Following the announcement of a proposed merger between XL and Smartfren in Indonesia, news media has reported that talks between StarHub and M1 in Singapore have resurfaced in the past couple of days too. Our brief take below, with implications for SingTel.
Airtel Africa has published a decent set of Q4 results. Top line performance remained strong, service revenue growth in local currency came in above consensus expectations and above our expectations. EBITDA trends slowed (but remained decent given the macro context in Q1) and margins came in 1pp below consensus and us.
Topline came in better than expected, supported by a better mobile performance from higher roaming users well as sustained performance from SK Broadband. EBITDA was relatively in line while net profit beat on expectations this quarter (12% ahead), helped by other income from its investment assets. Our thoughts below.
For Apr 24, our Alpha Picks portfolio rose 0.4% mom on an equal-weighted basis, underperforming the STI slightly by 1.7ppt. It was a mixed performance from our portfolio with the top performers being MPM, BAL and CD while FRKN, LREIT and ST underperformed. Our Alpha Picks portfolio has outperformed the STI in three out of the past four months. For May 24, we add FEHT, MPACT, GENS; remove BAL, LREIT and CLAS.
GREATER CHINA Strategy Alpha Picks: May Conviction Call: Adding CR Beer, Crystal, Geely, Haier, Kuaishou, Ningbo Tuopu, Pinduoduo, Shenzhou, and Tencent to our BUY list, closing out SELL calls. INDONESIA Strategy Alpha Picks: Slight Outperformance In A Bear Market: Our picks are BSDE, TLKM, ACES, BBTN, CMRY, SIDO, JSMR and AKRA. MALAYSIA Strategy Alpha Picks: Well-Positioned For 1Q Results Season: Our April picks again beat the KLCI. May 24 picks: GENM, Inari, Mah Sing, MrDIY, MYEG, Press Meta...
GREATER CHINA Strategy Alpha Picks: May Conviction Call Adding CR Beer, Crystal, Geely, Haier, Kuaishou, Ningbo Tuopu, Pinduoduo, Shenzhou, and Tencent to our BUY list, closing out SELL calls. Small-Mid Cap Monthly Reiterate BUY on Crystal International. Sector Automobile Weekly: EV sales pick up; take...
WOM Chile filed for Chapter 11 last month (April 1), followed a couple of weeks later by a local filing for WOM Colombia. Two filings in one month. Colombia’s relatively modest financing difficulties were likely sealed by the Chilean filing and we review events in Chile to work out how a seemingly successful scaled wireless operator (close to 25% market share of service revenue, 37% EBITDA margins) ended up here.
The market continued to eek out broadband growth in Q1, with Megacable leading the charge. We applaud management’s execution here and the double digit revenue and EBITDA growth, though this now seems embedded in expectations; we think it’s time to close out Megacable stock gains (30% YTD), trading on a 5.5% EFCF yield for 2025. Our target remains MXN55, though we have taken out the probability of cable-cable deal synergies, offset by upgrades following Q1s.
GREATER CHINA Results China Merchants Bank (3968 HK/BUY/HK$34.95/Target: HK$44.00) 1Q24: Earnings miss on muted fee income and higher cost-to-income ratio. China Resources Building Materials Tech (1313 HK/BUY/HK$1.34/Target: HK$1.83) 1Q24: Mixed bag of results; regaining cement market share. Foxconn Industrial Internet (601138 CH/BUY/Rmb24.52/Target: Rmb29.10) 1Q24: Margins miss likely due to product mix, AI business remains robust. Haier Smart Home (6690 HK/BUY/HK$27.10/Target: ...
Singtel announced an 11-year A$1.6b network sharing deal with TPG in regional Australia, receiving around A$900m of incremental cashflows over 11 years. However, we expect minimal near-term earnings impact for Singtel. The group also announced S$3.1b of non-cash impairment provisions, which will result in a net loss for 2HFY24. This was largely due to a significant S$2b impairment on Optus, dragged by the enterprise segment. Maintain BUY with the same target price of S$2.99.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS Results Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MPACT SP/BUY/S$1.26/Target: S$1.89): 4QFY24: Turning around towards an upward trajectory. Wilmar International (WIL SP/HOLD/S$3.34/Target: S$3.35): 1Q24: Results below our expectations due to weaker-than-expected margins from feed & industrial products despite higher sales volume. Update Singapore Telecommunications (ST SP/BUY/S$2.35/Target: S$2.99): Striking a deal in regional Australia. TRADERS’ CORNER Jardine Cycle & Carriage (JCN...
SingTel announced two separate pieces of news today: 1) Optus' network sharing agreement with TPG, and 2) S$3.1bn of non-cash write down related to Optus and its Australian Enterprise businesses. As news flow was overshadowed by the latter, shares were down 3% today.
SK Telecom has issued its new shareholder return policy for the next three years (2024-2026), at least 50% of adjusted consolidated net profit in the form of dividends and share repurchases. The headline figure is somewhat underwhelming, but is now a minimum rather than a cap and could be the first of more initiatives to come as a result of the "Value-up" programme in Korea. Our thoughts below.
With Bharti in sight of US$100bn market cap and SingTel languishing after the abortive sale of a stake in Optus, SingTel’s stake in Bharti is now worth the same as SingTel’s entire market cap. This also means that SingTel’s SOP discount is at all-time highs of 50%. In this note we look at how management could address this through buybacks, and what the accretion impact of selling stakes in Bharti to buy back SingTel shares would be.
AMX reported strong Q1 numbers after close, coming in ~2% ahead of consensus revenue and EBITDA. Growth accelerated (to 5% y/y from 3.7% in Q4) coming from Mexico and Brazil, and both fixed and wireless. Brazil EBITDA also saw strong support on the cost side. Capex was down y/y in Q1, in keeping with the FY 24 guide (~$7 billion, down from $8.8 billion in 2023); we expect mid-term capex to be provided at the upcoming May 7th Investor Day, and see potential for consensus estimates to come down he...
Sometimes the markets behave in ways that appear irrational. VIL having sufficient market cap to launch an INR 200bn ($2.4bn) capital increase despite (in our view) being a failing business is one example. But what does it mean for Bharti, Jio and Indus?
KEY HIGHLIGHTS Strategy The Impact Of Escalating Middle East Tensions A fluid situation with oil prices the key worry. Small/Mid Cap Highlights BRC Asia (BRC SP/BUY/S$1.94/Target: S$2.42) 1QFY24: Strong results as construction demand recovers. TRADERS’ CORNER Aztech Global (AZTECH SP): Trading BUY Isdn Holdings (ISDN SP): Trading BUY
GREATER CHINA Strategy Alpha Picks: April Conviction Calls: Adding AIA, Midea, Hansoh Pharmaceutical, Shenzhen Inovance and Trip.com to our BUY list, with SELL calls on BYD, EVE Energy, and Li Auto. INDONESIA Strategy Alpha Picks: Outperformance In Mar 24 and 1Q24: Our picks are ACES, BBTN, CMRY, SIDO, EXCL, MAPI, JSMR, CTRA, and AKRA. MALAYSIA Strategy Alpha Picks: Expanding The Variety Of Events Bets: Our Alpha Picks trounced the KLCI in Mar 24. Apr 24 picks: GENM, Inari, Mah Sing, MrDIY, MY...
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