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06 Mar 2020
Halma : Investor event underpins Halma’s core strengths - Hold
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Halma : Investor event underpins Halma’s core strengths - Hold
Halma plc (HLMA:LON) | 3,664 1465.6 1.1% | Mkt Cap: 13,910m
- Published:
06 Mar 2020 -
Author:
Ben Bourne | Scott Cagehin -
Pages:
8 -
Site visit overview. The focus of this event was Infrastructure Safety which is Halma’s largest sector and accounts for c.35% of group revenues and profits. As you would expect from a Halma sector, the strategy is to acquire and grow businesses in niche infrastructure markets underpinned by strong growth drivers. These are identified as: population growth, urbanisation, increasing regulation, and digitisation. Halma presented a full suite of senior management, highlighting the depth of leadership talent in the sector. Additionally, the product demonstration section really drove home the technology innovation within the group which looks set to drive future growth.
Sector financials. Demand for its products are predominately guided by regulation-driven demand and have a high technology content, with high market shares guarded by defendable barriers-to-entry. This has resulted in strong growth (13% revenue and 15% profit CAGR since FY14) and high return on sales at 21.8%.
Forecasts and next catalyst. No new information regarding current trading was disclosed and we therefore leave our estimates unchanged (INVe FY20e PBT of £276.5m and EPS of 58.4p; 12.5% profit growth). The next scheduled trading update is due on 19 March.
Our view. Halma has a proven business model which continues to generate revenue and profit growth, even when external events are eroding business confidence. Since the start of 2020, Halma has completed 4 acquisitions (9 in FY20) which have in turn added near 3% to our FY21E EPS forecast. Halma has the ability to continue to deliver growth and, despite a flurry of recent acquisitions, still has a strong balance sheet. Overall, we believe its premium valuation multiples are justified.