Near-term headwinds
- Yum China 3Q23 trails behind expectations on slowdown in same-store sales and currency impact
- Net store expansion of 500 in 3Q23, with 1,155 net new store openings YTD, on track with expectations
- 4Q23 is a seasonally soft quarter, with normalising growth trends ahead in FY24E; company reiterates no change in system sales and EPS guidance
- We cut our earnings by 11%/18% in FY23E/FY24E to account for lower sales/unit and higher labour cost trends, maintain BUY as we remain positive on the medium term outlook and strategy with TP cut to HK$417