte Chilsung also has good growth record of growing BV by 10% per year for the past 10 years versus.  CJ Chilsung has grown by 9% per year while LG H&H by 15% per year over the past 10 years.  If Lotte Chilsung sold at the values of the other Korean comps (13x EBITDA), the other assets had a discount of 20% vs. 30% to market and the preferred sold a 15% discount for lack of voting, the upside is close to 350%.

 

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it is already trading at 10x earnings, and debt load is quite heavy. But I am assuming that is not much of a problem with a company like this. How did you figure out the minority interests, and arent they already reflected in profit statement? Financial statements are a pain to read with google translate.

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If you add together the listed and listed securities along with the real estate you get about W1.248 t per Samsung analyst report.  The debt is only W394.7bn.  I have reduced the discount on the securities from 30% to 20% (as this appears high) and increased the real estate to W333t based upon a BOT  estimate from KIH (it more detailed than Samsung's estimate).  The company actually has a net assets/cash position.  In addition, one of the Lotte sons is purchasing Lotte Chilsung shares to secure a position in the company when his dad passes away.

 

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This is an interesting cheap "double-double".  The company itself trades at a significant discount to other peers.  Lotte Chilsung is the largest beverage producer in Korea.  It also sells beer and other Korean alcoholic beverages along with a large stakes Pepsi Cola Philippines and Myanmar and has a large RE development in Korea along with listed securities.  If you don't pull out the non-op assets, it sells for 7.0x EBITDA and 4.0x EBITDA with the assets pulled out a substantial discount to FMV (30 % for securities and JV and 50% for real estate).  Other comps in Korea CJ Chilsung and LG H&H sell for 13x EBITDA.  US and international comps range from 12 to 20x EBITDA.  This is not a small company either it has a market cap of US $1.9b. 

 

On top of this the preferred shares at a 56% discount to the common.  Lotte Chilsung also has good growth record of growing BV by 10% per year for the past 10 years versus.  CJ Chilsung has grown by 9% per year while LG H&H by 15% per year over the past 10 years.  If Lotte Chilsung sold at the values of the other Korean comps (13x EBITDA), the other assets had a discount of 20% vs. 30% to market and the preferred sold a 15% discount for lack of voting, the upside is close to 350%.

 

Packer

 

Packer, thanks for the idea.

 

Do you see any clear reason for the undervaluation compared to the Korean comps?

 

And do you see anything that could cause the relative undervaluation (to the Korean comps and pref to common) to disappear ?

 

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As to reasons for undervaluation, I see two.  First, is limited access to the market as some of the comments on this board show and second the inclusion of  Korea as an emerging market.  I see Korea as a developed market due to regulation enforcement and a pension system to provide a backstop for the equity market and to dampen capital flows.  What will make these discounts converge is realization of the governance changes and the recognition of Korea as a third economic power in the region.

 

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Packer this one traced all the way back to where it was in 2014

Do you still like this idea? Either the fundamentals don't support, or the converging to its value has been very slow b/c of the lack of a catalyst

I think these korean companies don't return cash to investors actively...

 

Fidelity is the only one I know of.

 

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I still like it as fundamentals have improved but the fight amongst the family has gotten worse and a related party is under investigation for "slush" funds.  The Lotte Group's top level entity Lotte Hotel's IPO was put on hold due to the investigation.  So you have better fundamentals but family events uncertainty is higher.

 

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I would think the problem is not Lotte specific, in fact most of the Korea preferred I tracked traced back to 2014, like 009415

I guess it's just the catalyst is not there

 

I still like it as fundamentals have improved but the fight amongst the family has gotten worse and a related party is under investigation for "slush" funds.  The Lotte Group's top level entity Lotte Hotel's IPO was put on hold due to the investigation.  So you have better fundamentals but family events uncertainty is higher.

 

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I don't have a detailed answer to your question, but 'yes' there was a restructuring.  In addition to my Lotte Chilsung prefs, I now hold Lotte Corp prefs as well (which I believe originated from my ownership of the Lotte Chilsung prefs)

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Yes, you are holding Lotte Corp preferred.  Lotte Corp is a holding company that was formed from the investment holdings of all the Lotte companies.  Last time I looked the preferred was trading at a premium to the common & the price was pretty close to NAV.

 

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