Spotlight: Waterfront Philippines, Inc (WPI)

Business Overview

Waterfront Philippines, Inc is an investment holding company which focuses into hotel, leisure, and tourism businesses.  WPI is now also known as the largest Filipino hotel chain in the country.  Hotel properties are mainly located in the three central business districts: Manila, Cebu and Davao.  WPI has a Central Reservations System, which makes it the only integrated network of hotels in the country.

Penthouse Suite at Waterfront Cebu

Subsidiaries

1. Waterfront Cebu City Casino Hotel, Inc. (WCCCHI) - has an entertainment block, hotel block and a convention center.

2. Waterfront Mactan Casino Hotel, Inc. (WMCHI) - located right across Mactan-Cebu International airport.  Possible phase II development in the future.  Cebu City is the only South East Asian city that offers casino facilities to transients while waiting for their flights.

3. Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao, Inc. (98%)

4. Waterfront Promotions Limited -marketing arm for international marketing and promotions 

5. Waterfront Entertainment Corporation - country's first ever integrated hotel reservations and booking system.

6. Mayo Bonanza, Inc. - operation and management of amusement, entertainment and recreation businesses.

7. Grand Ilocandia Resort Development Incorporated (54%) - for disposal

8. ACESITE (Phils.) Hotel Corporation (59%)- principal property is the Manila Pavilion Hotel, which houses Casino Filipino (owned and operated by PAGCOR); publicly listed (ACE)

9. Waterfront Food Concepts, Inc. - pastry business catering to member hotels and other coffee businesses.

10. Waterfront Management Corporation - G-Hotel Manila, located at Roxas Blvd, Malate, Manila

11. W Citigyms and Wellness, Inc. - gym subsidiary currently available at WCCCHI.  Possible opening of gyms in other member hotels.

Significant Shareholder/s

William Gatchalian

1.) The Wellex Group, Inc  (45.757%) - Publicly listed holdings company (WIN) which is owned and managed by the Gatchalians.  The family is known for the "Plastic City" and being a political dynasty in Valenzuela City.  Other known subsidiaries are: PHES, FPI and ACE.
2.) Kenneth Gatchalian - He is the company president and sits on the board along with his mother (Dee Hua Gatchalian) and aunt (Elvira Ting).  He is the 2nd (out of 4) son of "Plastic King", William Gatchalian.

Outstanding Debts

The company has a history of defaulting on its debts.  Until now, loans under SSS and ICBC amounting to around Php400M each are still being negotiated for re-scheduling.  These loans are placed on the current liabilities part of the company's balance sheets.

Quick Numbers

Fundamentals

Book Value of Equity (1H 2012): ~Php3.86B

Outstanding Shares: ~2.5B

BV/share: Php 1.55


Debt Ratio (Long term): 23%
Beta: 0.6
Cost of Capital: 8.9%


Net Income:  
2012 (1H):  Php 45M (Other expenses which get reflected at the end of the year may reduce this further)      
2011:  Php -2.4M    
2010: Php -52M  
2009: Php -167M    

time-weighted average NI: -9.6M


Assuming conservative long-term growth (3% yearly), fair value for the company based on earnings (DCF analysis) would be around:

Fair Value/share: Php1.8

Although Average Net Income of the company has been in the negative, cash flows are still actually positive when we add back the amount reserved for Depreciation costs. 

Latest price as of 9/14/2012 is 0.45.  This gives us around 300% upside assuming market price approaches fair value.

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Technicals

The 1 year historical chart shows the important resistances once the stock's prices would break its current trading range [ 0.43 - .475 ].  The short term moving average, 20MA, has now started to be more bullish over the long term MAs.  However, lagging indicators still show weak momentum.  

Analysis

WPI has been one of those undervalued companies in terms of its book value and earnings growth potential.  However, there is some sort of reputation among "Gatchi stocks" that veer away investors.  The company shows conservative growth in earnings; however, it still is crawling with its past debts. This remains to be a sleeper stock waiting to be awakened by rather more interesting news.  This is good for RANGE TRADING, for now.

References: Financial Statements of WPI (2Q 2012 & AR 2011)
                    www.wellex.com.ph

2011 Year End Report

From last year's 12.37% gain (5 months), my stock portfolio only managed to sneak in a disappointing 2.06% YTD gain.  It was during September when Euro debt fears affected the global markets that my 11.49% YTD went down to a -2.41% loss in just one month.  Prices bounced back a little by December.

At the start of the year, I have positioned myself into AP, EDC, TA and FDC as my long term stock holdings.  Unfortunately, the power industry rested from its bullish run after the 2009 financial crash.  I did gain from EDC until I sold all on May when it broke its moving average supports.  My "Power play" was a bit early. As for FDC, it delayed its follow-on offering due to unfavorable market conditions.  The Euro Debt scare is still very much alive, and it pulls down overall market sentiment despite good Philippine fundamentals.

My best earners were (more than 10%): URC (21%), PX (19%), FOOD (19%), LC (52%).
Dividend givers (cash more than 1k): URC (~4.6%), EDC (~2.8%), AP (~4.66%), PXP (in the form of shares from PX)
Worst losses (more than 10%): MPI (-13%), PCOR (-12%), LPZ (-11.6%), LC (-18.7%), PX (-13.7%), WPI (-41.8%), ELI (-13.4%), MEG (-11.8%)

I have been using more Technical Analysis lately, and the good thing is, I have managed to improve in the money management department.  Cutting losses is hard to do, but it's best to cut losses early than to realize it when it's already too late.  By the middle of the year, I have started using Ichimoku Kinkou Hyou, aka kumo (cloud) trading.  It's a visual guide for me to determine supports and resistances, and to see trend reversals and breakouts.

I used to try and limit my holdings to just a few stocks, but given a lot of chart breakouts lately, I diversified into a lot.  Especially during the time the PSE was moving sideways.  I may reconsider again now that we are on quasi-bullish mode (a little more to confirm).  I also try to practice turtle trading, for which I buy a position and take some profits when targets have been reached, leaving behind some shares for further run-up.

This is the whole pie of my trading portfolio (23% of my whole Investment Port):

Seems like the theme for my trading portfolio would be power, oil and mining.  I'm still hoping FDC would start going up this first quarter of the year.




My Investment Portfolio is divided into:

Equities (66%)
-BDO Equity Fund (33%) :  -2.13%   * was caught in a bull trap when I entered last May.
-COL trading account (23%): +2.06%  * August dip led my once YTD 12% down to a negative in just a month.  My long term stocks actually kicked in a little bit late, now at the start of 2012.
-ATR Mutual Fund (10%):   -1.6% *My very first investment 4 years ago which is actually on a gain of 41%


Bonds (18%) 
-BDO Bond Fund (18%): +5.17% *Instead of investing on balanced funds, you can allocate your own through Bond and Equity Funds.

Savings Account (16%) *Still on the process of transferring funds from here to other investments.  Should only leave money here for liquidity purposes.

Overall, my portfolio is still intact.  I may not have earned a lot this year, but I can say that I have improved greatly.  What is important is that I now have my own trading system for Technical Analysis.  I will still stick with fundamentals especially for long term "conviction" holds.