KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — Research houses have maintained their ‘Buy’ call on Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), leveraging the recovery of air travel as countries relax their border restrictions while airlines are reinstating their capacities to pre-pandemic levels.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research expects continued improvement in traffic as Malaysia-based airlines introduce new routes and increase frequency in tandem with the growing demand for air travel.
“Based on planned airline capacity, domestic capacity will continue to improve to 75 per cent of pre-pandemic level from the current 68.4 per cent, while international capacity will improve to over 60 per cent from the current 41.4 per cent,” it said in a note today.
The research firm maintained a ‘buy’ on MAHB, but revised its target price (TP) to RM7.85 from RM8.18.
MIDF Research said in a note that it has made some adjustments to its passenger movement forecast as the key catalyst would be Northeast Asian countries (particularly China and Japan) fully lifting their travel restrictions.
“This sector made up 25 per cent of the total international traffic at KL International Airport during the pre-pandemic period. We upgrade our call on MAHB to ‘buy’ with a slightly higher TP of RM 6.77,” it added.
Meanwhile, CGS-CIMB reiterated its ‘hold’ call on the airport operator and reduced its TP to RM6.60 from RM6.76 as it tapers down its assumptions on the speed at which MAHB’s Malaysian operations can restore its full commercial rental collections, particularly for 2022 to 2023.
“This is in view of the still-low level of international tourist arrivals and in light of the potentially-slow return of high-spending tourists from China, who are largely absent now,” it said.
At 11.52am, MAHB share price was down eight sen at RM5.98, with 497,200 shares changing hands. — Bernama
