Airtel Africa (Buy, TP: £2, +45%) Bharti Airtel to buy 5% of Airtel A...

Bharti Airtel has announced it intends to acquire 5% of Airtel Africa (which it already owns 57% of) and intends to complete this by March 31st2025. Airtel Africa are also currently in the process of executing a $100m share buyback in 2 tranches with the first $50m to be completed by April 24th 2025. AAF’s last RNS suggested the company has so far bought back $22m of this, leaving $38m still to be executed in the first tranche

South Korean Telcos Q4 24 review: Value up starting to pay dividends

Although growth is slowing, cash flow trends continue to improve on greater discipline on opex and capex. The industry is increasingly giving this back in the form of higher dividends or buybacks which KT has already instituted and LG guided buybacks of up to 20% of net profits .

EM FWA-Watch S-Curve continuing to accelerate in India, with implicat...

Indian FWA net adds continue to accelerate and reached roughly c. 2.1m in the December quarter. India is probably therefore now accounting for around 50% of global shipments. We continue to think this is a critical development, and likely to drive an S-curve of adoption in Global EM.

Regional Morning Notes - Thursday, February 20, 2025

GREATER CHINA Sector Dairy: Retail demand remains weak; price recovery and healthier inventories to drive shipment normalisation. Healthcare: Outperformers empowered by AI revolution. INDONESIA Update Champ Resto Indonesia (ENAK IJ/BUY/Rp585/Target: Rp740): 2025 revenue to grow 16% yoy; more conservative on 4Q24 performance. Maintain BUY. MALAYSIA Results Duopharma Biotech (DBB MK/BUY/RM1.28/Target: RM1.39): 4Q24: Largely delivers on earnings. Public sector sales anchor growth while margins im...

Singapore Daily: Thursday, February 20, 2025

KEY HIGHLIGHTS Results Marco Polo Marine (MPM SP/BUY/S$0.052/Target:S$0.072) 1QFY25: Ready to ride the green energy wave in 2HFY25. Singapore Telecommunications (ST SP/BUY/S$3.37/Target: S$3.58) 9MFY25: Results in line as business outlook improves. United Overseas Bank (UOB SP/NOT RATED/S$38.58) 4Q24: Sets out action plan for capital management. TRADERS' CORNER Yangzijiang Shipbuilding (YZJSGD SP): Trading BUY Hong Fok Co...

Singapore Telecommunications (ST SP) - 9MFY25: Results In Line As Busi...

For 9MFY25, Singtel reported a higher underlying net profit of S$1,870m (+11% yoy), driven by higher contributions from Optus and NCS, good cost discipline from the group’s cost-out programme and higher associate earnings (mainly from Airtel and AIS). The results are in line with expectations at 73% of our full-year forecasts. Singtel expects to pay 16.5 cents DPS for FY25 as the group has identified S$6b of capital recycling for sustainable shareholder returns. In view of a decent dividend yiel...

Singtel (Buy, S$4.6, +36%) Q3 FY25 Quick Take: Positive set up for con...

Singtel delivered a good set of numbers with underlying revenue growing and EBIT expanding on continued cost optimisation despite ongoing growth investments at Digital Infraco which led to steady growth in underlying net profits.

Strategy - 2025 Budget: A Broad-Based Budget For All

While sounding a word of caution for medium-term government revenues, Prime Minister Wong delivered a budget that continued to defray the pain of inflation with an eye toward clean energy, climate change and helping lower-income households. No new equities market proposals were announced, which may disappoint investors in the short term. Our top picks are BAL, CD, KEP, OCBC, STE, STM, SCI, ST, VMS and YZJSGD.

Singapore Daily - Wednesday, February 19, 2025

KEY HIGHLIGHTS Strategy 2025 Budget       A broad-based budget for all. TRADERS' CORNER  Singapore Telecommunications (ST SP): Trading BUY                                                   SATS (SATS SP): Trading BUY

Yield remains too attractive

KT (Buy, KRW 85,000, +88%) Q4 24 Quick Take: Attractive value play wi...

KT reported a decent set of underlying results if excluding the one-off costs related to its early retirement programme which was well flagged earlier. Service revenue also recovered back to growth as Enterprise accelerated even despite the ongoing restructuring of less profitable business

Global EM Telcos & Towers – NSR EM Top picks Feb 25 update. Top-8 beco...

We update the NSR GEM Top Picks list. No stocks are dropped, and we add LILAC and TIM Brasil to our list, extending it to a Top-10 list from Top-8. Our picks had a good start, up 12% on average since the start of the year. This note also includes key news & other thoughts in order to help investors generate alpha within the EM Telco space.

Airtel Africa Q3 25: Strong beat with headline revenue resuming growth...

Airtel Africa shares jumped by 10% today after delivering a strong beat, with reported topline and EBITDA ahead of expectations by 5%. Reported revenue growth inflected to positive territory as East Africa improved whilst both local currency revenue and EBITDA accelerated. Separately, the group has reiterated its full year guidance for continued margin improvement and capex spending between $725m and $750m. AAF is one of our NSR GEM top picks for 2025, and we are Buyers with a GBp 200 price targ...

Nigerian Telcos 50% price increase to be approved

The NCC has announced it will grant approval for a maximum 50% price increase. This is a very positive development for the Nigerian Telcos in our view

Regional Morning Notes - Tuesday, January 21, 2025

GREATER CHINA Sector Property: Per capita tourism spending weakens further despite a yoy increase in visitor numbers; 2025 will continue to be a challenging year. Update Jiumaojiu International Holdings (9922 HK/BUY/HK$2.74/Target: HK$4.00): Business operations deteriorate in 4Q24; being cautious on new store openings; continuous closures of underperforming stores may happen in 2025. INDONESIA Sector Property: Undemanding valuation amid increased uncertainty. MALAYSIA Update Hap Seng Plantati...

Singapore Telecommunications (ST SP) - On Track To Continue Driving Sh...

In line with Singtel’s ST28 growth plan, its value-unlocking initiatives remain on track which we reckon would come from paring down stakes in its regional associates and non-core fixed assets, likely leading to higher VRDs in the next 3-5 years. The group continues to improve its ROIC through better core operational performance while also doubling down on its future growth drivers, NCS and Nxera. In view of a decent dividend yield of 5.2%, we maintain BUY with the same target price of S$3.58.

Singapore Daily - Tuesday, January 21, 2025

KEY HIGHLIGHTS Update Singapore Telecommunications (ST SP/BUY/S$3.15/Target: S$3.58)  Driving shareholder value through active capital management and operational efficiency, particularly in Australia. Venture Corporation (VMS SP/BUY/S$12.71/Target: S$15.55)       Remain focused and cautiously optimistic for the medium term. TRADERS' CORNER  Singapore Post (SPOST SP): Trading BUY                                                                         DFI Retail Group Holdings (DFI SP): Trading ...

Indian Telcos & Towers News reports that the Indian government may vo...

Indian press is reporting that the Indian government is planning to cut AGR liabilities for the industry by around INR 1 trn (c. $12bn), by cutting 50% of interest and 100% of penalties and interest on penalties relating to the AGR fines. Implication would be a c. INR 520bn (US$ 6.2bn) reduction in liabilities for Vodafone IDEA and around INR 380bn (US $4.5bn) for Bharti.

Lucror Analytics - Morning Views Latam

In today's Morning Views publication we comment on developments of the following high yield issuers: BRF, Embraer, Avianca, Geopark, Millicom, Hidrovias, KUO, Iochpe-Maxion, YPF Luz, YPF

ASEAN Telcos Outlook 2025; Singtel and TRUE remain our top picks reg...

2024 saw good performance from the Thai telcos and Singtel and more mixed in Malaysia and Indonesia. In 2025, we think the benefit of consolidation should be more apparent in the latter. Singtel and TRUE remain our top picks in the region.