MBC : TSX : C$2.07
BUY
Target: C$3.55
COMPANY DESCRIPTION:
MBAC Fertilizer Corp. is a Canadian-domiciled development corporation focused on becoming a significant integrated fertilizer producer in Brazil. The company has ownership of assets within various regions of Brazil, but its immediate focus is on the development of the Itafos phosphate deposit in Goias state. Longer term, MBAC intends to produce phosphate from multiple locations across Brazil.
All amounts in C$ unless otherwise noted.
MBAC RELEASES BFS ON SANTANA
Investment recommendation
The net result of this press release to our model is favourable later in the decade as Santana ramps up to capacity in 2017E. The lowering of our capital expenditure estimate and of our operating cost assumption (albeit not to the company’s estimated levels) are net positives. However, given that our target price is based upon our 2015 EBITDA estimate and that our multiple takes into consideration the strong growth potential from additional forecast future production, our target price remains unchanged.
Investment highlights
The capital cost estimate is US$427 million (including a US$50 million contingency). There are some costs borne at the Itafos project (a US$323 million project) that would not be duplicated at the Santana project (a water dam, pre-planning/design for a doubling of output, etc), but other costs such as infrastructure to the site would be substantial (and hence why the overall cost was always expected to be higher at Santana). However, that is offset by a much higher grade and lower operating cost mine. The company expects to produce 500ktpa of SSP 0-19-0 product (which is a more valuable grade of product than what is being produced at Itafos (1-17-0) due to the much higher grade of the Santana ore body). Estimated operating cost per tonne at Santana in the BFS is US$113 versus our original estimate of US$140.
The reaction to the release was negative, not to the BFS, but to the lack of an update on Itafos, which is ramping to full operational capacity and should be at the desired level in Q4/13. We assume that the company will sell 50kt of SSP in 2013. We do highlight that every 25mt of sales only impacts our estimated cash balance by less than C$2 million. As a result, at this stage, we are more focused on the ramping up of the facility in Q4 than whether or not they meet or miss our sales estimate by 25kt in 2013, given how little an impact that is to their financial situation as estimated in our model. Further commentary on their financial position is discussed below and we believe funding is no longer a concern.
Valuation
We continue to rate the shares of MBAC a BUY with a 12-month target price of C$3.55 based upon a 9.5x multiple to our 2015E EBITDA of C$80.9 million.
