Aspo - Sailing towards EUR 30m EBIT
We raise our total Q4’20 EBIT estimate by EUR 2.9m
Aspo states especially steel and energy industry cargo volumes have developed strong and so ESL has performed better than expected before. The upgrade is thus not due to e.g. additional cost savings but driven by improving business conditions. Aspo previously guided EUR 14-16m in FY ’20 EBIT and the revised range is EUR 18-20m. The positive outlook revision was not such a big surprise since the previous guidance seemed to us quite cautious with respect to Telko’s development. We now estimate ESL to post EUR 3.2m in Q4 EBIT (prev. EUR 1.7m) and Telko to improve slightly further to EUR 4.3m (prev. EUR 2.8m). The new range suggests Aspo will achieve about EUR 7m in Q4 EBIT, which implies the company is well on track towards more than EUR 30m annually in the coming years.
The upgrade is incrementally positive for our overall view
Only last year Aspo’s profitability development appeared to rely mostly on ESL. There was potential in Telko that always waited for its materialization. Earlier this year the roles reversed in a way when Telko delivered very strong Q2 and Q3 results while ESL was clearly suffering the pandemic’s adverse effects. It has now become more apparent that ESL has not been left nursing any permanent wounds. Given ESL’s intact prospects and Telko’s gains Aspo’s overall development towards long-term financial targets can even be considered positive in 2020 (despite that FY ’20 EBIT will likely decline a bit y/y). EBIT thus seems bound towards the EUR 30m ballpark in the coming years, compared to the EUR 20m level before the pandemic.
Current valuation still leaves good upside potential
The recently reaffirmed long-term financial targets now look maybe more relevant than ever. There’s strong potential in all three segments, however 2020 also raises macroeconomic uncertainty and thus the operational upside prospects should still be valued somewhat cautiously. In our opinion Aspo’s equity value per share could easily top EUR 10 in the future if ESL and Telko continue to perform well next year. Our new TP is EUR 8.75 (8) and we retain our BUY rating.