Hutchison Port to raise $5.4 bn in Singapore listing
Hutchison Port Holdings Trust is reportedly planning to raise US$5.4 billion in a Singapore listing, making it the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in Southeast Asia.
Owned by tycoon Li Ka-shing, the trust will own port assets in Hong Kong and mainland China under Li’s Hutchison Whampoa.
Cornerstone investors include Capital Research & Management, Paulson & Co and Lone Pine Capital who will invest US$634 million, US$350 million and US$186 million in the IPO, respectively.
The last offering of this scale in Singapore was Singapore Telecommunications, which raised US$4 billion in 1993. Hutchison, which also operates the Watson’s drugstore chain as well property and telecom assets, is listing its port assets in Singapore because trusts cannot be listed in Hong Kong.
Singtel prices $600 mln notes at 4.5% (Singapore)
Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has announced that it has priced its $600 million 10.5-year notes at 4.5%, with the offering more than three times oversubscribed.
The note is part of the company’s $7.85 billion Euro Medium Term Note programme and will be used for general corporate purposes, including repayment of SingTel’s maturing debts.
BNP Paribas, HSBC and Morgan Stanley acted as joint lead managers and bookrunners while Australia’s ANZ was co-manager.
Singtel’s profit rises due to regional businesses, Bharti, Optus (Singapore)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Due to the increase in the revenue at the regional businesses and the Optus unit in Australia, the fourth quarter profit of Southeast Asia’s largest phone company, Singapore Telecommunications Ltd rose 12 percent. Revenues from mobile division units of SingTel including Bharti Airtel Ltd. and PT Telekomunikasi Selular also contributed to the fourth straight quarter of profit growth of the company.
Singtel’s earnings increased by 12 percent to S$546 million, courtesy the performance of its regional mobile units. Indonesia’s largest mobile-phone company, Telkomsel’s earning surged 26 percent to S$205 million on revenue growth from an increased customer base and currency movements. 8.6 percent rise in earnings to S$245 million has also been posted by Bharti Airtel. Globe Telecom Inc., SingTel’s Philippine unit, posted a 23 percent decline in profit to S$61 million. Earnings from Advanced Info Service Pcl, Thailand’s biggest mobile-phone rose 4.6 percent to S$53 million.
According to Chief Executive Officer Chua Sock Koong, it’s too early to determine the impact on earnings of a proposal by India’s telecommunications regulator to impose a fee on operators such as Bharti.
Net income of the company gained to S$1.02 billion ($740 million), full-year profit rose 13 percent to S$3.91 billion, revenue rose 25 percent to S$4.46 billion and it had 293 million mobile-phone customers at the end of the quarter, or 17 percent more than a year earlier. The fourth-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were little changed at S$579 million in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, the company is targeting new Australian subscribers through its mio TV service, with broadcasts of World Cup soccer matches starting next month. As SingTel spent more to attract mobile-phone customers and add new content to mio TV, the division’s profit margin dropped 4.5 percentage points to 35.3 percent. Witnessing a strongest mobile-phone customer growth in five years, Sydney-based Optus income rose 5 percent to A$610 million ($545 million).
SingTel reports rise in regional customer base (Singapore)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The regional mobile customer base of Southeast Asia’s largest telecoms group by revenues, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) reached 293 million by the end of March 2010, recording an increase of 17%, or 43 million, year-on-year.
In the net additions, more than eight million were accrued in the December-March period. Maximum growth was encountered in the associate companies that are operating in Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand.
SingTel to invest in Telkom’s infrastructure unit (Indonesia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has expressed its interest in making investments an infrastructure unit of Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) if foreign investments in telecommunications infrastructure sector are allowed by the government. Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel) has been eyed by SingTel.
Five sectors including telecommunications infrastructure sector has been opened for foreign investments from March. 54 telecommunications towers are operated by Mitratel in West Java, Riau, Kalimantan and Batam. SingTel and Telkom are currently in talks about transferring ownership of 30,000 towers from Telkom’s mobile unit Telkomsel to Mitratel.
35 percent stake in Telkomsel is held by SingTel with Telkom holding the remainder. Transfer some 2,000 towers has also been planned by Telkom. However, the Indonesian Telecommunication Society (Mastel) has called on the government to cancel the plan to open the telecommunications sector to foreign investment.
Bharti might sell shares to SingTel (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Shares of Bharti Airtel might be sold to Singapore Telecommunications by the operator to partly fund its purchase of Zain’s African assets and avoid taking on too much debt.
According to SingTel, it is premature to talk about funding as the transaction is subject to ongoing discussions, due diligence and customary regulatory approvals and as a strategic investor, the company has significant governance and shareholder rights besides having involvement in key decisions, including major investments.
Bharti Airtel is in exclusive talks to buy most of the African assets of Kuwaiti telecoms firm Zain for $9 billion.
Optus to acquire Qualcomm’s 3G spectrum (Australia)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In order to have more capacity to meet strong demand for data services, further third generation mobile spectrum will be bought by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. unit Optus from Qualcomm Inc.
Licenses of 10 MHz of paired spectrum will be acquired by Optus under the deals which in turn will double its 2100 MHz paired spectrum holdings in Australian capital cities to 20 MHz from 10 MHz.
The new 3G spectrum will be used to support retail and wholesale customer demand for Optus’ increasing range of data services. The deal is subject to approval from Australia’s Foreign Investments Review Board and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
According to Andrew Buay, managing director of Optus Products and Delivery, it is very important that Government finalize three major spectrum policy decisions which will shape the future of the mobile industry in Australia, that is the allocation of the digital dividend for mobile broadband services; the allocation of 2.5 GHz spectrum for mobile broadband services; and greater certainty regarding the cost and timing of the renewal of expiring 3G spectrum licenses
Singapore’s StarHub Q4 net profit drops by 15.1%
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 15.1% drop in the net profit has been recorded by Singapore telecommunications firm StarHub Ltd in its fourth quarter due to higher cost of equipment as the operator launched Apple’s iPhone in December. The net profit lowered from S$87.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 to S$74.2 million in 2009. The service revenue of the firm rose 1% to S$2.06 billion.
A dividend of five Singapore cents per share for the fourth quarter has also been declared by StarHub.
According to StarHub Chief Executive Neil Montefiore, considering the competitive landscape and slow economy, they have delivered a stable FY2009 result, with all their lines of business performing as expected.
SingTel plans to float Optus share as Australian IPO
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: With an aim to raise about A$4 billion, 25% stake of Australian unit Optus is planned to be sold by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd through an initial public offering in Australia. Southeast Asia’s largest telecommunications firm by revenue, Singtel, acquired Optus in 2001 through a bid valuing the Australian telecommunications firm at A$17 billion.
Though Optus is a cash cow for SingTel, 23.0% loss was incurred in the second fiscal quarter compared with 23.2% at the same time a year earlier. The company revenue was 27.8% in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year ended March 31.
The pressure will further intensify with the entry of Vodafone Hutchison in the Australian market. In order to deal with the rising competition, the operator is set to create a cash war-chest for acquisitions and expansion in markets outside Australia and Singapore.
According to Singtel, it is evaluating investment opportunities in China and is also interested in taking a stake in Vietnam’s MobiFone.
Singtel will join ZTE for Long Term Evolution trials (Philippines)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: For carrying out Long Term Evolution (LTE) trials in the Philippines, ZTE Corp, a Chinese equipment vendor has planned to work with Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) affiliate, Globe Telecom.
The intention behind the tie up is to develop strategic management of the network as well as long-term planning for LTE network infrastructure projects. A trail will be conducted in the early 2010 for six to nine month in order to assess market demand for broadband access services.
Earlier, SingTel announced it wanted to conduct regional trials of LTE technology in Australia, Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore in collaboration with Telkomsel, Optus, and Globe Telecom. Through this step the company hopes its regional partners and joint ventures will better understand the approach and strategy behind the adoption of LTE in the regional markets.
The trail also aims at wide range of scenarios, including different urban environments and frequency bands.
