What the Broker Said...

Jardine Matheson was founded in Canton (now Guangzhou) in 1832. Today it is a multinational enterprise with a portfolio of businesses focused primarily on the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore-listed Jardine Matheson Group's activities include supermarkets, consumer marketing, engineering and construction, insurance broking, motor trading, property and hotels.

Almost a year ago, following interim results from Cycle & Carriage, Dairy Farm, Hongkong Land, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Mandarin Oriental - all members of the group - UBS Warburg issued a report raising its recurrent forecast for the group by 19 per cent.

Better than expected interim recurrent earnings from Dairy Farm were partly responsible for Warburg's forecast. The main reason for the rise was the relocation within the profit and loss account of non-recurrent items at Dairy Farm and Cycle & Carriage.

But the fine-tuning had not affected Warburg's 'hold' recommendation. The report suggested a US$6.50 price target for the stock.

Graphic: then21gwz