trade with care for short term traders. must poured cold water.
KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 3): MIDF Research has upgraded Tune Protect Group Bhd to “neutral'' at 27.5 sen, and said its share price had dropped to a level closer to the research house's target price (TP).
“Following a sharp 20% share price deterioration in the past month, Tune Protect is now trading at close to our target price.
"We raise Tune Protect to 'neutral' from 'sell', with an unchanged target price of 25 sen, pegged at seven times FY21F (forecast financial year ending Dec 31, 2021) earnings — at 1SD (standard deviation) below its two-year historical average PER (price-earnings ratio),” according to the research house's note released today.
On another matter, MIDF Research said Tune Protect had indicated that the downtrend in the travel segment bottomed out in April and saw a moderate recovery in the following months after the gradual opening up of the economy and uplifting of restrictions on domestic travel.
It added that AirAsia resumed operations on a staggered basis in June and is seeing a gradual increase in passenger seat bookings, though gross written premiums (GWPs) for the travel business are still significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels.
Also, the group has embarked on a cost-cutting exercise, which has seen Tune Protect Malaysia’s combined ratio reduced by 28%.
“This was mainly driven by lower management expenses (-31% year-on-year or y-o-y) as a result of reduced staff-related cost, reduced marketing expenses as the group re-prioritised marketing spend to campaign-specific targeted marketing, as well as enhanced receivables management. Of the measures, the reduction in marketing expenses accounted for the bulk (52%) of cost reduction in 2QFY20 (second quarter ended June 30, 2020),” it noted.
On Tune Protect’s latest results, MIDF Research said the group reported RM10 million core earnings for the first half ended June 30, 2020 (1HFY20), which were deemed to be within estimates — accounting for 54% and 49% of the research house's and consensus FY20 estimates respectively.
Last Thursday, Tune Protect saw its net profit for 2QFY20 increased 17.6% to RM12.6 million, from RM10.71 million a year earlier, despite a lower revenue amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Revenue for the quarter fell 18.9% to RM100.94 million from RM124.46 million for the year-ago second quarter.
GWPs fell 18.6% y-o-y to RM101.9 million, said Tune Protect.
The group attributed the improvement in its profit to Tune Protect Malaysia, which saw lower net claims and management expenses, as well as an increase in unrealised investment gains.
Meanwhile, the lower GWPs and revenue for the quarter were due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the travel business, the group said.
Tune Protect rose four sen or 14.55% to 31.5 sen this morning after some 5.77 million shares were traded. Year to date, the stock has declined some 45% from 57 sen on Dec 31, 2019.
Thank you for your email. Our 9th AGM, conducted virtually for the first time, went smoothly with all 9 resolutions approved by shareholders.
Similar to previous years, we will be publishing on our tuneprotect.com website the Questions received from shareholders and the Answers to the them (both the pre-submitted and live questions and answers). Do note that in addressing all the questions, we have grouped and paraphrased similar questions for clarity and to avoid duplication/repetitions. We expect to have the questions and answers published in the following weeks.
In the meantime, we are sharing with you the Answers to your questions below. These were read out in yesterday’s virtual AGM. Again, please note that certain questions have been paraphrased to be clarity and precision:
Question on Dividend: Is it Tune Protect Group’s Dividend Policy to maintain a pay-out ratio of above 40%? What is the reason for no dividend declared for the financial year 2019 despite achieving higher earnings per share? Some shareholders may have purchased more Tune Protect shares in the expectation of a similar dividend pay-out to last year (3 cent) considering the better performance in 2019.
Answer: Our dividend practice is consistent with what was disclosed in our IPO circular. It says and I quote “As part of this policy, we target for a pay-out ratio of not less than 40% of our consolidated profit in each financial year, subject to any applicable law and provided that such distribution will not be detrimental to our Group’s cash requirement.” In addition, any distribution of dividend is subject to our Group’s availability of distributable reserves, contractual obligations and capital expenditure plan.
Based on our track record from FY2013 to FY2018, we have been consistently paying more than 40% of our PATMI to shareholders in the form of dividend.
As you are aware, part of our business being travel focused, the pandemic impact has hit the travel industry the hardest as compared to other sectors. No dividend is declared for FY2019 as the priority now is to conserve cash to ensure the Group’s operational sustainability while having excess fund to invest in and strengthen our digital capabilities in order to adapt to the new normal. Despite achieving higher YoY profitability in FY2019, we are cognisant that the operating climate for the remainder of FY2020 will continue to be challenging given the uncertainties that lie ahead. In the event the performance of Tune Protect Group significantly improves, we may consider issuing special dividend or interim dividends in the future.
Question on AA Ecosystem: What is Tune Protect Group’s plan to tap into the rest of AirAsia’s ecosystem (i.e. leverage on AirAsia’s big data and digital platform to cross-sell various insurance products)?
Answer: The Group has a long-term strategic partnership with AirAsia which extends beyond the airline business, to encompass digital and lifestyle. As summarised in Slide 8 of our presentation earlier, we are pleased to inform that the Group has launched the following collaboration with AirAsia Group ecosystem (beyond travel segment) in 2Q20: • Collaboration with BigLoyalty – BIG Members are able to earn Big Points when they purchase policies from us now • Collaboration with airasia.com – We are assigned a dedicated Insurance tile within the AirAsia.com app/web to make our travel insurance products available to AirAsia customers • Collaboration with Teleport – We are currently offering group policy to Teleport for its rider/courier provider with PA coverage We will continue to work closely with AirAsia team to overcome potential regulatory constraints and explore opportunity to deepen our collaboration with their ecosystem, where possible.
Question on Management Expenses: What is Tune Protect Group’s plan to address the rising management expenses as a percentage of topline over the years as well as the elevated Combined Ratio? Will Tune Protect Group relook at the cost structure to expect a leaner operation, advertising, marketing expenses and its efficacy due to high management expenses? Kindly advise on how you manage your pricing in selection of IT vendors with regards to digital solutions?
Answer: In FY19, the absolute amount of ME reduced from RM134.6 mil in FY18 to RM119.8 mil. The increase in ME in the past was largely due to our investment in human capital, IT, marketing expenses to support our business growth and digital agenda. However, the ME ratio increased because the drop in Net Earned Premiums was more.
Our ME ratio is computed as a percentage of ME over NEP. The higher ME ratio is largely due to lower NEP which is underpinned by our on-going portfolio restructuring (managing motor: non-motor portfolio mix).
We have embarked on ME review where we are looking at spending more efficiently. Recent measures include, freeze new and replacement hire unless it is for critical roles, reprioritising marketing spend and reduction in office rental, 3rd party consultants and other office expenses.
Apart from ME, we are also managing our claims prudently. Our net claims ratio was 32.3% in 2019 which was 1.9% lower compared to the previous year. Our net claims ratio is also 25.8% lower compared to the industry. Over time we want to see these improvements translate into a lower combined ratio for the group.
Our IT vendor selection process goes through a robust and rigorous process. It starts with the RFP process to identify and shortlist the suitable vendors. This is followed by a review by the procurement committee. During this stage, the committee does not solely consider the pricing per se but also evaluates the vendor’s credentials, experience and track record. Once selected we then conduct a thorough due diligence on the vendor before awarding the tender.
Read the IR reply accordingly. Possibility of special and interim dividends once QR results stabilize. QR 2 was a good indication and cost savings/income diversification is a good way forward. QR 3 & beyond should be very good too.
Value Buy @ 0.305/031 today :-) As I said, it should move to 0.40-0.50 range in due course. We Ikan Bilis should buy low & let the IB buy/accumulate high later.
Hopefully, Management will issue out the 3 sen Special dividend (in relation to Y/E 2019) once there are positive results in QR3 to be released in October/November as indicated by their IR. Loyal shareholders must be duly rewarded for Management to gain their credibility.
Thank you very much Sslee for the sharing of the response from Tunepro IR to your questions. One of my concerns is the frequent change of Group CEOs in the company since the IPO. I remember a great presentation by the immediate past Group CEO during the AGM last year. However, she has now resigned after less than 2 years at the helm, and thus not having to account to shareholders at this year's AGM on the implementation of the strategies and plans that she presented at the AGM last year. Hope the BOD is seriously addressing this issue.
Anyway, good uptick in share price today. Hope this price trend continues.
Dear all, Tune IR reply to my further clarification: Dear Mr. Lee,
We acknowledge receipt of your questions below requesting further clarification. Kindly note that we will compile the responses to your questions as well as those from our other shareholders which will then be published in our website in due course. We will update you once it is available on our website.
Thanks & regards,
The Investor Relations team
Dear Tunepro IR, Thank you for sharing with me the answer to my pre-submitted questions with paraphrased clarity and precision.
I had studied the answers given and I think I need to further clarify with the Board or management team on some of the essence of my original questions.
Investment in fair value through profit or loss (FVTPL) financial assets. Allow me to paraphrase: Question 1: Any organization or governance structure in place to oversee and manage the investment holding function of the Group? Question 2: Is there an investment committee to meet periodically to evaluate the performance of the investments and whether the investing strategies meet the investment objective? And any policy to cut loss on underperformed investment?
Dividend Allow me to quote the Board reply, “Our dividend practice is consistent with what was disclosed in our IPO circular. It says and I quote “As part of this policy, we target for a pay-out ratio of not less than 40% of our consolidated profit in each financial year, subject to any applicable law and provided that such distribution will not be detrimental to our Group’s cash requirement.” In addition, any distribution of dividend is subject to our Group’s availability of distributable reserves, contractual obligations and capital expenditure plan.” unquote So please allow me to paraphrase: Will the distribution of dividend for financial year end 2019 result in: 1. Against any applicable law? 2. Detrimental to the Group's cash requirement? 3. Against the Group's availability of distribution reserves? 4. Against contractual obligation and capital expenditure plan?
On AA Ecosystem: Please allow me to paraphrase: Any plan by Tunepro to leverage AirAsia big data and digital platform to cross sell: Health, Life, Saving and Education policies online to targeted groups?
I am looking forward to the Board or Management team clarification.
@ warchest Well Done to keep fellow forumers duly informed and TQVM. With factual information, all of us can trust our own intuition to make proper investment decision.
Good news, Russia announced the first Covid vaccine, soon China and UK would too. If boarders start opening up tune Pro will fly high again. Don't forget customers will quickly start booking flights and travel again for next year holidays. When they rush to book, they'll buy insurance at that same time.... Back to 60sen soon.
Value investors picking up, tunepro will start building up their cash pool and have diversified into other parts of the insurance protection market. Excited to hold on for capital gains and future dividends.. Expect good future yields
Travel insurance already vanished for now and probably next year too . Other general insurance sector like motor insurance expected to decline further.
Interest rates is low and expected to stay low for foreseeable future. When interest rate is low, it is not good for insurance companies that usually invest most of its premiums in bonds.
The future is bleak for TuneProtect that derive most of its profit from travel insurance.
Attracted by its low price vs 3 yaes ago but confused by its latest Q good results amidst travel banned and non performing ceo resignation (at least from investors perspective bases on share price). Anyway, chief traders will determine whether to push instead of fundamentals.
The combined ratio in 2Q was more than 100%. Tune has the advantage over other companies with travel and personal accident insurance because of Air Asia. Travel and personal accident insurance suppose to have low claim ratio. They don't seem to enjoy that even before covid. Their expense ratio is more than 50% of net earned premium... it is way too expensive to operate.
Tune actually looks more like an insurance broker and asset management company. They make their money from "fee and commission" and investment of RM720 net equity...LOL
That is actually true that the payout ratio is low and they can market the risk to other reinsurer. So essentially earning higher margins. Price up up...
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
Victor Yong
8,271 posts
Posted by Victor Yong > 2020-08-03 10:03 | Report Abuse
Yes rising volume , 5.3mil++ shares traded