Not keen on diversifying at this point – M&M

Update on the Indian Equity market:
On Friday, Nifty50 ended 0.2% higher at 12,720. EICHERMOT (+7.4%), BAJAJFINSV (+3.7%), and COALINDIA (+3.1%) led the index gainers while TATAMOTORS (-3.3%), LT (-2.0%), and HDFC (-1.1%) led the laggards. Among the sectoral gainers, METAL (+1.7%), REALTY (+1.3%), and PHARMA (+1.1%) were the leaders while MEDIA (-0.9%), and FMCG (-0.1%) were the only index losers.

Excerpts of an interview of Mr. Anish Shah, MD & CEO-designate, M&M published in Business Standard on 12th November 2020:
• The stock price has more than doubled since March. The board’s decision to not invest in SsangYong was important and signaled to investors that the management is serious about capital allocation.
• The next re-rating will happen once the international subsidiaries turn around and start contributing to earnings. The second set of actions is toward driving the growth of the domestic business. Third, they have identified significant growth drivers for the future, which are termed ’10 gems’.
• They are conducting a detailed analysis of growth drivers of international subsidiaries’ performance; does it have the potential for an 18 percent return on equity? They are working to see if they can revisit their go-to-market, product, and channel strategies. The subsidiaries will have to show a profitable path.
• M&M was the best performing stock in the Nifty for 17 years. Though acquisitions were made even then, that was driven by a very high level of fiscal discipline. Now, the acquisitions will be made, just that the bar in terms of fiscal discipline will be as high as it was in the past.
• They don’t expect to diversify even when they make an acquisition. There are 10 businesses right now and they believe there is a lot of potential to grow. They are keen on scaling up the diversified footprint.
• The joint venture with Ford has been delayed because of the pandemic and government approvals.
• There is a lot of synergy from material costs in the auto and farm equipment segments. They announced the best-operating margins and that is why those segments will be together.

Consensus Estimate: (Source: market screener website)
• The closing price of M&M was ₹ 629/- as of 13-November-2020. It traded at 23x/ 17x/ 15x the consensus earnings estimate of ₹ 26.9/ 36.7/ 41.1 per share for FY21E/FY22E/FY23E respectively.
• The consensus target price of ₹ 667 implies a PE multiple of 16x on FY23E EPS of ₹ 41.1/-.
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