Near-Term Profit Outlook for Want Want Remains Pressurized; Lowering FVE to HKD 6

Want Want China derives revenue and profit mainly through a few flagship packaged food and beverage lineups that it developed decades ago, including Hot-Kid milk, sugar-coated rice crackers, savory senbei and QQ candies. The company’s products have particularly been popular among children. Margins are maximized through scaling these flagships with its nationwide offline distribution channel. Leveraging on its brand and the vast distribution network, the company has been able to achieve higher levels of gross profit and operating margin compared with domestic peers, with the majority of earnings distributed to shareholders.