KUALA LUMPUR (July 11): Credit Suisse AG has expressed a high level of confidence that Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) will be able to meet its forecast of chalking up a 11% growth in total passenger traffic.

"Encouragingly, the growth was well diversified with 25 countries registering double-digit traffic growth. Countries like China, India, Indonesia, Japan and the UK among others, registered more than 20% year-on-year (y-o-y)," Credit Suisse's research analyst Joanna Cheah said in a note to clients today.

"With the data points reported so far, we have a high level of confidence that our 11% growth for 2017 can be met. MAHB indicated in its announcement filings that it is now optimistic that it can achieve at least 8% growth rate for 2017, from its earlier target of 6.5%," Cheah added, keeping her outperform call on the Main Market-listed MAHB, with a target price of RM11.05.

Cheah's optimism came after MAHB reported an accelerated growth in its latest passenger traffic snapshot yesterday. In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, MAHB said its passenger traffic in June grew 11.9% year-on-year, bringing total passenger volume in the first half of this year to grow by 11.2%, from 5.7% in 2016.

Still, Cheah noted performance at MAHB's airport in Turkey's Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport "remains challenging", but thus far, it has shown "promising signs of recovery."

Separately, two research analysts at Deutsche Bank AG — Joshua Lee and Joe Liew — have a more bullish forecast for MAHB's passenger traffic growth this year.

In a note to clients, both Deutsche Bank's research analysts forecast MAHB's passenger traffic in Malaysia this year will grow by 14.2%, higher that Credit Suisse's estimate, while passenger traffic at the Turkish airport is expected to grow by 0.7%.

A one percentage point increase for financial year ending Dec 31, 2017 and beyond in Malaysia's passenger growth estimates, would increase our target price by 1.5% or 15 sen per share," the duo added.

Shares in MAHB rose by 10 sen or 1.18% to trade at RM8.57 at 11:46am today, for a market capitalisation of RM14.24 billion.