MAHB selldown offers buying opportunity

KUALA LUMPUR: The selldown in Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd’s (MAHB) shares represents a good buying opportunity, says TA Securities.

In its notes to investors, TA Securities said MAHB’s regulated asset base’s impact on the group’s bottom line would be muted.

It has maintained a “buy” call on MAHB shares but lowered its target price to RM8.47.

MAHB saw a 3.1 per cent increment in total passenger movements to 8.9 million last month. Of that, 4.5 million passenger movements were from the international sector and the rest from the domestic sector.

It had posted a 5.4 per cent growth in February.

TA Securities said the decline last month was anticipated after a strong performance in February, which has long holidays.

Meanwhile, the domestic sector continued to record stable growth of more than five per cent from the low base last year.

Cumulatively, the passenger growth moderated to 3.8 per cent in the first quarter from 4.3 per cent previously. The average load factor also declined one percentage point to 75.8 per cent yearon-year.

It said three international carriers grounded Boeing 737 MAX and switched to other aircraft after the Ethiopian Air incident.

Also, Indonesian carriers were seen to reduce flight frequencies after the Lion Air crash in October last year, but the impact was not be significant to MAHB.

In Istanbul, the growth in the international sector continued to mitigate the weakness in the domestic sector last month.

Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen airport’s passenger movements increased by 3.3 per cent to three million last month, with 20.5 per cent growth in international passenger movements, offsetting a 5.4 per cent decline in domestic passenger movements.