Author: tfwee
SPAusNet – BT
MELBOURNE – Victims of Australia's deadly 2009 firestorm have launched legal action against a Singapore power firm alleging poorly-maintained electrical wires sparked the blaze, reports said on Saturday.
Lawyers representing almost 600 people lodged a class action in Victoria's Supreme Court against Singapore Power for allegedly failing to maintain an ageing line, which fell and started the Feb 7 fire at Kilmore East.
It was the deadliest blaze of 'Black Saturday', Australia's worst natural disaster, claiming 119 of the 173 lives lost. Legal firm Maurice Blackburn said the suit could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
'We have heard strong evidence at the Royal Commission (into the fires) that Singapore Power could have taken a number of steps to prevent the devastating Kilmore East-Kinglake bushfire,' firm chairman Bernard Murphy told The Age newspaper.
'Electricity distribution companies are commercial enterprises that have a responsibility to ensure that public safety is not compromised simply in order to keep costs down. Singapore Power's failures have had very tragic consequences.'
The action currently has 598 plaintiffs but could grow to as many as 1,300, including people who lost family members in the fire, suffered physical injuries and lost property, or had ongoing psychological damage, The Age said.
It will allege Singapore Power failed to fit a A$10 (US$8.70) anti-vibration device to guard against metal fatigue and that the circuit-breaker system was not adequate for a dry, windy, fire-prone area.
The 1.1-kilometre single-strand line, one of the longest in Victoria, was only checked every five years and rust and wire deterioration could not be detected by ground crews, the case will also claim.
Unusually for an Australian civil case, Maurice Blackburn has asked that it be decided by a jury instead of a judge.
The Black Saturday fires rushed into small communities with little warning, killing 173 residents as they sheltered in their homes, or fled in cars. Entire towns were razed, reducing more than 2,000 homes to ash. — AFP
Telecom – OCBC
Likely muted World Cup demand
Likely muted World Cup demand. The month-long 2010 World Cup campaign kicked off in South Africa last Friday. As a recap, both SingTel and StarHub have managed to secure the broadcast rights for all 64 matches of the month-long 2010 World Cup event in South Africa; this was done via two separate non-exclusive contracts after their earlier joint bids were repeatedly rejected by FIFA. However, various media reports suggest that the take-up rate for the subscription packages could be muted. For example, a quick poll done by The StraitsTimes just a day before the kick off found that only 37 among the 625 HDB households (6% take-up rate) it surveyed had signed up for the package – the high pricing of the packages was given as one of the stumbling blocks.
Pricing may be the sticking point for home viewers. As mentioned previously in our May report, we believed that the higher pricing of S$88 before GST (nearly 4x more expensive than the 2006 World Cup) would be a sticking point for home viewers. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the charges make Singapore one of the most expensive places to watch the World Cup. We noted that the packages were also higher than our back-of-the-envelope calculation of around S$40.Conversely, a dip in the take-up from home viewers could see better response from the business segment, as F&B establishments use the "live" telecasts to attract viewers who are not subscribing for the event. Assuming that the telcos paid a total of S$20m for the rights and that the average subscription price is S$70/subscriber, the telcos would probably need to sell 280k packages to break even (before advertising revenue).
WC costs felt in 2Q and 3Q. In any case, we expect to see higher content costs being booked in the second and third quarters, leading to slightly depressed margins for both SingTel and StarHub. However, if the take-up rate comes in worst than expected, we note that there is a risk of seeing further margin compression. On the other hand, we see M1 Ltd emerging as a better bet (at least in the near term) as it is not going to face this risk of a World Cup disappointment in the coming two quarters. That said, we continue to like the telcos for their defensive earnings and high dividend yields, especially in the increasingly volatile market. Maintain OVERWEIGHT.
SMRT – SGX
DISPOSAL OF 50% SHAREHOLDING INTEREST IN TRANSIT LINK PTE LTD
SMRT Corporation Ltd (“SMRT”) wishes to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, SMRT Trains Ltd, has today completed the disposal of its 50% shareholding interest in the issued and paid-up share capital of Transit Link Pte Ltd (“Transit Link”) to the Land Transport Authority (“LTA”) for a cash consideration based on 50% of the audited net asset value of Transit Link as at 31 March 2010 (“Audited NAV”), being the amount of $1,731,446. The Audited NAV of Transit Link is in the amount of $3,462,892. Transit Link will thus cease to be an associated company of SMRT.
Transit Link is a Transit Acquirer for the public transport fare collection system. As the LTA has been assigned to take on the role of Transit Acquirer by the Minister for Transport, it has been mutually agreed that the sale of Transit Link to the LTA would serve the interests of all parties involved.
The above disposal is not expected to have any material impact on the net tangible assets per share and earnings per share of SMRT for the year ending 31 March 2011.
None of the Directors of SMRT has an interest, direct or indirect, in the above transaction. As far as the Directors are aware, no controlling shareholder of SMRT has an interest, direct or indirect, in the above transaction.
M1 – BT
M1 Limited posted a 6 per cent year-on-year decline in net profit for Q1 2010, from $41.9 million to $39.3 million.
Excluding the tax adjustment that had boosted Q1 2009's bottom line, M1's net profit for Q1 2010 saw an increase of about 8 per cent.
Revenue for the quarter increased 33.6 per cent from $186.4 million to $249 million.
Earnings per share for the quarter fell 6.4 per cent to 4.4 cents.
Starhub – SGX
Telecommunications ‐ StarHub's (STH SP) long‐term shareholder MediaCorp has distributed its remaining 128m shares in StarHub to Temasek Holdings as payment in lieu of a cash interim dividend for the financial year ended March 31, 2010. With the distribution of the dividend in specie, which represents around 7.5% of StarHub's issued share capital, the broadcaster is no longer a StarHub shareholder.
Temasek Holdings has in turn sold the new StarHub shares to Aranda Investments, a wholly‐owned subsidiary of Temasek Capital unit Seletar Investments, at $2.29 apiece.