AST - Business recovers further thanks to foreign arrivals

- AST released its Q1 2023 results with revenue jumping 22% QoQ and NPAT-MI surging 44% QoQ to VND26bn (USD1.1mn), achieving 21% and 15% of our respective full-year forecasts.

- In Q1 2023, foreign and Chinese arrivals reached 70% and 15% of their respective pre-COVID levels. We expect Vietnam and China’s week-long holiday in early May will bolster a further recovery — especially for AST’s airport retail business.

- We forecast AST’s sales/store ratio in 2023 to be 80% of the 2019 level as the number of international air passengers (including Vietnamese) will return to 77% of the level in 2019.