ThaiBev shares climb 5% amid active trading

Business update showing smaller than expected falls in Q3 revenue, Ebitda despite Covid-19 disruptions

Fiona Lam

Published Mon, Aug 17, 2020 · 09:50 PM

Singapore

THAI Beverage Public Co (ThaiBev) shares advanced on Monday amid heavy volume, after the beverage giant posted resilient revenue and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

The counter gained as much as 7.4 per cent to trade at 65 Singapore cents in the afternoon, before easing to finish at 63.5 cents, up S$0.03 or 5 per cent. Some 470.2 million shares changed hands, making it the most actively traded by value and volume on the bourse for the day.

More than a hundred large trades, each valued at more than S$150,000, were done throughout the day, according to Shareinvestor data. These included a dozen married deals.

ThaiBev's business update for its nine months ended June, 2020 implied that its Q3 revenue declined about 15 per cent year on year while Q3 Ebitda fell 7 per cent, said RHB analyst Juliana Cai in a note on Monday morning. These levels were above RHB's expectations, given Thailand's alcohol sales ban from early April to early May, Ms Cai said. RHB upgraded the stock to "buy" as the share price had corrected to an "attractive" valuation of 15 times of FY21 forecast price-earnings ratio. RHB's target price (TP) was unchanged at 72 c…