Banyan Tree

Banyan Tree: Seeing quite a bit of interests on Banyan Tree, while management has also been buying back its shares. Notably DBS Vickers coming up with a report last Friday, highlighting that while Banyan Tree (BTH) is expected to face some impact from the “Bangkok shutdown by anti-government protestors in 1Q14, believe that the group will remain profitable given its heavier exposure in Phuket where performance of their resorts seem to be relatively shielded from the political woes in Bangkok, (ii) diversified exposure across major hospitality markets of Maldives / Lijiang /Bintan where demand have continued to remain robust. The group has also seen positive take-ups in new property launches across Asia, where its new property projects – Laguna Shores and Laguna Park receive robust reception since their launch over 2012-2013 and the group is capitalizaing on this trend to the other resort locations of Bintan and Penang. Going forward, the group has unrecognized revenues of $64.9m as of Dec’13 which might balloon up to $130m, assuming that all units launched and its existing inventory of branded residences are sold.