reports
- Chris Hoare
KT Corp (Buy, KRW 85,000, +64%) Q1 25 Quick Take: Benefiting from cos...
KT reported strong profit growth as it benefits from the hefty headcount reduction programme undertaken in Q4, and despite a softer topline, a result of its conscious effort to shift away from lower-margin B2B businesses. Both EBITDA (+12%) and EBIT (+36%) were up sharply. None of this is reflected in the valuation of 8x FY25 P/E and 4.4% dividend yield, the stock remains one of our Top Picks with a KRW 85,000 price target.
- Chris Hoare
LG Uplus (Buy, KRW 19,000, +53%) Q1 25 Quick Take: Decent bottom-line...
LG Uplus printed a solid profit beat, ahead of expectations by 7% on better service revenue and EBITDA inflecting back to growth, as margins were better managed this quarter. We continue to believe its shareholder remuneration is attractive (5.6% dividend yield + potential buyback announcement in 2Q25). We stay Buyers with a KRW 19k price target.
- Chris Hoare
Global EM Telcos Capex in steep decline; underpins EFCF growth
We analyze the capex history & outlook for Global EM Telcos. For this group capex is falling rapidly (-12% in 2024 in US$) as competitive intensity improves and markets consolidate. Excluding China and India, EM Telco capex is already down 23% from peak.
- Chris Hoare
Global EM Telcos & Towers Still rising – NSR GEM Top-10 May ‘25 Updat...
Despite global volatility our EM Top Picks posted positive returns again in April and now up 34% YTD on average. As we have been arguing for some time EM Telco is a much better space than it used to be and this is now being reflected by the market it seems.
- Chris Hoare
- Chris Hoare
Global EM Telcos & Towers NSR GEM Top-10 March ‘25 Update: February a...
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.
- Chris Hoare
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 .
- Chris Hoare
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
- Chris Hoare
SK Telecom (Buy, KRW 86,000, +54%) Q4 24 Quick Take: Softer mobile re...
SKT reported softer numbers against consensus, while its net profit benefited from a one-off equity valuation gain. Across its segments, SK Broadband delivered better trends, but mobile service revenue was soft, and EBITDA was impacted by a jump in labour costs. We expect costs to ease and margins to improve as SKT undergoes cost efficiencies and strips out less profitable businesses. Dividend payout was in-line with expectations if excluding the one-offs.
SK Telecom Co Ltd: 1 director
A director at SK Telecom Co Ltd bought 1,000 shares at 54,700.000KRW and the significance rating of the trade was 52/100. Is that information sufficient for you to make an investment decision? This report gives details of those trades and adds context and analysis to them such that you can judge whether these trading decisions are ones worth following. Included in the report is a detailed share price chart which plots discretionary trades by all the company's directors over the last two years ...
- Chris Hoare
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.
- Chris Hoare
South Korean Telcos Outlook 2025: Value-up should be flowing
2024 contained a few surprises for the telcos, with the year starting with “Value-up” and ending with political chaos. Value-up is likely to have the longer lasting effects we think, and as most exposed and with the best strategy, and despite rising 33% in 2024, KT remains our top pick.
- Chris Hoare
Global EM Telcos & Towers Themes and Top picks for 2025
We remain constructive on EM Telcos despite the major stocks generally performing well through 2023 and 2024. As the long telco cycle inflects, and the industry consolidates, conditions still seem ripe for GDP+ revenue growth and rising ROIC we think. In this note, we run through the themes we think investors should follow in 2025. In a separate note, also published today we introduce the NSR EM Telco – Top 8, our top EM picks in the Telco and Towers space.
- Chris Hoare
Global EM Telcos & Towers Introducing the NSR Global EM Telco & Tower...
This note introduces the NSR GEM-Top 8, which will be a regularly updated list of our preferred Telcos and Towers in Global Emerging Markets. In a separate note out today, we run through the key themes that we see driving the EM Telco and Towers sector in 2025
- Chris Hoare
- Chris Hoare
- Chris Hoare
- Chris Hoare
LG Uplus (Buy, TP: KRW 19,000, +71%) New Corporate Value Up Plan, mod...
Yesterday, LG Uplus announced its new Corporate Value Up plan, in conjunction with the appointment of a new CEO in 2025, Hong Bum-Sik who is the company’s current head of corporate strategy. We think the plan is modestly positive but not as transformational as KT’s. Our brief thoughts below.
- Chris Hoare
- Chris Hoare
KT Corp (Buy, TP: KRW 70,000, +68%) Q3 24 Quick Take: Top line impacte...
KT saw weaker service revenue but better headline EBIT and bottom-line growth from a lower base last year. Mobile kept steady and core B2B inflected to growth despite restructuring efforts, service revenue trend was impacted again by weakness in Content and BC Card.
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