Col Report
Col Report
De Ja Vu
The Philippine market suffered from significant volatility during the first four April Tan, CFA
Chief Equity Strategist
months of the year. After rising by as much as 8.2%, the PSEi index erased almost
all its gains for 2024 before rebounding to end the month of April higher by 4.9%
for the year-to-date period. A monthly publication
by COL which provides
Although the market has somewhat stabilized, we believe there is a possibility insights on investment
that we could see a repeat of 2023 given numerous similarities. Recall that last opportunities based
year, the stock market also started the year strong but ended the year flat as on global and local
inflation continued to increase. The U.S. Fed and the BSP also disappointed as developments that could
they did not pivot and even tightened further. Finally, the reopening of China did affect the market.
Due to the said developments, the Philippine 10-year bond rate increased by 101
basis points for the year-to-date period to 7.01%, while the peso depreciated by
4.2% to 57.675. Higher interest rates and a weak peso are negative for the stock
market.
Disclaimer: All content provided in COL Reports are meant to be read in the COL Financial website. Accuracy and completeness of content cannot be guaranteed if reports are viewed
outside of the COL Financial website as these may be subject to tampering or unauthorized alterations.
COLing the Shots I De Ja Vu Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Because of this, the Philippines is expected to deliver one of the fastest GDP
growths among ASEAN member countries at 5.8% this year.
Meanwhile, the risk of a banking crisis or massive defaults is minimal. Banks are
strong, with high capital adequacy ratios, low non-performing loans with high
levels of coverage, and high levels of liquidity. Listed companies are also liquid
and not over leveraged.
Finally, the stock market is already in the late stages of a bear market as evidenced
by very low trading volumes and very cheap valuations. Average daily value
turnover is less than half of what it was during the market’s peak. Meanwhile, the
PSEi index is trading at only 11X P/E, more than 2 standard deviations below its
10-year historical average. There are also numerous share buybacks and insider
buying activities.
2
COLing the Shots I De Ja Vu Tuesday, 07 May 2024
Sector Stock Price FV Upside Buy Below P/E 2024E P/BV 2024E Div Yield 2024E
AREIT 33.95 - - 6.4%
REITs
CREIT 2.84 - - 6.7%
AP 37.3 51.80 38.9% 45.00 9.69 1.29 6.2%
Power
MER 374 471.70 26.1% 410.00 12.68 2.33 4.8%
SM 944.5 1161.00 22.9% 1009.00 13.63 2 1.1%
Holding Cos.
GTCAP 639 955.00 49.5% 795.00 5.08 0.52 1.3%
Banks MBT 71.5 87.00 21.7% 75.60 7.04 0.82 4.9%
ALI 26.8 40.50 51.1% 35.20 17.52 1.33 0.8%
Properties RLC 15.75 26.20 66.3% 20.90 6.94 0.51 3.5%
SMPH 27.35 43.20 58.0% 36.00 17.53 1.78 1.6%
URC 106.8 150.00 40.4% 130.00 15.96 1.84 3.7%
Consumers
MONDE 11.16 11.90 6.6% 10.30 22.78 2.16 1.1%
Telcos TEL 1,346.00 1720.00 27.8% 1433.00 8.63 2.36 6.9%
source: COL estimates
3
PH Stock Market:
De Ja Vu?
A P R I L L . TA N , C FA
C H I E F E Q U I T Y S T R AT E G I S T
Page / 2
PSEi Index
PH up 4.9% YTD
due to expectation
7,100.00
of Fed pivot,
7,000.00
6,900.00
domestically
6,600.00
6,500.00
6,400.00
6,300.00
6,200.00
6,100.00
1/2/24 2/2/24 3/2/24 4/2/24
Source: Bloomberg
Page / 3
PSEi Index
Could we see a
repeat of 2023’s
7,200.00
7,000.00
performance? 6,800.00
6,600.00
6,400.00
6,200.00
6,000.00
5,800.00
5,600.00
2023 2024
Source: Bloomberg
Page / 4
Review of 2023
Market rallied in January
• US inflation peaked
• Fed and PH central bank expected to pivot
• Reopening of China
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
18.00
20.00
22.00
04/12/2021
05/12/2021
06/12/2021
07/12/2021
08/12/2021
09/12/2021
10/12/2021
11/12/2021
12/12/2021
01/12/2022
02/12/2022
03/12/2022
04/12/2022
05/12/2022
06/12/2022
07/12/2022
08/12/2022
Oil
09/12/2022
Rice
10/12/2022
11/12/2022
12/12/2022
01/12/2023
02/12/2023
03/12/2023
04/12/2023
05/12/2023
06/12/2023
07/12/2023
08/12/2023
09/12/2023
10/12/2023
11/12/2023
12/12/2023
01/12/2024
02/12/2024
03/12/2024
Source: Bloomberg
04/12/2024
Page / 5
Page / 6
Minimum wages
could increase
significantly ...
Page / 7
... Negatively
affecting
inflation &
economic growth
Page / 8
seven, US Fed 5/1/2024 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 99.0% 1.0%
expected to 6/12/2024 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 9.4% 89.7% 0.9%
only cut rates 7/31/2024 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.5% 22.7% 75.1% 0.7%
11/17/2024
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
0.5%
2.1%
7.9%
14.5%
38.4%
41.5%
52.8%
41.4%
0.5%
0.4%
Peso depreciates
45
47
49
51
53
55
57
59
61
05/03/2021
06/03/2021
07/03/2021
08/03/2021
09/03/2021
10/03/2021
11/03/2021
12/03/2021
01/03/2022
02/03/2022
03/03/2022
04/03/2022
05/03/2022
06/03/2022
07/03/2022
08/03/2022
09/03/2022
10/03/2022
11/03/2022
12/03/2022
01/03/2023
02/03/2023
PHP vs USD
03/03/2023
10-Yr Bond Rate
04/03/2023
05/03/2023
06/03/2023
07/03/2023
08/03/2023
09/03/2023
10/03/2023
11/03/2023
12/03/2023
01/03/2024
02/03/2024
03/03/2024
Source: Bloomberg
04/03/2024
Page / 9
Page / 10
PH central bank
also plans to
delay rate cuts
due to sticky
inflation
Source: Bloomberg
Page / 11
growth
Formation
Exports of Goods and
14.6 1.0 4.4 2.6 -2.6
Services
Gross Domestic
7.1 6.4 4.3 5.9 5.6
Product
Source: Bloomberg
Page / 12
Why we shouldn’t be
too pessimistic
• PH more resilient to global economic slowdown
• Strong, liquid banking sector
• Listed companies not overleveraged
• PH already in late-stage bear market
• Very attractive valuations
• Abundant share buyback/ insider buying
• Falling value T/O
Page / 13
Indonesia 5.0
Philippines 5.8
Vietnam 6.0
Source: Bloomberg consensus estimates
Page / 14
PH more
GDP Breakdown*
resilient to
Net Exports
9.0%
global economic
slowdown
Investments
23.3%
PH more
3.0% CAGR
34,000.0 33,491.0
resilient to
33,000.0 32,539.4
32,000.0 31,417.6
global economic
31,000.0
30,133.3 29,903.3
30,000.0
28,943.1
29,000.0
slowdown
28,000.0
27,000.0
26,000.0
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
PH not dependent on exports
Consumer spending accounts for BPO Revenues (US$ Bil)
>70% of GDP 7.6% CAGR
40.00
35.40
35.00 32.50
20.00
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023E
Favorable
demographics
also helps
Source: PopulationPyramid.net
Page / 17
leveraged AEV
AGI
2.2
2.4
0.7
0.4
2.6
3.8
DMC 2.8 0.1 45.2
FPH 1.7 0.3 6.0
GTCAP 1.5 0.5 6.8
JGS 1.0 0.7 4.8
SM 1.1 0.3 6.9
Power
ACEN 3.6 0.2 2.4
AP 1.8 0.9 3.2
FGEN 1.5 0.2 8.1
MER 0.7 0.1 10.3
SCC 2.4 -0.2 61.1
*As of end 2023
Source: Listed Cos, COL estimates
Selected Liquidity and Leverage Ratios* Page / 19
Listed companies
Company Current Ratio Ratio Expense Ratio
Consumer- Mfg
leveraged DNL
EMI
1.2
3.1
0.7
0.2
6.7
9.2
MONDE 2.0 -0.2 2.0
URC 1.6 0.0 18.9
Consumer- Restaurants
JFC 1.1 1.0 6.2
MAXS 1.0 0.7 6.1
PIZZA 1.5 0.9 6.5
Consumer - Retailers
HOME 3.1 0.5 6.1
PGOLD 2.7 0.1 4.6
RRHI 1.2 0.4 5.3
SSI 2.4 -0.2 20.3
WLCON 2.2 0.4 11.7
*As of end 2023
Source: Listed Cos, COL estimates
Selected Liquidity and Leverage Ratios* Page / 20
Listed companies
Company Current Ratio Ratio Expense Ratio
Telcos
leveraged
GLO 0.6 2.8 7.3
TEL 0.4 2.2 7.2
Property
ALI 1.8 0.8 5.2
FLI 3.0 0.7 3.9
MEG 3.1 0.3 16.0
RLC 1.8 0.4 6.5
SMPH 1.3 0.9 5.0
VLL 1.9 0.8 2.0
Others
BLOOM 1.9 1.5 3.0
NIKL 2.4 -0.2 34.4
PLUS 1.1 -0.1 24.2
*As of end 2023
Source: Listed Cos, COL estimates
Very attractive valuations
Page / 21
22.00
20.00
18.00
16.00
14.00
12.00 11.19
10.00
8.00
05/02/2014 05/02/2015 05/02/2016 05/02/2017 05/02/2018 05/02/2019 05/02/2020 05/02/2021 05/02/2022 05/02/2023
PSEi P/E Mean +1 std -1 std
Source: Bloomberg
Very attractive valuations
Page / 22
PSEi Index Stocks’ Standard Deviation from 10-Yr Historical Ave P/E Ratio
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
-2.0
-2.5
-3.0
Source: Bloomberg
Page / 23
insider buying
ALI X X
RLC X
MEG X X
Banks
BPI X
CHIB X
EW X
UBP X
Others
BLOOM X
NIKL X
*In 2023
Source: PSE disclosures
Diminishing
value turnover
10,000.0
12,000.0
0.0
2,000.0
4,000.0
6,000.0
8,000.0
8,015.5
7,399.9
7,018.9
6,515.5
6,676.6
6,509.9
6,262.7
10,089.0
10,989.7
6,928.7
7,427.4
10,711.9
8,130.1
6,908.5
6,470.9
7,749.3
PSE Ave Daily Value T/O (Php Mil)
7,682.2
6,220.6
5,712.4
4,492.6
Source: PSE, Bloomberg
5,334.01
Page / 25
Page / 26
Recommended sectors
Defensive sectors
• Power
• Telcos
• Utilities
Big 3 banks
• Size leads to lower funding costs
• Reaping the benefits of prudent lending practices in the past
• Strong profit growth, healthy balance sheet
Selected stocks from more cyclical sectors that are too cheap to ignore
• Have more defensive businesses despite belonging to a cyclical sector
• Trading at more than 1 std dev below historical average P/E
Page / 27
Risks
• Disappointing economic data
• Higher than expected inflation
• Weaker than expected GDP growth
• Disappointing earnings results
• US falls into a recession and bear market, PH suffers from
contagion
Page / 36
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COLing the Shots I De Ja Vu Tuesday, 07 May 2024
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