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STRATEGY-Lockdown Relaxation-Motilal Oswal-20200601
STRATEGY-Lockdown Relaxation-Motilal Oswal-20200601
Strategy
Our recent
COVID-19 Withdrawal 2.0 – Several relaxations offered
Strategy updates Journey to normalcy begins; Retail and Restaurants to benefit
th
COVID-19 Lockdown: The Government of India (GoI) – through an order dated 30 May’20 – has provided a
Withdrawal 1.0; Government detailed phase-wise opening up of the economy, although the lockdown has been
announces relaxations extended till 30th Jun’20. While the Ministry of Home Affairs’ detailed notification (refer
here) has done away with the complexity of Red, Green, Orange and Containment zones, it
would now consider only two zones - Containment and Non-containment zones.
CONSUMER
We have divided the impact of the Withdrawal 2.0 announcements across 5 buckets.
QSR: Hotels and restaurants (in malls as well) being allowed to function from 8th
Jun’20 (outside of Containment zones) is a marginal positive. Mall-based stores
constitute 10-20% for QSR players, thus, positive impact would be limited due
to enforced social distancing, limited number of mall stores and the fact that
some large states like Maharashtra are not following the MHA directive of
opening restaurants in malls. Dine-in forms 30% of sales for Domino’s and 80%
of sales for McDonalds.
Tanishq (Titan): Stores being allowed to open in malls is a marginal positive.
However, mall-based stores are limited; the fact that high gold prices and to a
lesser extent social distancing concerns, should check the positive impact.
Jockey (Page Industries): Stores being allowed to open in malls is a positive as
Jockey stores in malls and shop-in-shops are allowed to open. Continued impact
of higher competition, social distancing and weak industry growth (even before
COVID-19) should check any large positives. We believe that mall-based stores
form ~25% of Jockey’s sales.
UBBL and UNSP: The decision to put bars (and likely pubs as well) in the
prohibited list (Phase 3) is a negative, which means that re-opening is now likely
to be delayed to Aug-Sep’20. This is dependent on the Phase 2 implementation
that is likely to come in Jul’20 or beyond, which would delay Phase 3. Note that
trade sales form 20% of UBBL/UNSP’s sales.
FMCG companies: The decision to open mall-based grocery stores is a marginal
positive, which provides another growth avenue. However, social distancing and
limited number of grocery stores in malls should result in limited positive
impact.
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RETAIL
Grocery and Apparel Retail Sector
Gradual reopening of stores: Our discussion with retailers and on-ground
channel checks indicate that since the last 10 days, most grocery/apparel
retailers have started to gradually open stores in Green/Orange zones, which
caters to over 70% of locations pan-India. In many instances, state permission
has been granted, but local authorities have restricted store re-openings to curb
the risk of crowd gatherings. Also, retailers have been slow in resuming stores to
ensure proper store sanitization and to ensure availability of staff/labor and
consumer footfall/demand. Retailers have indicated that they expect ~80% of
stores to reopen over the next 15-20 days. DMart had earlier stated that 50% of
its operations were impacted due to COVID-19, which should now improve with
operations resuming in majority of its stores.
Malls reopening now largely address supply-side issues: Among our top picks,
Trent/ABFRL have 38%/20% of stores in malls, which are now allowed to open
from 8th Jun’20. Also, players like Shoppers’ Stop, Marks and Spencer, Lifestyle,
H&M, Zara, and Central, which have either >70% stores in malls or large
standalone stores, may see significant benefits. Thus, barring the Containment
zones, a large part of supply-side issues should be resolved.
Demand side pick-up to be prolonged: On the demand side, apparels being a
non-discretionary category, should take longer to see revenue recovery.
Interestingly, however, few retailers that have resumed operations over the last
5 days are claiming to have reached 50-60% of average daily revenues. In the
current environment, this is a heartening number. With the fragile situation and
gradual reopening of operations, apparel retailers believe that full-fledged
operations are yet far away. Festive demand – four months away – may reflect
the proof of the pudding.
REAL ESTATE
Phase I: Overall, we expect the revised lockdown norms to have a positive impact
on real estate companies. Most realty companies are diversified into all the 4 key
segments viz. residential, commercial, retail and hospitality. In our coverage
universe, PHNX (~30% of retail annuity, which could be operational in Phase I) and
BRGD (all retail assets of ~1msf and most hospitality assets likely to be operational)
would have a positive impact. However, OBER is not likely to benefit much from the
lockdown relaxation because its retail asset (Oberoi Mall, Goregaon) and Hospitality
asset (Westin, Goregaon) come under the Containment zone, where the lockdown is
likely to extend further.
Phase II: No activities impacting real estate companies.
Phase III: According to the latest directive by the GoI, the opening of Bars and
Cinema Halls remains prohibited in Phase I and would be opened in Phase III. Bars
and Cinema halls are the key crowd pullers for malls and occupy ~15% of the
leasable area.
Overall impact of the relaxation in lockdown norms: The country-wide lockdown
has significantly impacted Retail/Hospitality, posing a serious business risk to most
players. However, a key monitorable is the intensity at which business activities
ramp up in these segments – occupancy levels (retail and hospitality), rent re-
negotiation (retail) and Average Room Rentals (ARR; hospitality).
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NOTES
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