Attijari Global Research (AGR) reiterated, Thursday, its recommendation to keep the Taqa Morocco share in the portfolios, while also maintaining its target price of 910 dirhams over 12 months, i.e. a downside of 10%.
“We remain confident in the ability of Taqa Morocco to defend its future profitability and dividend,” analysts from the Attijariwafa Bank subsidiary said in a research note.
According to them, the group has three main levers, namely the completion of the major revision cycle of Units 1 to 6 by 2022, the favorable evolution of coal prices on the international market observed in H2-21 and developing the energy mix through renewable energy projects.
Coming back to the achievements of Taqa Morocco in the first half of 2021, AGR recalls the drop in turnover of 13.7% to 3.465 billion dirhams (billion dirhams), noting, in this sense, a decline of 27.2% in revenues. of the operator during Q2-21 after a recovery of + 1.5% in Q1-21.
At the origin of this half-yearly change, the simultaneous drop in power costs by 8% to 1.761 billion dirhams and energy costs by 21.9% to 1.532 billion dirhams.
In terms of profitability, the research company indicates that the operator “manages to defend its profitability well”. In fact, the Group’s operating income showed a less pronounced drop of 2.2% to 1.077 billion dirhams at the end of June 2021. This represents an operating margin of 31.1%, up 3 , 7 points compared to the same period of 2020.
Originally, AGR noted, essentially, the acquisition of coal on the international market at an average cost lower than that of the API 2 benchmark, noting that, according to the half-yearly financial report of Taqa Morocco, the average price purchase of coal stood at $ 62 / T in H1-21 compared to $ 78 / T for the aforementioned index.
Taking into account the improvement of 23.7 million dirhams (MDH) in financial income to -234 MDH, the net income Group share (RNPG) recorded an increase of 3.5% to 444 MDH, equivalent to a margin net of 12.8%, specifies the note, adding that this performance aligns with the initial scenario of AGR which anticipates a profit capacity of MAD 893 million in 2021, equivalent to a realization rate of 50% for this first semester.
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