BEM’s expressway traffic in Oct (899k trips) represents 73% of 2019 (pre-COVID) traffic (and traffic is heavier, November-to-date). As such, the stock price should continue rallying, boosted by clear evidence of a swift ongoing recovery, an impressive 2022-23 outlook, and scope for earnings upside (new mass-transit projects and, perhaps, ridership-switching from BTS). BEM remains our top Transport pick.
Considerably better than our model
BEM reported 3Q21 net and core earnings of Bt108m, down by 87% YoY and 51% QoQ. Those numbers beat our estimates (we had modeled for a slim loss), due to a significantly lower cost-of-sales & services than assumed. The numbers also beat the consensus projections by 8%.