TALWALKARS BETTER VALUE FITNESS LTD : Spreading Fitness !!!

Scrip Code: 533200 / TALWALKARS

CMP:  Rs. 173.20; Buy at Rs.166 - Rs.170 levels.
Short term Target: Rs. 190; Long term Target Rs.250; STOP LOSS – Rs. 158.00; Market Cap: Rs. 417.68 Cr; 52 Week High/Low: Rs. 265.00 / Rs. 107.00

Total Shares: 2,41,15,672 shares; Promoters : 1,43,45,723 shares –59.49 %; Total Public holding : 97,69,949 shares – 40.51 %; Book Value: Rs. 59.70; Face Value: Rs. 10.00; EPS: Rs. 7.96; Div: 10.00 % ; P/E: 21.75 times; Ind. P/E: 17.77; EV/EBITDA: 15.79

Total Debt: Rs. 111.38 Cr; Enterprise Value: Rs. 529.06 Cr.

TALWALKARS BETTER VALUE FITNESS LTD: The Company was founded in 1932 and is based in Mumbai, India.  Talwalkars Better Value Fitness Limited (TBVF) was formerly known as Talwalkars Better Value Fitness Private Limited. The company operates a fitness chain in India. The company offers a suite of services, including gyms, spas, aerobics, nutrition counseling, physiotherapy guidance, yoga classes and health counseling under the ‘Talwalkars’ brand.  The Company has an 8,000 square feet residential training academy at Thane. The training academy offers about 4 to 6 weeks of training program for its staff joining at the new centers.  As of May o4 2012, it had 102 health clubs and 62 cities and had more than 75,000 members. Its health clubs/training centers are located in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. In April 2012, through its subsidiary Talwalkars opened a health club in the of Gandhinagar.

Investment Rationale:

The management stated that they have put hold on the plans to roll out clubs which was a different format compared to gym which required much larger investments and a longer gestation periods which would have had a dilutive effect on return ratios (RoE, RoCE) in the near term so the plans has been put on a hold. It would continue to focus on gym expansion where it remains bullish on the opportunity in the market given the low penetration rates for organized players. 

TBVF has rolled out 19 gyms in 9M FY12 and it is slated to launch another 16 gyms in Q4, a traditionally strong quarter for the fitness business. This would take its total gym base to 126 of which about 90 would be owned and rest would be through a combination of subsidiaries, franchisees/JVs and HiFi gyms. Company plans to add 8 HiFi gyms in the current year through franchisee route which would not entail any capex for the company. In order to accelerate roll out in Tier II & Tier III cities, Talwalkars has conceptualized gyms under the ‘HiFi’ brands. These would be rolled out in areas with population of 3,00,000 – 5,00,000 which otherwise may not have supported a fully fledged Talwalkars gym. For instance, company has targeted HiFi gyms roll out in cities like Porbander, Faridabad and Solapur. These are typically ‘no frills’ gyms with area of 2,500 - 2,800 sq ft & about half of that is for a regular gym. HiFi gyms capex requirement is about half of a full service gym and their membership rates are also 60 % more of those of regular gyms. The company would roll out HiFi gyms through the franchisee route thereby eliminating funding needs for the roll out. In return for gym management, TBVF will earn royalty income at the rate of 6 % of revenues for first three years and 8 % thereafter. Talwalkars would also receive a one-time royalty income and equipment supply charge to the tune of Rs.10,00,000 each. HiFi gyms offers faster roll out since each roll out usually takes 8-10 weeks as compared to 14-16 weeks for typical Talwalkars gym and so HiFi gyms is the better road for Talwalkars to go ahead.

Outlook and Valuation:

Gym is a highly localized business in the sense it needs to be easily accessible to local population at an affordable price (at least from a mass market perspective). Talwalkars has managed to break away from its peers and now leads the scale with 109 gyms on consolidated basis. There is a vast opportunity exists for further scale building considering the fragmented nature of industry. For instance, market share of the top 5 players by number of clubs is just 16 % as compared to global top 5 average which is about 40 %. Talwalkars has a decent spread-out across the North, West and South regions which together accounts for 94 % of the total gyms. It is also targeting different price segments with roll out of both Regular as well as ‘Low Cost’ HiFi gyms especially in those tier II/III cities which may not support a full service Talwalkars’ gym. Membership growth too has kept pace with volume additions as seen from a 31 % membership CAGR over FY07-12 as compared to 29 % CAGR in gym base. Talwalkars is likely to incur about Rs. 1.8 Cr in capex per gym roll out while it would have shouldered about half the needs in case of a subsidiary. Since HiFi gym expansion would be largely through franchisee route, Talwalkars would not have to incur the capex for these gyms. Talwalkars is expected to add about 96 gyms in FY13-14 with 77 % of the gyms added under owned and HiFi brands. Accordingly, it is expected that the Capex/Sales ratio to decline to 21 % in FY13 from 45 % in current fiscal. On the pricing front, company intends to hike membership fees by 8 % for new gyms (<1 year of ops) from April’ 12. Given the largely fixed nature of costs it is expected that the operating leverage benefits to kick in over FY13/14, factoring in OPM of 44.9 % /45.2 %. Given that roll outs in next 2 years would be more through subsidiaries and HiFi franchisees (63 % share of incremental gym adds), it is expected that the capex intensity to decline to 21 % in FY14 from 45 % in current fiscal. This would help generate free cash flow in FY14. TBFV is a play on the growing healthcare market in India. It has a strong brand name and is now capitalizing, with rapid expansion. There are not any listed comparable players and thus its closest comparable peers are the consumption companies like Jubilant Food works, Page Industries, Titan Industries etc which trades at an average PE of 30 x FY13. At the current market price of Rs. 173.20, the stock is trading at 15.46 x FY13E and 11.47 x FY14E respectively. Earnings per share (EPS) of the company for FY13E and FY14E are seen at Rs. 11.20 and Rs. 15.10 respectively. It is expected that the company will keep its growth story intact in the coming quarters also. One could BUY TALWALKARS BETTER VALUE FITNESS LTD with a target price of Rs. 190.00 for Medium to Long term investment and for the SHORT TERM PLAYERS it should be Rs. 250.00 

KEY FINANCIALS	FY11	FY12	FY13E	FY14E
SALES (Rs. Crs)	92.80	117.20	160.50	202.20
NET PROFIT (Rs. Crs)	16.00	20.50	26.90	36.50
EPS (Rs.)	6.70	8.50	11.20	15.10
PE (x)	23.50	18.40	14.00	10.30
P/BV (x)	3.00	2.26	2.20	1.90
EV/EBITDA (x)	11.70	9.30	7.00	5.50
ROE (%)	19.10	15.20	17.30	19.80
ROCE (%)	16.40	15.00	18.00	18.70

I would buy TALWALKARS BETTER VALUE FITNESS LTD with a price target of Rs. 190 for the short term. As I always say, I am a long term believer in markets & I do respect the markets and will keep a strict stop loss of 8 % or Rs. 158.00 on every purchase.

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