KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Research Institute raised its outlook for KFC Holdings Bhd (KFCH) to Outperform from Market Perform and raised its FY10-12 forecasts by 9%-15.8%.

The research house said on Tuesday, March 30 KFCH’s fair value has been lifted to RM9.63 (based on unchanged 12.5x FY10 PE, 14% discount to consumer sector PE of 14.5x) from RM8.84 previously.

“Upgrade to Outperform that given the marked improvement in earnings prospects as the company becomes more aggressive in its growth plans, as well as better growth trajectory from the recovering economy,” it said.

RHB Research said KFCH management plans to open about 40 new outlets per year in FY10-12, which will be focused on small towns and East Malaysia.

“As this is a more aggressive network expansion target than earlier guided (of 20-30 outlets per annum), we have raised our FY10-12 new outlet assumptions in Malaysia to 40 per annum from 20-30 outlets previously,” it said.