TCI's 1H24 management review has lots of worries for TCI OPMIs.
(1) Its most promising market Taiwan has a 50% drop in car sales YoY with the overall TIV relatively stable.
(2) It is discontinuing its Subaru CKD plant at Thailand and will transit to CBU model. CBUs are not competitive in the mid tier level in our region here, especially with Thailand/Msia/Indonesia having assembly ops for all the mid tier brands.
The current EV-ICE war is reminiscent of the ride-hailing wars that started about a decade ago. One has to avoid been the participants of the war, and then think of how to participate in the war via selling bullets to the war participants.
Management Review
The Group's revenue for the first half of 2024 was HK$6.59 billion, a 9.9% decline from HK$7.32 billion in the same period of 2023. After-tax profit for the first half of 2024 was HK$28 million, compared to HK$187.4 million in the corresponding period of 2023. The Group experienced a severe drop in sales in the automotive division for the first half of 2024. However, its financial services subsidiary, ETHOZ Group, and its publicly listed logistics subsidiary, ZERO showed some growth compared to the previous corresponding period.
With the influx of multiple new brands into the Taiwan automotive market intensifying competition, the Group’s Subaru operations experienced a 51% decline in sales in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
The Group has announced the discontinuation of its joint venture factory in Thailand on 24 May 2024. The Thailand factory will cease production by the end of 2024. The Group will transition the Complete Knock Down (“CKD”) markets of Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia to a Complete Build Up (“CBU”) model from Japan progressively from 2025.
TCI 1H24:
https://links.sgx.com/FileOpen/202409120...eID=818652