Category: SingTel
SingTel – CNA
SingTel says Optus notes over-subscribed
Telco SingTel says its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary, Optus, has sold a US$500 million 10-year bond issue.
It says the sale was five times over-subscribed and was made through its unit, Optus Finance, to institutional investors in Asia and Europe.
The notes are denominated in US dollars and carry a semi-annual coupon of 4.625 percent per annum.
SingTel says the note issue follows a successful roadshow in Asia in early October, where it saw extremely strong investor response.
It adds that the bond issue forms part of Optus’ long-term financing strategy, extending the maturity profile of Optus’ debt and adds diversity to its debt structure.
The telco also says the money will be used by Optus for general corporate purposes.
SingTel – BT
SingTel explains share price fall
It could be due to Bharti price drop over competition concern, ASX told
SINGAPORE Telecommunications (SingTel) shares may have fallen victim to investor concerns that heightened competition in India’s telecommunications sector could dent the earnings of Bharti Airtel, its largest overseas associate.
Responding to a query from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), SingTel said yesterday: ‘The price change in the securities of the company . . . may be attributable to the fall in Bharti Airtel Ltd’s share price over the last two days on Oct 5 and 6, 2009, possibly in response to news of increased competition in the Indian mobile telecommunications market.’
In its query earlier yesterday, ASX said: ‘We have noted a change in the price of the company’s securities from a close of A$2.63 yesterday to a low of A$2.45 at the time of writing today.’
In Singapore, SingTel shares fell six Singapore cents yesterday to S$3.06.
SingTel has a 30 per cent stake in Bharti, the biggest revenue contributor among the group’s six overseas associates. The Indian telco accounted for 24 per cent of SingTel’s underlying post-tax profits in the first quarter.
To stall new market entrants, Reliance Communications (India’s second- largest wireless operator after Bharti) slashed its long-distance and roaming tariffs on Monday by as much as 50 per cent. Market watchers fear the aggressive cuts could spark a bruising war between Reliance and rivals such as Bharti and third-placed Idea Cellular.
‘Wireless stocks (in India) have fallen 15-20 per cent on heightened concerns on pricing,’ according to Citigroup Investment Research.
‘Assuming that Bharti is forced to retaliate, its average revenue per minute could decline approximately 20 per cent in the next one year, offsetting an estimated 25 per cent subscriber growth and 10 per cent usage growth in FY 2010,’ said DBS Vickers analyst Sachin Mittal in his research note.
With the collapse of its US$24 billion merger plan with South Africa’s MTN Group last week, Bharti is under more pressure to perform locally. The failure of the Bharti-MTN talks also meant that SingTel, which was expected to pump in money to retain its Bharti stake, has been starved of major foreign acquisitions for nearly two years.
Bharti CEO Manoj Kohli said in a Dow Jones report that the company would not respond to its rival’s price cuts and that he was still on the lookout for overseas opportunities. Indian dailies suggested Sri Lankan telco Millicom as a possible target.
SingTel – Phillip
Won the rights for Barclays Premier League
Rights for Barclays Premier League (BPL). SingTel announced that it had won the bid for the rights to BPL matches for a period of three years beginning August 2010. SingTel had beaten StarHub for the rights and the amount of the bid was not disclosed.
Impact from the win. We expect the revenue contribution from mioTV to increase significantly from FY2010. This is because we anticipate a large number of BPL fans to switch from StarHub’s cable TV to SingTel’s mioTV in 2010. In fact, we are projecting mioTV revenue of S$89m, S$295m and S$335m for FY2010F, FY2011F and FY2012F respectively. As SingTel will not charge more than the existing payment by StarHub customers for BPL matches and it paid a higher bid for the rights, we anticipate that it is likely to suffer a loss from offering BPL matches. However, we expect SingTel to benefit by gaining new customers from the offer of bundled mobile, Pay TV and broadband services to customers.
Merger between Bharti and MTN. Moreover, SingTel’s 30.4% owned associate, Bharti, announced that the merger between Bharti and MTN was not accepted by the South African government. This meant that SingTel’s interest in Bharti would not be diluted.
Maintain BUY recommendation and target price at S$3.80. Although SingTel paid a high price for the rights to BPL matches, it is likely to gain from strengthening its position as the number one telecommunications provider in Singapore. Furthermore, we expect SingTel and its regional mobile associates to benefit from the recovery in the global economy and report higher revenue and profit. Therefore, we maintain our buy recommendation and target price at S$3.80.
SingTel, StarHub – BT
Fledgling mio stuns StarHub, bags EPL rights
Major coup for SingTel, which also gets ESPN to cross over
Singapore Telecommunications outbid StarHub to scoop up the exclusive broadcast rights for the next three seasons of the English Premier League (EPL). To complete its crushing victory, SingTel also managed to wipe out the bulk of StarHub’s sports programming by convincing anchor tenant ESPN Stars Sports to defect.
Singapore’s largest operator yesterday announced that it has won the sole right to screen EPL matches here across its mio TV, Internet and mobile platforms from 2010 to 2013.
The unexpected victory dispels previous speculation of a possible joint SingTel-StarHub bid to cap the escalating costs of scoring the world’s most-watched soccer league.
‘We looked at the joint bid scenario and decided it’s not ideal for Singaporeans. Some matches will have to be split,’ said SingTel Singapore CEO Allen Lew.
‘We see this (EPL) as game changing for mio TV. There are significant (subscriber) numbers that we can expect from this,’ he told reporters at a media briefing yesterday.
Incumbent StarHub was widely-tipped by market watchers to retain its EPL crown, the star attraction of its sports content line-up for more than half a decade. Its CEO Terry Clontz was equally confident of landing another victory ahead of the recent auction for the 2010-2013 campaign.
‘We should be able to retain the rights. If we don’t, I may have to opt for an early retirement,’ he said during the operator’s second-quarter results teleconference in August. When the hammer eventually fell last night, SingTel won with the higher bid.
‘While we are committed to offering quality sports content, we are mindful of the balance in meeting consumers’ expectations with regard to price, and shareholders’ expectations in terms of profits. Presently our sports package is priced below the cost of the content that makes up that package,’ StarHub’s head of content Kathleen Syron said in a statement after SingTel’s EPL announcement.
‘Our bid for EPL was aggressive, but also made with the intent to hold retail prices stable,’ she added.
SingTel declined to reveal the price it will be paying for the coveted football league but BT understands the cost could be between $150 million and $300 million and not the $400 million predicted by some market analysts.
‘This is definitely a very big shakeup for both SingTel and StarHub,’ said OCBC research analyst Carey Wong.
‘We believe that SingTel’s EPL bid price was so attractive that Premier League decided to award the EPL rights in the first round itself rather than proceeding to the second round,’ DBS Vickers analyst Sachin Mittal added.
‘We can fund this from our cash flows. It’s not as high as some people think,’ Mr Lew said, adding that pricing details for the EPL will only be announced ahead of next season’s kick-off in August 2010.
‘But I can confirm that Singaporeans will not be charged more than what they are paying today on cable TV,’ he stressed.
StarHub customers currently pay around $52 for their football fix. This includes monthly subscription to the firm’s basic tier, as well as the $26.75 it charges for a group of sports offerings which include Football Channel (for screening live EPL games), SuperSports, ESPN and Star Sports.
Besides losing its EPL rights yesterday, StarHub was dealt a second blow as the claim to three of these sports channels has also gone to rival SingTel.
This is the result of an exclusive, three-year content deal between SingTel and ESPN Star Sports.
A total of seven ESPN channels will make their debut on SingTel’s mio TV service progressively over the coming year. These include three that are currently on StarHub – ESPN, Star Sports and Star Cricket – and a new channel called ESPNews.
With the ESPN pact, SingTel will lay claim to additional sporting events including the Formula One, the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open Golf Championship on top of its EPL, UEFA Champions League and Italian Serie A soccer programming.
‘Content is key. We decided that sports will be the content that we would brand ourselves with,’ SingTel’s Mr Lew explained.
SingTel shares rose five cents yesterday to close at $3.27, while StarHub slumped 14 cents to close at $2.03.
SingTel – BT
Will SingTel keep its word on not charging consumers more?
BARELY 60 hours after telco giants StarHub and SingTel braced themselves for battle, it was the latter that had its arm raised as it secured the prized exclusive rights to air English Premier League matches from next August.
Many football fans were caught off-guard by the speedy conclusion of the bidding war as SingTel announced its victory early yesterday morning. Up until then, the possibility of an alliance between the two rivals was still being discussed. Fans were also busy weighing their options should one or the other, or even both, win the bid to screen ‘live’ games from the world’s most popular football league for the next three seasons.
As the dust settles, to say that many are finding themselves in a tricky spot is an understatement. Signing up with both telcos would be the most ideal as it would give the complete package of all the different sports and other channels as well, but at what cost to the wallet?
Bear this in mind, though: SingTel also surprisingly announced that it had bagged the ESPN Star Sports channels, which include other key offerings such as the FA Cup, Formula One, the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open Golf Championship.
The message from SingTel is clear: From next year, everyone who wants to watch the vast majority of sports will have to sign up for mioTV.
Perhaps crucially, SingTel chief executive Allan Lew promised in a statement yesterday that consumers would not be charged ‘more than what they are currently paying to their cable TV operator’, while still enjoying the convenience of SingTel’s integrated mobile, Internet and mioTV platform.
But there are many other factors to consider before one chooses to jump ship. First, there is the group who has only just signed a fresh two-year contract with StarHub primarily because of the sports channels. They now face the prospect of being football-less next year unless they sign up with SingTel too, as they are unable to break their StarHub contract due to hefty penalties.
There is another catch. Those who want to subscribe to mioTV must have a SingTel fixed line installed in their home. This would be a problem for those who have terminated their lines in recent years, preferring to use their mobile phones to communicate instead. Subscribing to a fresh fixed line for the sake of mioTV would mean paying extra for installation and monthly charges.
While SingTel claims that it has 95 per cent of residential areas covered already, it has to work faster in wiring up the rest of the country – including pubs and coffeeshops and other nightspots – to win over as many customers as possible.
Currently, the estate where I live in in the West is not mioTV-ready yet, which means I can’t even enjoy the Champions League this season. The only way to catch the games is on my computer via SingTel’s Football Frenzy offering, which would cost $156 a year.
Netizens, meanwhile, are all abuzz at the revelation that they might have to subscribe to both pay-TV operators. Forgoing StarHub would mean not being able to watch news channels such as BBC or CNN, entertainment stations such as Star World or AXN and premium movie channels such as HBO.
Clearly, SingTel is now putting all its eggs in one basket and banking on sports to win over a still-sceptical public. All eyes will now be on whether it remains true to its word that consumers won’t have to pay more to watch sports than what they are currently forking out now.