VTB
There are a number of criticisms that could be laid at Unipro’s door, including the Berezovskaya accident, falling production, a suboptimal capital structure and the streak of various accidents at its main production facilities. However, we want to evaluate the company’s investment case in more detail. Run by Dusseldorf-based Uniper and operating Russia’s largest fossil-fuel plant, in our view it sets the benchmark for the sector in various aspects, with the main one being a true shareholder company with DM corporate standards and EM growth rates. We highlight the strong growth, solid dividend outlook, exemplary corporate governance and exceptional cost control as reasons to own the stock. Thus, we are relaunching active coverage of Unipro with a 12-month Target Price of RUB 3.45. That implies an ETR of 37% so we assign a Buy recommendation.
Unipro delivers ironclad investment case in the medium term. Unipro might well have a tough financial year, with nominal profits dropping driven by the high base of FY17 and the risk of what we estimate to be RUB 2bn of penalties from FAS. Nevertheless, we believe Unipro will be the fastest growing Russian utility on a three-year horizon, with a net profit CAGR of 48% in 2018-20F. Unipro is set to see major profitability improvements after the new Berezovskaya unit is recommissioned in 3Q19. And, in our view, it is on track to become the highest dividend payer in the industry.
Unipro’s value is much deeper than pure dividends. Our calculations show, that Unipro is i) the most efficient power unit operator in the industry, with the lowest controllable costs and second lowest personnel headcount per MW of installed capacity; ii) the standard for corporate governance in the sector, with transparent decision-making processes and shareholder value maximisation, with a sub-optimal (cash-rich) capital structure being the only downside to the story; and iii) going to serve in the upcoming second sectoral capex wave, linked to the modernisation of aging infrastructure, as the ‘safe haven’ against potential capex upticks as it runs one of the youngest fleet of capacity in the sector. The market already assigns a higher value to the company (with 2018F EV/EBITDA of 5.8x versus the Russian genco average of 3.5x), however we see little reason for any major discount to the developed market peers multiple (7.0x).
Strong story with clear triggers. Buying Unipro now would, in our view, deliver investors i) a 12.4% dividend yield in the next 15 months (10% annualised), we forecast; ii) a clear value trigger once the company confirms the timeline for recommissioning Berezovskaya, which we expect during the FY17 results conference call; iii) relaunch of the unit in 18 months, driving EBITDA up to RUB 46bn on a run-rate basis. We therefore see plenty of triggers for Unipro to re-rate in the next 12 months. Among the risks we see are a further delay to Berezovskaya recommissioning and uncertainty over Fortum’s emergence as a key shareholder of a controlling company, German Uniper, the impact of which on Russian operations is yet to be defined.
Unipro (UPRO RX, RUB)
Buy (from Hold) // Previous: Hold (17 Mar 2017, 11:03 UTC )
Target price, 12mo: 3.45 // Last price: 2.68 // Upside: 29% // DY: 8% // ETR, 12mo: 37%