BAuto Set To Fly On Debut

Recent two IPOs Karex & Caring swallowed enormous gain on their debut days. How will Berjaya Auto perform next Monday?

From the public respond to its IPO, perhaps BAuto may not have the same fortune as Karex & Caring.

BAuto's IPO is oversubscribed by only 4.2x, while Karex & Caring are oversubscribed by 21.8x & 33.7x respectively. So, there is a huge difference here.

This is good for me though, as I have interest to buy BAuto's share in the near future.

However, Kenanga Research gives BAuto a target price of 92sen, which is 30% higher than its IPO price of 70sen. So, I can sense that it will open at 80sen and close at 90sen in the first day. Sigh...

BAuto will launch the new Mazda 3 much sooner than I expect, which should be around March-April 2014. Besides, it has just launched the minivan MPV Biante & the facelifted SUV CX-9 during the current KL International Motor Show. All are CBU with Skyactiv technology from Japan.

I predict that the new Mazda 3 will be BAuto best-selling model in term of number of units. However, it has a disadvantage as it is priced indicatively at RM139,000 for its 2.0 variant. At this price, we can get a bigger D-segment car.

If compared to other C-segment cars:

• 2014 Toyota Corolla Altis 2.0G - RM126k
• 2014 Toyota Corolla Altis 2.0V - RM138k
• Honda Civic 2.0S - RM132k
• Honda Civic 2.0Navi - RM137k
• Honda Accord 2.0VTi (D-seg) - RM140k
• Nissan Sylphy 2.0XL Comfort - RM115k
• Nissan Sylphy 2.0XV Premium - RM125k
• Hyundai Elantra Nu 1.8L Premium - RM115k
• Hyundai Sonata Nu 2.0L Elegance (D-seg) - RM138k 
• Kia Cerato 2.0L - RM119k
• Kia Optima 2.0EX (D-seg) - RM144k
• Peugeot 408 2.0L - RM110k
• Peugeot 408 Turbo - RM129k
• Ford Focus 2.0 Titanium Plus - RM130k
• Ford Focus 2.0 Sport Plus - RM130k
• VW Jetta TSI - RM153k

       Mazda Biante

The 2014 Mazda 3 2.0 is priced very close to high-spec Altis & Civic, but both of them are CKD while Mazda is CBU Japan. So it might have an upper hand in facing Toyota & Honda.

However, against other brands like Hyundai, Kia, Ford & Peugeot, Mazda 3 does not have a competitive edge in term of pricing. So it will rely on its technology, design, service and branding. Hopefully BAuto will load it with more gadgets to attract potential buyers.

In the near future, I think BAuto will CKD this new Mazda 3 just like what it did to its older version of Mazda 3. This should bring the price down by RM10k and BAuto will have a chance to export it to other countries. It may also introduce the lower engine displacement variant soon.

Anyway, the sale of the old Mazda 3 should be very slow now...