Today's Focus

• Tiger Airways - 3Q13 core earnings show a strong turnaround. Maintain BUY, TP S$0.95

Tiger Airways reported 3QFYE Mar 13 results this morning that showed a turnaround in its earnings after 6 consecutive quarters of losses. Tiger Singapore's EBIT turned from a loss of S$5m a year ago to a profit of S$27m but losses widened at Tiger Australia from S$9m to S$13m as lower yields due to intense competition within Australia pressured prices. At group level, Tiger Airways turned from a loss of S$17.4m a year ago to a profit of S$2m. With this good set of results, we believe Tiger Airways is on track for a turnaround in FYE Mar 14 and we maintain our BUY call and S$0.95 target price. Technically, we believe the stock's pullback in recent sessions has ended at $0.745. We continue to see a gradual rise in the stock towards our fundamental TP of $0.95 in coming month(s).

4Q12 results for Ascott Residence Trust in line. Outlook moderate, but with bright spots within Asia. Looking ahead, management remains focused on growing its presence in growth markets in Asia and is reviewing opportunities to acquire in the region. Maintain BUY, TP raised to S$1.49 (Prev S$ 1.39).

Full year DPU of 8.04 cts for Capitacommercial Trust was in line with expectations. Steady occupancy, positive rental reversion and higher contributions from 6 Battery Road are expected to drive FY13 earnings. Low gearing and strong balance sheet can be used to drive inorganic growth. Maintain HOLD at a higher TP of S$1.54 (Prev S$ 1.50).

Mapletree Industrial Trust's 3Q13 results in line with expectations. Positive rental reversions were seen but growth moderating. We are cautious on the outlook as MINT will be renewing close to 30% of its revenues. We expect reversionary gap to compress in the coming quarters and retention rate to fall. Asset enhancement initiatives and development projects completing end of 2013 are expected to lead growth initiatives and contribute positively to the trust performance in the medium term. HOLD call maintained, TP S1.43.

Results for Keppel Land largely in line, FY12 core earnings came in 10% above our projections. Keppel Land is rolling out more new projects in China and Singapore to grow core earnings. Maintain BUY, TP raised to S$4.63 (Prev S$ 4.33).

Biosensors announced that it has raised US$300m of 4.875% semi-annual fixed rate notes due 2017. 
Together with US$350m cash on its books, its cash balance now stands at US$650m. We believe that  
acquisition may be on the way. FY14F earnings were lowered by about 7% for now after taking in 4.875%
interest cost. Our current rating is BUY, TP S$1.41.

Fincantieri has successfully completed the acquisition of 50.75% of STX OSV from STX Europe for S$1.22/share. This has triggered a mandatory general offer for the remaining shares in the company, also at S$1.22/share. The offer is unconditional in all respects, and will be satisfied in cash. We believe the offer is unattractive, at S$1.22/share. This represents a 5.4% discount to the last closing price of S$1.29/share and a 7.9% discount to the average price since the takeover was announced on 21 December 2012 of S$1.3245/share. While we believe the emergence of Fincantieri as the new parent of STX OSV is positive in the longer run and removes the overhang on the stock seen over the past year or so, we believe the
stock could trade range-bound in the near to medium term as the market awaits Fincantieri to unveil its plans for this part of the business. This could lead to changes to certain policies, such as dividend payouts. We are currently reviewing our TP and recommendation.  

Noble Group is proposing to issue RMB1bn 4.00% Notes due 2016 under the US$3bn medium term note program. The net proceeds from the Notes will be used for refinancing and general corporate purposes.
AusGroup has been awarded additional fabrication work of about A$20m on the Chevron-operated Gorgon Project, taking the total contract value to more than A$70m. With this contract award, AusGroup's order book now stands at A$280m.

AusGroup has been awarded additional fabrication work of about A$20m on the Chevron-operated Gorgon Project, taking the total contract value to more than A$70m. With this contract award, AusGroup's order book now stands at A$280m.

Boustead has been awarded a building contract from BASF on Jurong Island. The latest contract has raised the Group's order book backlog to S$340m.  

XinRen Aluminum expects to record lower earnings for FY2012 as compared to FY2011, due to (i) an overall decrease in the average selling price of aluminum products; (ii) an increase in the cost of electricity; and (iii) a lower trading margin to total sales.

Tee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing is subscribing for 80m new shares in JB Foods. The subscription represents a 16.67% stake at an issue price of S$0.27 per share. Singapore consumer prices rose a faster-than-expected 4.3% y-o-y in December, following two months of moderation, and higher than market expectation of 3.8%. Accommodation and private road transport costs were key to the jump from November's 3.6% inflation.

Excluding the two categories, MAS's core inflation measure edged down to 1.9% in December from 2% in
November. This was because of milder services inflation of 2.5%, led by a drop in telecommunications charges and more moderate increases in holiday travel and medical costs. Food inflation, too, slipped to 1.5% from 1.7% in November. Full-year inflation for 2012 was 4.6%, which is lower than 2011's 5.2% but still significantly above Singapore's historical average. The government expects inflation to be no lower than 3.5% and could reach 4.5%, with core inflation to average between 2 and 3% for 2013. Last year, core inflation rose to 2.5% from 2.2% in 2011.

Office leasing activity should slow in the coming six months, with demand to be dominated by tenants with
smaller space requirements. Knight Frank expects prime ents in Central Business District (CBD) areas to fall 0.5% in the first quarter of this year compared with the previous quarter amid this continued softness. This
follows a 0.4% decline in the fourth quarter of 2012. Knight Frank also said that the market has likely bottomed out after a rough 2012 which saw prime rents
in the CBD drop 11% from the year before.

Good corporate earnings from bellwethers continued to lift US indices higher and last night it was from tech
giants Goggle, IBM and AMD. It'd bad news though for pple. In after hours trade, shares of Apple gapped down c.10-11% after it reported 1Q sales below expectations. The tumble in Apple shares dragged the Nasdaq futures lower by 1.7%. Apple suppliers such as Hi-P could decline on news of Apple's weak results.

Source: DBSV