Oceanus, first glance

Oceanus released the 1st half result of 2008.

Sales surged 349% to RMB 181.4m
Profit before tax and goodwill up 303% to RMB180.4m
Plan to triple production capacity to 40,000 tanks in next 18 months

The group is specialised in producing premium Japanse Abalone in China. Accordingly, the cost is under control and group has cost advantage against the competitors. The group recorded a goodwill write off due to the RTO it has undertaken. This is an accounting item and does not affect cashflow.

The outlook remain robust and due to the shortage of wild abalone, the group is ramping up the production capacity quickly. The plan is to grow the capacity quickly and move into downstream processing to improve the margin.

The group looks interesting to me right from the beginning. These are the interesting points:
Chinese consumption of abalone is set to grow strongly
The group is one of the top producer and plan to grow capacity rapidly
Plan to move to downstream to capture even higher market share

Things look rosy for the group in the coming years. But the risk with agri stock remained. Comparing the current valuation against the projected growth, it does look attractive. More research needs to be done to uncover the competitive advantage and more facts.