SingTel – Lim and Tan
• Net profit fell 6.7% in Q2 ended Sept’10 to $892 mln, as the decline in associates contributions (largely financing costs relating to the mega African acquisition by 32% owned Bharti of India) could not be offset by better performance in Singapore and Australia (benefitting from a strong A$).
• There will likely be some disappointment, but not likely, in our opinion, to be severe.
• Fact is, investors have not, for some time now, reacted too enthusiastically to the past rosy contributions from associates, as more came to realize the greater significance of cash flow from these associates than share of their accounting profits.
• Likely to pacify shareholders, management has raised the dividend policy to 55-70% of underlying profit from 45-60% previously.
• Interim dividend has therefore been raised by almost 10% to 6.8 cents per share, representing 59% of $1.834 bln underlying profit for the first half). Assuming unchanged final of 8 cents, that’s a 4.6% yield, thus qualifying Sing Tel as a quasi-bond.
• Boring is still likely the most appropriate description for Sing Tel. We are therefore maintaining HOLD / LONG TERM BUY call.
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.