Hunan ER-KANG Pharmaceutical:Quality-consistency evaluations may hinder market share gains of starch capsules

Cutting mid-term ROIC by 5pptWe believe quality-consistency evaluations will affect the progress of Er-Kang's starchcapsules in capturing share from traditional gelatin capsules. The auxiliary materials andtechnologies used to make preparations, including the type of capsule used, can impactwhether a pharmaceutical preparation is able to pass quality-consistency evaluations.

    With this in mind, we think drug makers may avoid switching to this new product,instead preferring to conservatively stick with the gelatin capsules that have been inwidespread use for over 50 years. We therefore estimate that replacement of gelatincapsules with Er-Kang's starch capsules may lose momentum in China, which leads usto cut our mid-term ROIC by 5ppt and lower our PT to Rmb17.84.

    Controlling shareholder to trim stake by up to 9.66% of outstanding sharesOn 7 December, the company announced that Mr. Fangwen Shuai (its controllingshareholder and effective controller) and Ms. Zaiyun Cao, who acts in concert with Mr.

    Shuai, plan to trim their stake in the company by no more than 9.66% of totaloutstanding shares, bringing their combined stake to 36.83%, with the action to becompleted within six months of 12 December.

    We remain optimistic on long-term potential of starch capsulesEr-kang's starch capsule series posted revenue of Rmb683m in H116, up 161.09%YoY. We are positive on the use of starch capsules in the pharmaceutical and foodsectors, given starch capsules' advantages over gelatin capsules (better safety andstability) and our view that replacement of gelatin capsules with starch capsules is along-term trend. Moreover, Er-Kang is the world's only company to have successfullycommercialised starch capsules, and we expect the company will leverage its starchcapsules to gradually expand into the downstream capsule drug preparation market.

    Valuation: Lowering PT to Rmb17.84; maintain Buy ratingWe are lowering our DCF-derived PT by 9.1% to Rmb17.84 (WACC 7.9%), implying35x 2017E PE, while our Buy rating remains unchanged.