【lg monitor blinking on and off】Egypt tries to protect tourism after coronavirus outbreak on cruise ship
* Coronavirus detected on River Nile cruise ship
* Ministers visit Luxor,lg monitor blinking on and off try to ease concerns over tourism
* Tourism an important driver of economic growth
By Mahmoud Mourad and Nadeen Ebrahim
CAIRO, March 8 (Reuters) - Egypt is rushing to protect its important tourism sector and reassure travellers it is safe to visit after an outbreak of the coronavirus on a cruise ship on the River Nile.
Officials said on Saturday the coronavirus had been detected in 45 people, including foreign tourists, after the vessel reached the southern city of Luxor. Until then, Egypt had reported only three confirmed cases of the virus.
The ministers of tourism, health and civil aviation toured a temple on Sunday in central Luxor, across the Nile from the Valley of the Kings where pharaohs were buried in tombs carved into rock.
"We are here to respond to rumours saying that there are no tourists and people are afraid of coming. Thank God, people are here," Khaled al-Anani, the tourism and antiquities minister, told state television before the camera panned across to show tourists queuing to enter the site.
"No to exaggerated reactions. Our eyes are on everything," said Health Minister Hala Zayed.
The tourism industry is an important driver of economic growth and has rebounded after a decline following the 2011 uprising that toppled long-serving leader Hosni Mubarak.
Revenue was a record high of $12.57 billion in the financial year that ended last July, according to central bank figures.
At another top tourism site, the Giza Pyramids outside Cairo, guides and souvenir sellers said business had slowed over the past month because of fears over the coronavirus.
Ali Hamouda Hassan, who gives tours of the pyramids on horseback, said he now had "one customer every two days."
The cruise boat struck by the virus has been towed outside Luxor and placed under quarantine, state media reported. Those who tested positive were flown by military plane for quarantine in northern Egypt.
Officials say the newly announced cases and others discovered in people who passed through Egypt originate from a Taiwanese-U.S. national who returned to Taiwan in February after travelling on the cruise ship.
Karim ElMinabaway, president of Emeco Travel Egypt, said there had been few cancellations from travellers abroad through to the end of June but tourism could be badly hit.
"We are receiving 10% of what we had been expecting for the first quarter of next year," he said.
The spread of the coronavirus outside Egypt could have other knock-on effects on the economy, including on Egyptians working abroad, an important source of foreign currency remittances.
Hundreds of people were queuing on Sunday at Cairo's main public laboratory centre for blood tests required by Saudi Arabia for workers travelling from Egypt to show they do not have the coronavirus. (Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy and Patrick Werr, Editing by Aidan Lewis and Timothy Heritage)
View comments
(责任编辑:Encyclopedia)
- ·Alm. Brand – Report on trading in Alm. Brand A/S shares by executives and their related parties
- ·Spotify Rolls Out Standalone Streaming On Apple Watch App: TechCrunch
- ·Realogy Holdings Corp.'s (NYSE:RLGY) Intrinsic Value Is Potentially 88% Above Its Share Price
- ·5%, led by a 17% increase in average ticket and a slight decline in traffic. Growth in the quarter reflected the impact of households stocking up on essentials like paper goods and cleaning supplies as the pandemic became a nationwide concern, along with strength in discretionary categories as the quarter came to a close and stimulus dollars and tax refunds were disbursed.
As shown below, the results in the quarter materially changed the trend in two-year stacked comps for each of the banners, along with a significant acceleration for consolidated comps.
The increase in consolidated comps was the primary driver of an 8% increase in revenues to $6.3 billion. The company ended the quarter with 15,370 locations, up less than 1% year-over-year. This reflects a 7% increase in Dollar Tree units, offset by a 4% decline in Family Dollar units.
The top-line results at each banner flowed through to their respective income statements, with Dollar Tree gross margins and operating margins declining year-over-year while Family Dollar gross margins and operating margins expanded year-over-year. On a consolidated basis, gross margins contracted by 120 basis points in the quarter to 28.5%, reflective of a shift to lower-margin consumables, tariff costs and the impact of markdowns from the Easter headwinds at the Dollar Tree banner. The company saw slight operating leverage on SG&A from higher comps, with the net result being an 80 basis point contraction in operating margins to 5.8%, with operating income declining 5% to $366 million. This is not adjusted for $73 million of pandemic-related costs, such as PPE supplies.
In the first quarter, the company opened 85 stores (net of closures) and completed 220 Family Dollar renovations to the H2 format. Importantly, comps at renovated Family Dollar stores continue to outpace the chain average by more than 10%. On the call, management indicated that they plan on reducing both the number of new store openings (from 550 to 500) and the number of H2 renovations (from 1,250 to 750) in 2020.
Personally, given the fact that Family Dollar is seeing material benefits to its business from the pandemic with new or lapsed customers coming into its stores, I think the company should try to get more aggressive with its renovation plans, not less. On the other hand, you could argue that renovations cause short-term disruptions and limit their ability to fully capitalize on the business momentum they are currently experiencing.
As a result of fewer new stores and remodels, management now expects 2020 capital expenditures to total $1.0 billion compared to previous guidance of $1.2 billion. In addition, the company has temporarily suspended share repurchases. At quarter's end, the company had $1.8 billion in cash on its balance sheet compared to $4.3 billion in total debt.
Conclusion
In recent years, Dollar Tree has been a tale of two cities. While its namesake banner has generally delivered impressive financial results, Family Dollar has been a persistent underperformer. This quarter, those results flipped, and given what we've seen in the weeks since quarter's end, there's a decent possibility that we will see something similar in the coming months. As the CEO noted, the second quarter is off to a very good start at Family Dollar.
Here's the important question: how useful is that information is in terms of making future predictions about the business? Will recent success at Family Dollar translate into long-term success for the banner? The optimistic take is that new or lapsed customers, especially those visiting the renovated stores, could become recurring business for the banner. The pessimistic take is that they have experienced short-term success out of necessity as people went to any store that was open to try and find essentials like toilet paper and hand sanitizer that were largely out of stock throughout the retail landscape. From that view, many of these customers could abandon the retailer when life returns to normal. As Philbin noted on the conference call, early on [during the pandemic], folks needed us. Will people still shop as much at Family Dollar when it's no longer a necessity?
Personally, I do not place too much weight on the recent results. I will need to see incremental data points that indicate that Family Dollar has truly won sustained business from these new customers. While I still believe that the Dollar Tree banner is a well-positioned retailer with attractive unit returns, I'm not yet willing to say the same thing for Family Dollar. For that reason, along with the recent run-up in the stock price, I plan on staying on the sidelines for now.
Disclosure: None
Read more here:
Under Armour: A Tough Start to 2020
Walmart: Continued Omni-Channel Progress
Match: An Impressive Start to 2020
Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Sign up for a free 7-day trial here.
This article first appeared on
GuruFocus
.
Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Signs with DLTR. Click here to check it out.
DLTR 30-Year Financial Data
The intrinsic value of DLTR
Peter Lynch Chart of DLTR
View comments
- ·Do You Like HORNBACH Baumarkt AG (ETR:HBM) At This P/E Ratio?
- ·Tokyo 2020 Wheelchair rugby test event canceled over coronavirus concerns
- ·10x Genomics to Present at the BofA Securities 2020 Healthcare Conference
- ·ECB working on lending scheme for coronavirus-hit SMEs -sources
- ·Americans See Record Fall in Consumer Spending, Savings Soar
- ·Global Hospital Beds Market Report 2020: Market to Reach $5.2 Billion by 2027
- ·Maybe the Coronavirus Didn’t End the Bull Market
- ·CME Group (CME) Reports Soft May Volumes, Shares Decline
- ·Expanse Integrates with ServiceNow
- ·Insights on the Surgical Sealant/Tissue Patch Global Market to 2025 - Key Drivers and Restraints
- ·Should You Sell in May or Buy 5 Top Coronavirus-Immune Stocks?
- ·Pinduoduo’s AI strawberry competition offers glimpse of “one-click planting”
- ·4 Top Momentum Stocks Powered by Driehaus Strategy
- ·CEO Talks: Boucheron’s Hélène Poulit-Duquesne Takes the Positive View
- ·CLNY Investor Alert: Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC Reminds Investors of Class Action Against Colony Capital, Inc. and Encourages Investors to Contact the Firm
- ·Morocco to suspend all travel to and from Italy amid coronavirus fears