Huatai Securities Initiates Coverage of CIMC Group with "Overweight" Rating, Citing Recovery in Offshore Drilling Demand

HONG KONG, July 28, 2023 - (ACN Newswire) - Recently, Huatai Securities issued a research report pointed out that the recovery of offshore demand and the shortage in the supply side come at the same time. In light of this, offshore drilling platforms have become scarce in the industry chain. CIMC Group, having strategically laid out its offshore equipment business fifteen years ago, has emerged as the major player in deepwater platform design and construction in China. Its offshore oil drilling platforms have been successfully deployed worldwide in major offshore oil and gas production areas, showcasing an extensive product range.

Huatai Securities has initiated coverage of CIMC Group for the first time and accorded it a "Overweight" rating. Huatai's expectations for CIMC Group's 2023-2026 PE ratio lie in the range of 23-26 times, corresponding to a target price of RMB 7.6. Taking into account the average H and A-share PE ratios from 2023 to the present at 67%, along with a Hong Kong dollar exchange rate of 0.91, the corresponding H-share 2023 PE ratio is projected at 17.7x, resulting in a corresponding H-share target price of HKD 5.63.

The report also highlights that many new container ships are expected to be delivered in 2023-2024, along with a high volume of old containers reaching the replacement stage. As a leading container producer, CIMC Group's renewal demand will provide sustained support to the industry. Concurrently, the global offshore market is gradually entering an upswing in the business cycle, leading to a significant increase in the Group's new order intake. As of March 2023, CIMC Group's new effective offshore orders have surged by 77% YoY, amounting to USD 2.56 billion, while the value of its accumulated orders in hand has grown by 122% YoY, reaching USD 3.9 billion.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued the Fifth Batch of specialized, refinement, differential and innovation ("SRDI") "Little Giants" Enterprises. Four subsidiaries under CIMC Group (000039.SZ/02039.HK) have been selected as national-level SRDI "little giants" enterprises, recognizing their leading key technologies and outstanding product innovation capabilities. With this recent recognition, CIMC Group now boasts a total of 13 subsidiaries awarded with this honor. As a global leader in logistics and energy industry manufacturing, CIMC Group maintains a wide business layout and sustains diversified development.

About China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Ltd.
The CIMC Group is a world leading equipment and solution provider in logistics and energy industries, and its industry cluster mainly covers logistics and energy fields, strengthening its position as a global market leader. In the logistics field, the Group still adheres to taking container manufacturing business as its core business, based on which to develop road transportation vehicles business, airport facilities and logistics equipment/fire safety and rescue equipment business and to a lesser extent, logistics services business and recycled load business providing products and services in professional field of logistics; in the energy field, the Group is principally engaged in energy/chemical/liquid food equipment business and offshore engineering business; meanwhile, the Group also continuously develops emerging industries and has finance and asset management business that serves the Group itself. As a diversified multinational industrial group that shoulders the mission of global serving, CIMC has 3 listed companies and over 300 member enterprises in Asia, North America, Europe, Australia and others, and extensive customers and sales networks covering more than 100 countries and regions. During the year, the Group recorded a revenue of RMB141.54 billion, with gross profit margin remained at 15.28% and net profit attributable to shareholders of the Company after deducting non-recurring profit or loss of RMB4.28 billion. The Group was recognized by Fortune as one of the "China's Most Admired Companies 2022", and was ranked 84th in the Fortune 500 China 2022, an increase of 35 places over the previous year. For more information, please visit http://www.cimc.com.