CPN is our top pick in discretionary retail space to a DCF-derived YE22 target price of Bt74. We expect traffic to its malls to continue expanding through 2022. Also, CPN’s bottom-line is the least-exposed to squeeze caused by cost-push inflation of any of the Commerce sector stocks that we cover. Its stock price should outperform peers.
Profit in line with our estimate, but beat consensus
CPN reported a 1Q22 core profit of Bt2,312m this morning, up by 43% YoY and 22% QoQ. Excluding the impact of TFRS-16, core earnings would be Bt2,142m, up by 80% YoY and 27% QoQ. The bottom-line was in line with our estimate, but beat the consensus by 11% (the street revenue assumption was lower than CPN’s reported top-line).