February was another good month for our top EM Telcos, now up 15% YTD on average. This note also includes key news & other thoughts in order to help investors generate alpha within the EM Telco space. With performance strong so far, we make no changes to our picks.
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.
Revenue and EBITDA trends improved again for China Tower, which alongside stable depreciation supported bottom-line momentum. In Indonesia, MTEL and TOWR continued to perform where the latter benefited from faster growth in its Fibre business thus should act as a buffer should the XL and Smartfren deal were to proceed.
Following similar efforts in Europe and LatAm we are launching coverage on the HY Telcos & Towers in EMEA & Africa. New names under coverage include Helios (also initiated on equity, pt GBp140), Axian Telecom and Liquid Intelligent. We also address IHS Towers (pt cut to US$ 6), VEON and Helios’ bonds.
IHS Towers has reported a solid set of Q2 results. Organic top line growth has seen a strong acceleration, driven by Nigeria, while margins improved nicely too. There was no new news regarding the strategic review. However, the company made a key announcement last week about the contract renewals with MTN Nigeria (HERE).
Both MTN Nigeria and IHS Nigeria have announced the renewal and extension of all their MLAs in Nigeria, including new financial terms. This development is materially positive for both companies in our view. This means all MLAs in Africa between MTN and IHS have now been renewed and extended. Separately, MTN has also announced the exit from Guinea-Bissau.
The outperformer this quarter was China Tower, with stronger trends across the board. Indus continues to grow at a faster pace, but we think the market is too optimistic on Indus’ ability to turn this into cash as it is driven by single tenancy towers. In Indonesia the big news is that XL and Smartfren are in talks which has the potential to be significant for both TBIG and TOWR, and so despite better trends we downgrade price targets
IHS Towers has reported a slower quarter as expected. Top line performance was solid and came in ahead of expectations, but EBITDA growth was below expectations. Capex this quarter is well below historic levels as the company is now focused on cash generation and rebuilding the balance sheet. As a result, OpFCF margins improved.
We hosted a small group zoom call with the IHS CFO, Steve Howden, and Head of IR, Colby Synesael yesterday. The company has had a torrid time over the last 2 years, but operationally has proven relatively resilient to intense pressure in our view. Our takeaway from the call was cautiously positive, though of course lots depends on Nigerian Macro.
IHS Towers has reported another solid top line performance on an underlying basis and KPIs were good. As expected, headline trends have materially slowed given Q3 is the first quarter fully impacted by the NGN devaluation. Guidance has been maintained but the company highlighted that EBITDA is now expected to be towards the lower end of the range.
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