Month: August 2010
ComfortDelgro – Phillip
Ridership update
• Bus ridership for June grew 4.8% y-y, YTD:2.4%
• Rail ridership continues to grow strongly in June, 9.8% y-y
• Purchase of Swan taxis Limited for A$38.8m (S$46.8m)
• Downgrade to Hold with a fair value estimate of S$1.73(unchanged)
2Q10 Results preview
We are forecasting revenue for 2Q10 to come in S$800.5m, operating profit of S$72.5m and net profit of S$46.4m. Operating expenses will likely remain high this year with the higher oil price and labour costs. CDG will be releasing their 2Q10 results on 13.08.10 after the market closes.
Both bus and rail ridership grew for the first 6 months
Bus ridership continues to grow modestly 4.8% y-y in June and 2.4% y-y for the first half of 2010. However we are likely to see some erosion of bus ridership from the opening of circle line which opened in July. We are forecasting bus ridership to grow 1% for the whole year to 838 million trips from 830 million trips. Rail ridership continues to impress in June growing 9.8% y-y, bringing year to date growth to 12.8%. Public transport are seeing better growth numbers this year mainly due to the sky high prices of COEs and increased connectivity of public transport.
Purchase of Swan taxis Limited for A$38.8m (S$46.8m)
Swan Taxis Limited, the largest provider of taxi services in the Perth metropolitan market with 1,667 taxis (91% market share). Based on the FY09 results, revenue was A$13.3m and profit before tax of A$4.6m which is about 0.5% of CDG’s total revenue (FY09). The purchase will strengthen its presence in Australia but contribution to its top and bottomline will be marginal.
Valuation and Recommendation
Since our Buy recommendation on 4th June 2010 (S$1.41), CDG has rose 12.1% to S$1.58. Based on our stock selection system, we are downgrading our buy recommendation to Hold and maintaining our fair value estimate of S$1.73. We believe that the UK’s taxi segment, which serves the corporate segment will likely pick up this year as most of the British banks are starting to turn profitable.
SingTel – BT
Boost for SingTel’s mobile subscriber base
Its regional mobile subscribers up 34% y-o-y in Q2
A SUBSCRIBER boom at overseas associates Bharti and Telkomsel helped lift Singapore Telecommunications’ regional mobile subscriber base to 351 million in the second quarter, up 34 per cent from a year ago.
For the three months ended June 30, the company’s largest overseas associate Bharti added 74.6 million customers from the same period in 2009 to bring its mobile base to 177 million.
This was helped by the addition of 36.4 million customers in Africa after Bharti had successfully acquired MTN’s mobile operations across 15 African markets during the quarter.
SingTel’s Indonesian associate Telkomsel also turned in a strong quarter with its subscriber tally climbing 16 per cent from last year to 88.3 million.
Telkomsel added 6.4 million mobile customers in Q2, a marked improvement from a mere 307,000 in the preceding quarter.
Thailand’s AIS also saw a year-on-year improvement with its mobile base growing 8 per cent to 30 million in the second quarter.
Bangladesh’s PBTL on the other hand, added 33,000 more subscribers from 2009 to bring its tally to nearly two million.
However, customer numbers waned across SingTel’s remaining overseas associates Globe and Warid.
In the Philippines, Globe saw its mobile base shrink 2 per cent year-on-year to 24.6 million in Q2. Warid’s subscriber tally fell 5 per cent to 16.9 million.
SingTel’s Australian subsidiary Optus added 190,000 mobile users in Q2 to lift its base to 8.7 million.
On the home front, SingTel added 122,000 more cellular subscribers from last year as customers continue to lap up newfangled smartphones from handset makers such as Apple, Samsung and HTC.
The firm continues to lead the local mobile market with 3.11 million subscribers in the second quarter.
SingTel – BT
Boost for SingTel’s mobile subscriber base
Its regional mobile subscribers up 34% y-o-y in Q2
A SUBSCRIBER boom at overseas associates Bharti and Telkomsel helped lift Singapore Telecommunications’ regional mobile subscriber base to 351 million in the second quarter, up 34 per cent from a year ago.
For the three months ended June 30, the company’s largest overseas associate Bharti added 74.6 million customers from the same period in 2009 to bring its mobile base to 177 million.
This was helped by the addition of 36.4 million customers in Africa after Bharti had successfully acquired MTN’s mobile operations across 15 African markets during the quarter.
SingTel’s Indonesian associate Telkomsel also turned in a strong quarter with its subscriber tally climbing 16 per cent from last year to 88.3 million.
Telkomsel added 6.4 million mobile customers in Q2, a marked improvement from a mere 307,000 in the preceding quarter.
Thailand’s AIS also saw a year-on-year improvement with its mobile base growing 8 per cent to 30 million in the second quarter.
Bangladesh’s PBTL on the other hand, added 33,000 more subscribers from 2009 to bring its tally to nearly two million.
However, customer numbers waned across SingTel’s remaining overseas associates Globe and Warid.
In the Philippines, Globe saw its mobile base shrink 2 per cent year-on-year to 24.6 million in Q2. Warid’s subscriber tally fell 5 per cent to 16.9 million.
SingTel’s Australian subsidiary Optus added 190,000 mobile users in Q2 to lift its base to 8.7 million.
On the home front, SingTel added 122,000 more cellular subscribers from last year as customers continue to lap up newfangled smartphones from handset makers such as Apple, Samsung and HTC.
The firm continues to lead the local mobile market with 3.11 million subscribers in the second quarter.
SingTel – BT
Bharti outlook better as price war recedes
(NEW DELHI) The focus for Bharti Airtel will be to maintain profit margins as a vicious price war recedes, after India’s top telecoms firm reported that quarterly profits fell by a third.
Facing tough competition in a crowded home market, Bharti, an associate of Singapore Telecommunications, is betting on opportunities in Africa, where the mobile penetration level at 32 per cent is less than India’s 54 per cent and there are fewer competitors.
Bharti’s results included its new African operations, which were on its balance sheet for only 23 days in the quarter ended June. Bharti acquired the business from Kuwaiti telecoms group Zain for US$9 billion in June and became the world’s fifth-biggest mobile operator.
After call prices in India tumbled to as low as 0.4 US cents a minute – with most of the price declines taking place in the second half of 2009 – there were no big price cuts in April-June.
Bharti’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin was 36.9 per cent in April-June, compared with 41.3 per cent a year ago.
Bharti said that net profit fell to 16.82 billion rupees (S$490 million) under international accounting standards for its first quarter ended June, from 24.75 billion rupees a year ago.
Derivatives and exchange fluctuations led to a loss of 2.16 billion rupees as the US dollar strengthened. Bharti had a forex gain of 2.79 billion rupees a year ago. Total revenue rose to 122.31 billion rupees from 104.14 billion rupees. — Reuters
SingTel – BT
Bharti outlook better as price war recedes
(NEW DELHI) The focus for Bharti Airtel will be to maintain profit margins as a vicious price war recedes, after India’s top telecoms firm reported that quarterly profits fell by a third.
Facing tough competition in a crowded home market, Bharti, an associate of Singapore Telecommunications, is betting on opportunities in Africa, where the mobile penetration level at 32 per cent is less than India’s 54 per cent and there are fewer competitors.
Bharti’s results included its new African operations, which were on its balance sheet for only 23 days in the quarter ended June. Bharti acquired the business from Kuwaiti telecoms group Zain for US$9 billion in June and became the world’s fifth-biggest mobile operator.
After call prices in India tumbled to as low as 0.4 US cents a minute – with most of the price declines taking place in the second half of 2009 – there were no big price cuts in April-June.
Bharti’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin was 36.9 per cent in April-June, compared with 41.3 per cent a year ago.
Bharti said that net profit fell to 16.82 billion rupees (S$490 million) under international accounting standards for its first quarter ended June, from 24.75 billion rupees a year ago.
Derivatives and exchange fluctuations led to a loss of 2.16 billion rupees as the US dollar strengthened. Bharti had a forex gain of 2.79 billion rupees a year ago. Total revenue rose to 122.31 billion rupees from 104.14 billion rupees. — Reuters