Taste Gourmet - Small Is Beautiful

This insight focuses on a small "gem" listed in HK, Taste Gourmet Group Ltd (8371 HK) a restaurant operator with all its revenue currently in HK. While it is small with a 315 mn HKD market cap, for investors who can stomach the liquidity this provides the potential to have a 4-5(x) return over the next 4-5 years. The key investment highlights for the company are :

1) It has a strong and efficient pipeline of restaurants with 10+% net margins representing the highest in its peer group in HK and China. I expect its pipeline of restaurants to expand by 20-25% at least per annum.

2) Being small it is undiscovered and currently trades at a 6x FY20 fwd P-E ( March Yr End ). I forecast 25-30% CAGR growth in earnings at least over the next five years, given its pipeline of restaurants and strong balance sheet.

3) With 23% of the market cap in net cash ( around 70 mn HKD ), the balance sheet is strong and the company is in a position to expand its restaurant count by 25% CAGR. It also buys back stock on share price weakness and distributes 55% of its net profits as dividends. Currently the dividend yield is around 6.5% based on FY20 earnings.

I think this stock could easily trade at a substantial premium to its current multiple of 6x. A 15x multiple for a company growing 25-30% CAGR would imply this company could be a 4 HKD/share stock in 4-5 years. The current stock price is 0.81 HKD/share.