Investing.com - MTR Corp Ltd (HK:0066), Hong Kong’s rail operator, may recover quicker than expected from months of protests in the city which have sent the company’s stock prices down 20%, analysts from the Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS) said on Wednesday.
Political unrest in Hong Kong that began in June saw some of the violence taking place in and around MTR stations. The operator had to close lines early and suspend train services as most stations were left badly damaged.
Goldman believes MTR will see traffic recover quickly from the “short-term operational disruption” as the situation in Hong Kong improves, according to a note cited by Bloomberg.
The report, which was led by analyst Simon Cheung, compared the unrest with the 2003 SARS epidemic where MTR patronage rose by 2% in July that year after dropping 20% in April.
The analysts noted that the company has locked in profits on property sales and may see some upside from rail expansion plans.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) upgraded the stock to buy from neutral today. MTR last traded at HK$44.60 by 11:25 PM ET (03:25 GMT), up 2.9%.