PETALING JAYA: TSH Resources Bhd appears to offer substantial upside based on its long-term growth potential and current inexpensive valuation.

       Despite its recent robust earnings growth, the plantation company’s stock has continued to languish.

       The counter closed two sen lower at RM1.14 on Friday.

       TA Research, which maintained its “buy” recommendation on TSH, said the valuation was unjustified given the plantation company’s solid fresh fruit bunch (FFB) production growth and consistently solid earnings.

       The brokerage kept its target price for TSH at RM1.95 based on 2022 price-earnings ratio (PER) of 24 times.

       The target price represented an upside of 71%.

       At its last quoted price, TA Research noted, TSH’s shares were traded at around 13.7 times its forward PER, substantially below its five-year rolling forward PER of 27 times.

       In terms of price-to-book-value (P/BV), the counter was traded at 0.8 times versus its five-year average rolling forward P/BV of 1.2 times.

       “We are positive on the long-term fundamentals of TSH and believe that the group has a strong future growth in FFB production, underpinned by the favourable tree age profile,” TA Research said.

       “Moreover, TSH still has large and quality greenfield landbank, which enables the group to sustain the plantation business for the long term,” it added.

       TA Research noted TSH’s crude palm oil production (ex-mill) of around RM1,400 per tonne was still comparable to a lot of Malaysia plantation companies, reflecting the efficiency of its business operations.

       In addition, it said TSH’s recent proposal to dispose of two oil palm estates and one palm oil mill in Sabah would help strengthen the group’s cash position to develop its remaining unplanted plantation land.

       It expected the proceeds from TSH’s proposed disposal of the assets in Sabah to be used to pare down loans to improve the company’s net gearing from 0.71 times to 0.53 times.