Lotte Shopping at 8-month low after weak Q2, Nomura downgrades
13/08/2018 06:31
** Shares of Lotte Shopping Co Ltd 023530.KS fall as much
as 7.6 pct to 189,000 won, its lowest since Dec. 22, after the
hypermarket operator posts weak second-quarter results
** The retail group says Q2 net loss was 214 billion won
($188.7 million) vs net profit of 5 billion won the same quarter
in 2017. Revenue inched up 0.5 pct, operating profit fell 17
pct, EBITDA slid 10.8 pct, while China hypermarkets continued
weak same-store sales growth (https://bit.ly/2w0LrT1)
** Nomura downgrades Lotte Shopping to "reduce" from "buy"
given the weak performance due to growing competition among
off-line hypermarket players. It cut its target price to 150,000
won from 270,000 won
** Nomura says it turns cautious on domestic hypermarkets
and supermarkets amid worse-than-expected performance and
persistent losses at its China operations. It expects
hypermarkets to post operating losses on a lack of merchandising
competitiveness and weakening consumption
** As of the previous close, the stock had risen 2.76
percent so far this year
** Lotte Shopping has underperformed the Korea SE Wholesale
& Retail Service Index sector .KS45 by 3.1 percentage points
in the past one month
** As of 0517 GMT, about 248,940 shares of the Seoul-based
company change hands, compared with their 30-day moving average
of 60,230 shares a day
** Among 24 analysts that cover Lotte Shopping, the current
average rating on the shares is "buy"; the breakdown of
recommendations is 15 "strong buy" or "buy", five "hold", four
"sell" or "strong sell". The mean price target is 265,515.73 won
** The main stock index KOSPI .KS11 falls 1.5 pct
($1 = 1,134.1900 won)
(Reuters Messaging: donny.kwok.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)