Despite the unexciting 2021 profit outlook, we expect battery and EV stories to support BPP’s stock price during 2021. The company is laying the foundation for future growth (solar rooftop, energy storage, EVs, smart cities, and energy trading) through BanpuNEXT, a 50:50 JV with BANPU (note that BanpuNEXT is aggressively expanding its energy technology biz). BUY!
Result beat our estimate
BPP posted a 1Q21 net profit of Bt1,034m, up 6% YoY but down 14% QoQ. Reported NPAT was 10% ahead of our projection, led by greater FX gains than assumed (no Bloomberg consensus projection). Stripping out extra items, core earnings would be Bt928m, down by 26% YoY and 30% QoQ. The core number was in line with our projection.