Parkson Retail Asia

Parkson Retail Asia (PRA): announced that it has signed a lease agreement to open its first Parkson branded store in Jakarta in Sep ‘13. The store will be located at The St Moritz, a 35 ha mixed devt developed by the Lippo Group, at the heart of the Puri CBD, West Jakarta. At present, Parkson’s only presence in Indonesia is via 6 Centro-branded stores which were acquired in Jun ‘11. Mgt will pursue a dual branding strategy in Indonesia with Centro targeting the low-middle income and Parkson targeting the upper-middle income segment. DMG is bullish on the long-awaited decision and believes Parkson will gain a lot of traction in the market given its strong retail know-how and branding. Says this is already evident in Centro’s recent results where same-store-sales exceeded expectations, growing 9.8% YoY in 9MFY12. The house reiterates Buy with TP $1.68.