BANPU: A historical Comparison

BANPU is one of the few large cap stocks we like at Thaistocks.com. A financial comparison using two time periods (1990 to 1993 and 2001 to 2004) has been performed in the table below.

It should be noted that as a very large company BANPU has a lot of irregular reporting results (i.e. Normalised vs. Un-normalised earnings and such), an effort has been made to present the numbers in a fair way. One can see that the EBITDA Margin in 1991 is greater than 100%, this is how the result was originally published.

The paragraph below is taken from the front page of Banpu's website (www.banpu.co.th), it gives a better understanding of what Banpu does and what its goals are.

"The success and speed of Asia’s future economic growth depends on an ever-increasing supply of affordable electric power. This, in turn, will necessitate access to cheap, plentiful and reliable sources of fuel for power generation. As Asia’s single most abundant energy resource, no one can deny the critical importance of thermal coal in providing the solution to this equation.

Banpu, a dynamic Asian energy group, is increasingly positioning itself at the "heart" of this growth equation. Established as a coal-mining venture in Thailand in the early 1980s, the company has since expanded to become one of the foremost domestic energy players as well as a leading thermal export-grade coal producer in Indonesia. "

The sales results below show dramatic sales growth not only between the two time periods, but also in recent years. Banpu's sales have increased 160% over the past three years. (Note: 2004 results are based on a Kim Emg estimate in August of this year).

Banpu's reasonable PE ratio and strong EPS growth is what attracts value investors to this company.