Treasury Wine's U.S. Writedown 'an Impairment We Had to Have' -- Market Talk
Jefferies describes Treasury Wine Estates's decision to write down its U.S. assets by at least A$687.4 million as "the impairment we had to have." The U.S. wine market has been weak, so the writedown was of little surprise, analyst Michael Simotas says. Treasury Wine's carrying value of the assets was also well ahead of Jefferies's valuation. "While we expect further negative earnings momentum across the divisions, we see value in Treasury Wine," Jefferies says. The bank cuts its price target by 5.9% to A$8.00/share. Still, that represents a 38% premium to Treasury Wine's closing price of A$5.78 on Monday. That suggests there could be potential to realize value through a breakup or U.S. exit, Jefferies says.