Aspo - Performance is now appreciated
ESL and Telko have now performed around target levels
Aspo’s EUR 133.5m Q4 revenue was in line with estimates (EUR 129.3m/132.9m Evli/cons.) while the EUR 7.6m EBIT was a positive surprise relative to the EUR 7.0m/7.1m Evli/cons. estimates. The EBIT beat was driven by ESL. The Q4 improvement in ESL’s operating environment didn’t come as a surprise, but in our opinion the EUR 4.8m Q4 EBIT was significantly better than expected (we estimated EUR 3.2m) considering the EUR -0.1m Q3 figure and the fact that top line and cargo volumes were still down from a year ago. ESL’s EBIT was indeed up from the EUR 4.4m comparative figure thanks to cost savings measures. Telko continued to perform close to expectations and posted a strong 6.2% operating margin. Meanwhile Leipurin EBIT declined to EUR 0.2m from the EUR 1.1m comparison figure.
Aspo didn’t issue numerical EBIT guidance range for FY ‘21
ESL’s strong Q4 profitability (already close to the 12% long-term margin target) is encouraging as there’s now sound evidence Aspo’s two main cylinders are firing and can perform close to their long-term target levels. In our view the recent performance levels indicate ESL and Telko should by themselves help Aspo reach EUR 30m EBIT this year. Aspo however didn’t give any numerical EBIT guidance range. According to the guidance EBIT will be higher this year, and as such the statement isn’t very informative. In our view ESL’s EBIT will improve a lot this year but is probably not going to reach EUR 20m yet. We revise our FY ’21 EBIT estimate for ESL only from EUR 16.3m to EUR 16.4m as environmental equipment installations mean there’ll be more lay-ups than usual. We expect Telko FY ’21 EBIT to grow by 9%.
We consider current valuation to land within a neutral area
We revise our Aspo FY ’21 EBIT estimate up only a bit to EUR 29.7m. This means ca. EUR 10m annual gain and in terms of EBITDA 25% y/y growth. In our opinion Aspo’s valuation, at least in terms of SOTP, already reflects significant earnings growth for this year. There’s likely to be more potential beyond ’21, however we don’t see these gains should be fully valued right now. Our new TP is EUR 9.5 (8.75) per share, rating HOLD (BUY).