Author: kktan
SingTel – BT
Bharti Q2 profit falls 26.6%
Bharti Airtel’s profit slid in the latest quarter as India’s largest mobile phone company lost market share and cut call rates amid hyper-competition in its fast-growing home market.
Net profit for the July- September quarter was 16.6 billion rupees (S$482.2 million), down 26.6 per cent from a year earlier, the company said yesterday.
Revenue grew 47 per cent from the year before to 152.2 billion rupees, including 38.9 billion rupees from its first full quarter of operations in Africa. India and South Asia revenue grew 9.2 per cent.
Bharti’s market share in India slid to 20.8 per cent from 23.4 per cent a year earlier, and rates per minute dropped 21 per cent to 0.44 rupees.
A poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters had forecast net profit of 16.7 billion rupees and revenue of 151.6 billion rupees.
Bharti said it plans to start rolling out high-speed 3G services in India this quarter. — AP
SingTel – BT
Bharti Q2 profit falls 26.6%
Bharti Airtel’s profit slid in the latest quarter as India’s largest mobile phone company lost market share and cut call rates amid hyper-competition in its fast-growing home market.
Net profit for the July- September quarter was 16.6 billion rupees (S$482.2 million), down 26.6 per cent from a year earlier, the company said yesterday.
Revenue grew 47 per cent from the year before to 152.2 billion rupees, including 38.9 billion rupees from its first full quarter of operations in Africa. India and South Asia revenue grew 9.2 per cent.
Bharti’s market share in India slid to 20.8 per cent from 23.4 per cent a year earlier, and rates per minute dropped 21 per cent to 0.44 rupees.
A poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters had forecast net profit of 16.7 billion rupees and revenue of 151.6 billion rupees.
Bharti said it plans to start rolling out high-speed 3G services in India this quarter. — AP
STEng – BT
ST Engg unit secures $160m SAF contracts
ST Engineering’s land systems arm ST Kinetics yesterday said that it has secured $160 million worth of contracts from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
The two four-year contracts are for the maintenance of SAF’s vehicles and the preservation of SAF’s fleet of equipment. Both commence immediately and the preservation contract comes with an option for a two-year extension.
ST Engineering said that the contracts are not expected to have any material impact on its FY2010 financials.
ST Kinetics’ Q3 results, announced along with the rest of the ST Engineering group on Tuesday, showed a slight increase in net profit to $22.7 million.
Turnover grew 28 per cent to $373 million from $291 million in Q3 2009, mainly due to higher project deliveries from its automotive division as well as more than doubled sales from its services, trading & others division.
Automotive turnover rose 37 per cent to $270 million for the quarter and is still ST Kinetics’ main business. But an unfavourable product mix from the segment resulted in lower profits in Q3.
Its munitions & weapon business group saw revenue fall 11 per cent to $70 million and these lower sales, coupled with foreign exchange losses, drove profits down too.
STEng – BT
ST Engg unit secures $160m SAF contracts
ST Engineering’s land systems arm ST Kinetics yesterday said that it has secured $160 million worth of contracts from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
The two four-year contracts are for the maintenance of SAF’s vehicles and the preservation of SAF’s fleet of equipment. Both commence immediately and the preservation contract comes with an option for a two-year extension.
ST Engineering said that the contracts are not expected to have any material impact on its FY2010 financials.
ST Kinetics’ Q3 results, announced along with the rest of the ST Engineering group on Tuesday, showed a slight increase in net profit to $22.7 million.
Turnover grew 28 per cent to $373 million from $291 million in Q3 2009, mainly due to higher project deliveries from its automotive division as well as more than doubled sales from its services, trading & others division.
Automotive turnover rose 37 per cent to $270 million for the quarter and is still ST Kinetics’ main business. But an unfavourable product mix from the segment resulted in lower profits in Q3.
Its munitions & weapon business group saw revenue fall 11 per cent to $70 million and these lower sales, coupled with foreign exchange losses, drove profits down too.
StarHub – DMG
Back into the game
Better 3Q10. Starhub reported 3Q10 core earnings of SGD82m (-4% y-o-y/+41% q-o-q), bringing its 9MFY10 core earnings to SGD183m – 70% of our estimate and 72% of consensus. As expected, the slower pace of earnings in 1HFY10 was made up for by the stronger traction in 3Q10 amid lower content cost after cessation of the BPL rights and World Cup spending, which had crimped 2Q10 EBITDA. 3Q10 revenue rose 3% y-o-y/-3% q-o-q, driven mainly by stronger data revenue from smartphone usage. An in line 5 cents/share quarterly DPS has been declared, with a cumulative DPS of 15 cents/share on track to meet recurring guidance of 20 cents/share (excluding potential special payouts).
EBITDA margin back to ‘pre-BPL crisis levels’ as content cost falls. 3QFY10 EBITDA surged 22% q-o-q (+0.1% y-o-y) on: (i) sharply lower content cost, as reflected in the sharp decline in the cost of services line (-10.1% y-o-y/-28% q-o-q), and (ii) the 22% q-o-q fall in marketing cost (iPhone essentially sells itself). This brought about a 6.4%-pt rise in sequential EBITDA margin, translating into a 9MFY10 EBITDA margin of 26.9%, which was within management’s guidance and our expectations.
The worst is over for pay-TV; churn to normalize in 4Q10. Pay-TV subs contracted 4k in 3Q10 vs a flat 3Q10 as more sports subscribers churned post BPL/World Cup. This contributed to the 13% drop in ARPU, dragging pay-TV revenue down 16% q-o-q. The fall was nevertheless lower than the 48% reduction in Sports group subscription price (SGD12/mth), indicating that the bulk of its pay-TV subs have opted for dual set-top boxes. Management believes the worst is behind the company with churns normalizing further in 4Q10.
NGNBN still not meaningful. Management echoed earlier comments made by M1 on teething issues afflicting the NGNBN rollout. Starhub does not appear to be perturbed by potential competition from the individual Opcos being set up by Singtel and M1 to offer retail services on the NGNBN as it benefits from significant government grants.