Dairy Farm

Dairy Farm: CIMB highlights Dairy Farm’s 1H12 results show unabated growth as core earnings met expectations at 45% of its full-year forecasts with 1H contributing ~45% of full-year earnings for the past 4 years. 1H12 core earnings jumped 13% yoy to US$243m on an 8% rise in revenue, while the interim DPS of US6.5¢ was also up 8%. Adds that the strong network expansion in 1H was also a nice surprise with performance driven by HK and Indonesia while health and beauty continued to be the star. It notes Dairy Farm added 149 stores in 1H12, compared to 2 stores in 1H11 and CIMB's forecast of 163 for FY12, with the network now at 5,555. It keeps an Outperform call with US$12.00 target.