12 April 2021
Update | Sector: Oil & Gas
Indigo
Neutral
BSE SENSEX
47,883
S&P CNX
14,311
CMP: INR1,589
Post-COVID recovery hits an air pocket
TP: INR1,530 (-4%)
Bloomberg
Equity Shares (m)
M.Cap.(INRb)/(USDb)
52-Week Range (INR)
1, 6, 12 Rel. Per (%)
12M Avg Val (INR M)
Free float (%)
INDIGO IN
384
611.5 / 8.1
1822 / 850
1/-3/-1
2950
25.2
2023E
422.3
103.0
36.8
95.6
132.7
-3.2
105.4
36.4
12.0
16.7
12.1
4.7
0.6
Financials & Valuations (INR b)
Y/E March
2021E 2022E
Sales
143.4 345.5
EBITDAR
3.8 78.9
NP
-55.2 17.3
EPS (INR)
-143.5 45.1
BV/Sh (INR)
9.0 48.6
Ratios
Net D:E
21.3
-3.1
RoE (%)
-177.8 156.5
RoCE (%)
-17.7 19.6
Payout (%)
0.0 12.0
Valuations
P/E (x)
-11.1 35.5
P/BV (x)
178.5 32.9
Adj.EV/EBITDAR(x) 186.8
7.4
Div. Yield (%)
0.0
0.3
-
The recent spike in COVID-19 cases in India weighs heavily on the Aviation sector,
with flyers confidence tanking, leading to further delays in the recovery of
demand. Daily passenger demand dropped by ~13% to ~246,600 passengers in the
last week of Mar’21 (v/s the last week of Feb’21 – when the peak was recorded),
resulting in no MoM improvement in traffic (still down ~37% to pre-COVID levels).
In Apr’21, demand further fell by ~5% from the last week’s average of Mar’21 to
~233,000 passengers per day.
As per our airfare tracker, yields in Mar’21 increased by 2-5% MoM, but down 13-
14% QoQ in 4QFY21. This is despite the upward revisions in the floor of airfare
bands in Feb’21 by 10% and again in Mar’21 by 5%.
The aforementioned two anomalies are in line with our Jan’21 report (Deep-dive
analysis – airfares and passenger demand)
and could be answered with rapid
vaccination in the country, reviving confidence and thus demand. A spike in crude
oil prices during 4QFY21 has further added to the negative sentiment.
Currently, around one-third of total states in India have imposed further
lockdowns/restrictions
–
but operations in the sector have not been curbed. We
keep our assumptions unchanged for now, with estimates of traffic recovering to
pre-COVID levels by end of 3QFY22E. We reiterate our neutral stance on INDIGO –
with the possibility of further delays in the recovery to pre-COVID levels.
Non-metro routes are leading the recovery
Shareholding pattern (%)
As On
Promoter
DII
FII
Others
Dec-20 Sep-20 Dec-19
74.9
74.9
74.9
5.6
7.7
5.7
17.3
14.8
15.3
2.2
2.7
4.2
Yields to improve as more regional airports are connected
As per the recently concluded winter CY20-21 schedule (exhibit 6),
North
and East India is leading the recovery (back to 58-62% of pre-COVID levels),
while West and South lag behind (47-52% of pre-COVID levels). The share
of metro-to-metro routes has fallen to 20% (from 23% last year),
while the
share of connectivity to non-metro routes has increased (exhibit 5).
As highlighted in Exhibit 3-4, the percentage mix of flights and passengers
has moved away from dominant Western and Southern region to the North
and Eastern region of India.
Share of aircraft movement in the Western and
Southern region decreased to ~53% in FY21 v/s ~57% in FY20, while
passenger share fell to ~50% from ~56% respectively.
FII Includes depository receipts
Performance (1-year)
Interglobe Aviat
1,850
1,550
1,250
950
650
Sensex - Rebased
Swarnendu Bhushan- Research Analyst
(Swarnendu.Bhushan@MotilalOswal.com)
Sarfraz Bhimani - Research Analyst
(Sarfraz.Bhimani@MotilalOswal.com)
Airfares in India peaked at the end of Oct’20 (up ~50% v/s Jan’20), led by
imposition of airfare bands by MoCA as airline operations restarted after the
lifting of COVID-related lockdown norms. Since then, fares have failed to
sustain (as soon as passenger demand touched ~50% YoY in Nov’20).
That
said, airlines have formulated a plan to cope with falling yields and have
expanded their connectivity to Tier II, III and RCS routes in last 3 months.
INDIGO to start 22 new flights (Feb) 14 new flights under RCS (Mar)
SJET to launch 21 new routes (Jan) 24 new domestic routes (Feb)
In Jan’21, INDIGO had announced to set up seven new regional bases (at
Leh, Darbhanga, Kurnool, Agra, Bareily, Durgapur, and Rajkot).
These new
flights would aid better yields for the airline as it further diversifies the route
mix away from metro-to-metro routes (where the fares have already
peaked). Factoring in the aforementioned, our INDIGO model builds in yields
of INR3.9 for FY22-23E (at ~5% premium to FY16-20 average).
Motilal Oswal research is available on www.motilaloswal.com/Institutional-Equities, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Factset and S&P Capital.
Investors are advised to refer through important disclosures made at the last page of the Research Report.
3 September 2019
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