CJ Century to increase warehouse capacity with Rm350mil investment

PETALING JAYA: CJ Century Logistics Holdings Bhd plans to invest up to Rm350mil by 2025 to increase its warehouse capacity by one million sq ft.

The logistics group also aims to renew about 20 to 35 trucks and trailers to improve its trucking efficiency.

TA Research said CJ Century’s future growth strategies will be focused on three main areas, namely digitalisation and modernisation, expansion of customer acquisition effort and expansion of its logistics footprint.

“The growth strategies will involve capacity expansion to support the company’s endeavour in expanding its client base, while rationalising its cost structure through technology-enabled logistics solutions,” it said.

The research house expects earnings from the procurement logistics to be uplifted in the future, on the back of the expansion of production lines that would boost its assembling capacity.

According to TA Research, CJ Century saw its revenue contribution from procurement logistics drop 3% year-on-year to 23% for the first half of its financial year 2022 (1H22), owing to supply chain disruptions resulting from Shanghai’s lockdowns.

“The situation has normalised following the gradual easing in the second quarter of its financial year 2022 (2Q22), contributing to strong revenue and earnings before interest and taxes recovery of 54.4% and 71.5% quarter-on-quarter, respectively in 2Q22,” TA Research noted.

It added the revenue mix between total logistics and procurement logistics tilted to 77%:23% in 1H22 from 74%:26% in 1H21, driven mainly by buoyant freight forwarding and warehousing units that helped mitigate the earnings weakness in the procurement logistics division.

Commenting on Chengdu’s lockdowns, the research house said CJ Century does not procure any television and air conditioning components from Chengdu, as it usually purchases from Shanghai and Guangzhou.

“As far as recessionary risks in Europe and the United States are concerned, the company is prone to slow down if Malaysia’s trades were badly hit,” TA Research added.

It has noticed a new profit trend for CJ Century following the group’s exit from the courier service business.

“The exit from the courier service business in 2Q21 has put a stem on quarterly losses and supported earnings stability,” it noted.

“CJ Century recorded a quarterly profit of more than Rm7mil for three straight quarters with a stable margin of 3.4%,” it added.

In its 2Q22, CJ Century posted a net profit of Rm7.19mil, compared to a net loss of Rm8.19mil in the previous corresponding quarter.

The group declared a dividend of 0.5 sen per share in 2Q22 owing to the stable profit.

Before this, the group last declared a dividend in 4Q18.

TA Research noted CJ Century would revisit the idea of dividend policy after 4Q22 results performance.

“We do not think it is too optimistic for the group to sustain a dividend payout ratio of 25% for the financial year 2022 (FY22) to FY24,” it concluded.

TA Research made no changes to its earnings projections and has maintained its “buy” call on CJ Century, with an unchanged target price of 95 sen per share.