Bapcor has disclosed a conditional indicative offer from Bain Capital at $5.40 per share, a 23% premium to the 1-month VWAP. We expect the Board will view the offer as opportunistic and may not even allow due diligence at the prevailing offer price. Bapcor’s EBITDA margins are well below US peers and its own aspirations under the Better Than Before program. While Bapcor’s realisation of cost savings has clearly been delayed, the company still believes in the long-term potential for better profit margins. We place a 25% probability of a takeover proceeding for Bapcor. A successful takeover offer will require a price over $6.00 per share in our view and Board support.

Bapcor provided a trading update with detail on the sales growth for the nine months to 31 March 2024 and guided to FY24e proforma NPAT of $93-97 million. Sales trends for the nine months were mostly lower than the 1H24 sales trends. The fundamental debate remains the outlook for the cost saving program (Better Than Before). Management instability makes it difficult to see the cost savings being delivered anytime soon and the net benefits may be far smaller than the gross $100 million savings.

City Chic’s 1H24 EBITDA was at the top end of the guidance range given in late January 2024.  While losses are starting to reduce and gross margins improve, the sales base is much smaller. We expect sales to stabilise around May 2024 and anticipate noticeable gross margin improvements. City Chic also outlined a range of cost saving measures to restore profitability that will show through in 2H24e.

Endeavour Group reported 1H24 sales up 2.5% and EBIT up 2.6%.  The company had an increase in gross profit margins and some cost savings to help offset higher operating cost growth. Weak sales trends in liquor are likely to persist throughout 2024 in our view as the industry resets volumes back towards more normal levels post the COVID-19 boom. While higher gross margins can be a red flag, Endeavour is holding market share and the cost savings embedded in 1H24 give us confidence in second half earnings.

Bapcor reported 1H24 sales up 2% and EBITDA down 2%, with net profit down 12% given higher interest costs. The company’s sales decline in its Retail division is likely to ease in 2H24e. However, interest costs will remain a headwind to profits again this half. The fundamental debate remains the outlook for Bapcor’s cost savings program (Better Than Before). With a change of CEO, the company has acknowledged the phasing may shift. We expect an additional year delay in the timing of cost savings.

Wesfarmers reported FY23 group EBIT of $3,863 million, growth of 6%. The result showed some signs of slowdown in the second half where retail EBIT only rose 2%. We expect sales to slow from here given recent trends and weakness in discretionary income for consumers. The company will cut costs and the margin pressure should be modest, but it will still be challenging to grow retail earnings in FY24e. The WesCEF business could see a drop in EBIT of 17% on our estimates. The core business will suffer a larger drop, but lithium earnings will start from 2H24e onwards.