It’s not everyday you get to see value emerged from Bursa Malaysia especially when current market is fueled by speculations. KLCC Stapled Group is Malaysia’s first stapled trusts which comprise of KLCC Property Holdings and KLCC REIT.

The Group owns and manages 7 properties that are strategically located at the centre of Kuala Lumpur. Some of its most notable properties includes the Petronas Twin Towers, Suria KLCC, Menara Maxis, Menara Exxonmobil and Mandarin Oriental, etc.

Recently, its share price has been under some heavy sell-off from its peak of RM8.00 to RM7.11 per share at the time of writing.

While the Group’s business performance was underperforming due to the on-going Covid-19 outbreaks in Malaysia, the sell-off seems to be unrelated to its business performance. Rather, it is caused by the Group’s major shareholder – Petroliam Nasional Bhd (PETRONAS).

According to the Group’s announcement to Bursa, PETRONAS has sold 154m shares on 11 Dec 2020. The Edge Markets reported that the sell-off was at RM7.12 per share which was discounted by 5.7% from its closing price of RM7.55. This was probably for fund raising purposes as PETRONAS is paying dividend to our Federal Government.

With such discounted price, it also means that the sell-off is not through the open market. According to KLCC’s announcement to Bursa, Amanahraya Trustees Berhad – Amanah Saham Bumiputera has on 11 Dec 2020 bought 58.35m shares of KLCC. Probably they are one of the counterparties that bought the shares from PETRONAS.

VALUATION – DIVIDEND YIELD

Regardless, the sell-off has made KLCC’s valuation becomes attractive. Dividend investors would be happy to add more shares of KLCC into their portfolio. For the past 7 years, KLCC’s average dividend yield (DY) stood at 4.7% while its highest DY were at 5.25% which was during the 2018 sudden REITs sell-off. Today, KLCC DY were at its highest – 5.32% based on previous year’s dividend per share of RM0.38.

I did not take into account of current year dividend per share because of two reasons; 1) covid-19 outbreaks in year 2020 is a temporary issue which should not be taken into account in valuing a company for long-term investors; and 2) it’s not the full year dividend per share yet.

VALUATION – PB RATIO

KLCC’s DY was not the only valuation metric that shows value emerging. The Group’s PB Ratio also show that it is attractive. The average 7 years historical PB Ratio stood at 1.1x while its current PB Ratio is at 0.98x at the time of writing. This means the current share price is lower than KLCC’s net asset value.

MY INSIGHTS

The recent sell-off was not related to KLCC’s business performance but merely for PETRONAS to raise cash for dividend payment to Federal Government. If you’re a dividend investor, you should know that KLCC has been paying increasing dividend per share since 2013.

Of course, the year 2020 is an exceptional case because all businesses were affected by the Covid-19 outbreaks in Malaysia as well as globally. If you believe that this pandemic is a temporary issue like me, KLCC can be a good addition to your dividend portfolio.

One thing to note is that KLCC is not a growth stock but an income stock. As such, investors looking for capital gains will be disappointed by this counter as the share price performance has been hovering between RM7.50 to RM8.31 per share for the longest time.

Nevertheless, one cannot deny that KLCC is currently trading at slightly undervalue. A rare occasion indeed!

https://www.stocksinsights.com/klcc/