Cairn India stays a buy
Posted: Tuesday, Jun 07, 2011 at 0228 hrs IST
Following a ministry panel recommendation that royalty be made cost recoverable at the Mangala fields, media reports say Cairn Energy may forgo the non-compete fee of R50 per share to make up for the lower value of the business.
Media reports suggest that Cairn Energy and Vedanta group are planning a meeting. On the agenda is the possibility of Cairn Energy forgoing the non-compete fee of R50/share the two parties had earlier agreed upon. This follows the ministerial panel’s recommendation that royalty be made cost recoverable; implementation of the recommendation will lower the value of Cairn’s business due to higher payment of royalties.
Our current valuation of R425, incorporates oil at $95/bbl, 175kbopd peak production, and assumes royalty is not cost recoverable. It would decline by R70 if royalty becomes cost recoverable. At a higher peak production of 210kbopd, our valuation for Cairn would be R455, which would decline by R75 if royalty is cost recoverable. Further, we believe Vedanta may be able to integrate the fields with new business and hence unlock value as a strategic buyer.
On deducting the non-compete fee, the acquisition price falls from R385 to R351. However, the net impact on Vedanta’s returns will be negative and we estimate that Cairn India’s (Cairn) NPV will fall to R380 from R425, providing lower returns than earlier for Vedanta. Our best case of R455 assumes upside from further reserve accretion and longer peak production post further exploration.
To sum up, in the event of: a) a lower acquisition price; and b) royalty becoming cost recoverable, there is still an even chance of the deal going through, in our view. However, there is downside to our price target and EPS estimates if royalty is cost recoverable.
We increase our sum-of-the-parts-based price target marginally due to higher FY11 closing cash.
—UBS Investment Research