Singapore's third-largest mobile phone operator MobileOne Ltd (M1) posted a 12% rise in quarterly profit on April 18, as cost cuts helped to offset 3G network depreciation charges. M1, in which Telekom Malaysia Bhd holds a 29.84% stake, reiterated its forecast for single-digit growth in earnings for calendar year 2006. The operator earned S$45 million (RM102.9 million) net profit for the three months ended March 31, compared with S$40.1 milion announced in the year-ago quarter. "While revenue remained stable, we have managed to achieve reasonable profit growth for the quarter by continuing to focus on margins and the bottom line," chief executive Neil Montefiore said in a statement. M1 posted an operating revenue of S$189.5 million for the quarter, unchanged from the same period last year. It began commercial third-generation (3G) mobile services last February. M1 competes with market leader Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel) and StarHub Ltd in the city-state's saturated mobile market, where more than nine out of 10 people own a handset. The operator had a total of 1.28 million customers as at March 31, up 29,000 from the end of 2005. M1 is seen as a low-growth, high-yield stock because it is primarily focussed on the domestic market. In contrast, market leader SingTel has spent about S$17 billion in the last four years buying operators in high-growth Asian nations with fewer cellphone users, and in the bigger Australian market, to counter the saturated domestic operations. Second-ranked StarHub has also said it holds no regional expansion ambitions, but has bundled its broadband offerings and cable TV services together with its mobile operations to drive subscriber and earnings growth. M1 is seen posting a consensus mean net profit of S$168.9 million for the year to December 2006, according to 19 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. M1 shares rose about 11% in the January-March quarter. - Reuters
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