SINGAPORE (June 3): Phillip Capital is maintaining an “overweight” rating on Singapore’s telecom sector, while expecting Mobile and Pay-TV revenues to be weak in 2019 and stabilise in 2020.
The research house’s top picks are Singtel and NetLink NBN Trust.
Phillip Capital likes Singtel for its recovering regional associates and has upgraded its call on Singtel to “buy” with a target price of $3.66.
SINGAPORE (May 27): The wireless fifth generation (5G) network has more to offer than just cellular communication for smartphones, and many telecommunication players are exploring what else it can enable, according to StarHub chief technology officer Chong Siew Loong.
“When 3GPP (the Third Generation Partnership Project) started working on defining the 5G network, one thing they were very clear about was that 5G cannot be serving smartphone devices only,” he tells The Edge in an interview at the Invest Asia 2019 conference in Singapore, which was organised by Maybank.
SINGAPORE (May 6): Consensus are mostly neutral on StarHub following its results announcement on May 3. The group posted a 14.2% y-o-y drop in its 1Q19 earnings, with revenue increasing 6% y-o-y to $597 million.
The revenue increase was mainly driven by strong segmental revenue contributions from network solutions (+9%) and cyber security services (+41%), which mitigated 5% and 12% lower service revenues from the mobile and Pay TV businesses, respectively.
SINGAPORE (May 4): The STI’s uptrend remains intact. However signs are emerging of fatigue. The index tested 3,400, a psychological resistance and retreated. In the meantime, short term stochastics has flattened along with 21-day RSI, setting the indicators up for forming a negative divergence between indicators and the index.
SINGAPORE (Apr 1): Maybank Kim Eng Research remains “neutral” on the Singapore telco sector amid uncertainty over the implication for competition in the industry with M1’s imminent de-listing.
The research house believes StarHub provides the best value and Netlink NBN Trust offers insulation from uncertainty in the wireless segment.
Maybank has “buy” calls on both StarHub and Netlink, with target prices of 93 cents and $2.18, respectively.
SINGAPORE (Mar 15): OCBC Investment Research is maintaining “neutral” on Singapore’s telco sector in the wake of the 4QCY18 reporting season, which saw StarHub and M1 results come in within expectations, while that of Singtel’s was slig
SINGAPORE (Feb 18): Huawei Technologies Co and the 5G, or fifth-generation, mobile network has been grabbing headlines. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo is reported to have warned European countries that using technology from Huawei could harm their relationship with the US. In Singapore, M1 and Huawei have been in 5G trials together. If M1 is privatised, the spotlight is likely to fall on telecommunications companies such as StarHub and Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel).
SINGAPORE (Feb 15): The Straits Times Index moved above its 200-day moving average at 3,223 on Feb 15. The earlier break above 3,190 indicates a target for 3,420. In the near term, resistance appears at 3,308. Support and the fail safe level is at 3.190 below which the upside is no longer valid. Volume moved up modestly and could be insufficient to sustain a protracted rally.
SINGAPORE (Feb 14): StarHub reported a 61.8% drop in 4Q18 earnings to $19.8 million from $51.8 million in 4Q17.
This brings FY18 earnings to $201.5 million, 26.2% lower than $273.0 million in FY17.
As of FY19, the group says it intends to adopt a new variable dividend policy and pay-out at least 80% of net profit attributable to shareholders, adjusted for one off, non-recurring items, as dividend.
As part of the transition to the new dividend policy, the group intends to pay a dividend of at least 9 cents per share for FY19, at a rate of 2.25 cents per quarter.
SINGAPORE (Feb 7): Maybank Kim Eng is keeping “neutral” on Singapore’s telco sector on the belief that incumbent telcos have an edge in terms of subscriber in retention amid a “proliferation of new MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators)” as well as new mobile network operator TPG Telecom.
This comes post the research house’s survey of 150 telcos subscribers, out of which 81% said they stuck to their providers for more than 24 months.
