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Duty Free International readies war chest for M&A activities

PC Lee Published on Fri, Apr 28, 2017 / 11:45 AM GMT+8

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SINGAPORE (April 28): UOB Kay Hian is maintaining its “buy” on Duty Free International (DFI) but with a lower target price of 49 cents as the group has built up a significant war chest of RM265 million ($85 million) in preparation of M&A activities.

However, the Thailand-Malaysian border towns continued to see weak sales due to the demise of King Bhumibol and flooding in southern Thailand.

In 4QFY17, DFI’s headline net profit fell 14.9% to RM17.8 million from a year ago due to weaker sales in the Thailand-Malaysian border towns as well as the imposition of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) at border outlets and duty free zones from Jan 1. FY17 core net profit fell 4.8%.