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A 10-year US$ bond with interest of 3.5%, is selling like a "hot-cake" Tongue

Singtel says US$500 million 10-year notes 2.5 times oversubscribed

SINGAPORE (June 24): Singapore Telecommunications said its US$500 million issue of 10 year notes on 23 June 2015 saw strong demand from a wide range of investors.

The order book closed after receiving interest of US$1.25 billion ($1.7 billion) and was 2.5 times oversubscribed by investors.

The notes, which are US$-denominated, will carry a coupon of 3.25% per annum and is drawn down under Singtel Group Treasury's $10 billion Euro Medium Term Note programme guaranteed by Singtel. The notes will mature in 2025.
...
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/sg/article...subscribed
Jelek liao... Singtel Optus being marginalised by hungrier Msian migrant down under...

http://www.smh.com.au/business/why-tpg-t...il299.html

Why TPG Telecom's David Teoh bought iiNet
Date
July 27, 2015

David Ramli
Reporter

When iiNet was born in the suburban Perth garage owned by Michael Malone's parents, the World Wide Web was in its infancy.

It was 1993 and the internet was but a glint in Telstra's eye. Paul Keating, in his victory speech after winning the unwinnable federal election that year, made no mention of our digital future and looked to car manufacturing to stem job losses.

From such depths did iiNet grow – a tiny battler based in distant Western Australia that took on the government-backed might of Telstra. It fought insolvency and naysayers to rise up and become a household name with 1 million subscribers, renowned for serving up the friendliest call centre staff.

The only photo of TPG Telecom's David Teoh we have on file.
The only photo of TPG Telecom's David Teoh we have on file. Photo: Nic Walker
But today its story as an independent player has ended with shareholders accepting a $1.56 billion buyout offer from TPG Telecom and its executive chair, David Teoh. If regulatory approval is provided as expected, iiNet will be little more than a subsidiary that feeds into the growing pool of TPG's profits.

Now that he's finally caught his quarry, what will the reclusive billionaire Teoh do with iiNet?

The most likely answer to the first question comes in three parts: one, using the new customers to help pay for investments in fibre-optic cabling across the nation and beneath the seas; two, preparing for the radical market shift that the $41 billion national broadband network will force on Australia and three, gearing up to make a mobile play – possibly through the acquisition of Vodafone Hutchison Australia.

Owning iiNet has been a long-term goal for Teoh, who has been a major shareholder for several years. He quietly crept up the share registry using a number of different accounts until 2011 when Malone as iiNet's then-CEO broadcast the move to all shareholders.

The merger of iiNet and TPG will give it 1.7 million broadband subscribers. This makes it Australia's second-biggest provider of fixed-line internet services behind Telstra's 3 million accounts and well ahead of Singtel-Optus's 1.03 million.

Milking profits
TPG under Teoh has been a firm believer in infrastructure assets – much to the benefit of its share price and market capitalisation. Australian investors 'get' infrastructure and have lauded the telco's moves to buy rivals with extensive fibre-optic networks including Pipe Networks and AAPT.

But cable networks are sunk assets that must be milked for profitability and the best way to do that is to load them up with paying customers. This partly explains why the company's market cap rose by $1 billion when its iiNet takeover bid was announced.

Telstra still owns and rents out the phone line and internet connection in the vast majority of homes. It's up to telcos to pay for the data carried between Telstra's telephone exchanges and the rest of the world.

iiNet's customers pay a pretty penny for high levels of service and profit margins will improve once their services are delivered over TPG's own fibre cables linked between Telstra exchanges. The same dynamic comes to light with TPG's PPC-1 cable linking Australia to Guam and the United States.

The NBN
The NBN is also an agent of change amongst Australia's telco providers. It has forced Australia's internet market to rapidly shrink as companies with larger balance sheets snap up rivals to survive the rollout.

Simply put, the NBN will be a monopoly player that forces all Australians onto its own services and off Telstra's copper phone-line network. It will also be a wholesale provider that provides a level playing field.

This means the player with the most customers wins. Telcos with more customers can also successfully cross-sell more products such as mobile phone plans, credit cards or even household items like glasses, appliances or healthcare.

And every player wants to have customers locked in when the switch to the NBN comes around to help boost revenues. The takeover also leaves rival M2 Group, which owns Dodo and iPrimus, a distant fourth-placed player in the broadband market.

Buying iiNet also makes TPG a fearsome force the NBN desperately needs in order to turn a profit. TPG can choose to offer low-cost plans over Telstra's older network if it chooses to do so – a move that would have a direct impact on the NBN's earnings.

It will also be able to offer iiNet customers access to a growing network of apartment buildings and offices with fibre-to-the-basement services that use TPG's own networks. This takes high-value customers away from the NBN and hands the profits to TPG and its shareholders.

The mobile play
Finally, the acquisition of iiNet will also make it far more profitable for TPG to buy a mobile service provider with Vodafone Australia the most likely candidate.

TPG would finally become a fully-fledged telco if it owned a mobile network with the ability to offer customers a lucrative bundle package. It already sells mobile products but it only resells services using the Optus network.

TPG has already experimented with 'small cell' technologies that act as small mobile base stations and it was the only non-mobile carrier to buy spectrum in 2013.

Vodafone Australia is not actively looking for buyers and its chief executive Inaki Berroeta has not held discussions with TPG. However, one of its parent companies Vodafone Group has mooted the possibility of selling its Australian operations, which are deemed to be non-core assets.

But a play for Vodafone Australia has one main problem – TPG's inability to get the money required to make an offer.

Neither Vodafone Group nor Hutchison Telecommunications Australia are desperate sellers in need of cash. Vodafone Australia is still losing subscribers but it is on the bounce with revenue and users set to rise over the coming financial periods.

This means TPG will have to either bide its time to generate the cash required to swing a deal or work out a more creative plan. Joint venture partnerships with the parent companies or the introduction of private equity money could all be possibilities.

Legacy
But one way or another, Teoh has established a firm legacy for both himself and TPG with the purchase of iiNet. The all-powerful duopoly of Telstra and Optus in providing broadband to homes across Australia has been broken.

And within a decade there's a high possibility that much of Australia's digital future - the dreams and dollars we transmit around the world across the internet - will be carried over cables owned by TPG or its subsidiaries.
Optus under pressure from lower dollar
THE AUSTRALIAN AUGUST 14, 2015 12:00AM

Supratim Adhikari

Technology Editor
Melbourne

Optus mobile revenue Source: TheAustralian

A weaker Australian dollar will force Singtel-Optus to become more careful about how it spends the $S1.9 billion ($1.8bn) allocated to boost the telco’s presence in Australia over the next year.

Optus CEO Allen Lew told The Australian that the telco would have to be a lot better at optimising its spending as it strove to close the gap on Telstra.

“Our suppliers bill us in US dollars, so the weakening of the Australian dollar means we are going to get less (bang) for our buck unless we find another way of getting greater efficiency from our capital spend,” Mr Lew said.

“The way the currency is going it’s going to give us some challenges, but Optus is all about finding creative ways to optimise our capital spend.”

In May, Optus parent Singtel pledged to pump $S1.9bn into Optus over the next year to increase the footprint of the telco’s mobile network and increase its share of the fixed-line market.

Mr Lew’s comments came as Optus’s net profit increased 20 per cent to $196 million during the three months to June 30. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew 7 per cent to $641m in the quarter, as mobile services revenue rose 5 per cent to $1.21bn.

Meanwhile, operating revenue was up 11 per cent to $2.30bn.

While intense competition in the mobile market has seen Optus lose 47,000 pre-paid handset customers and 45,000 mobile broadband customers in the quarter, Mr Lew said that there was still an opportunity to make some incremental gains in a saturated local market.

That opportunity, according to Mr Lew, comes as telcos increasingly become digital companies — more than just simple carriage providers.

“One of the big reasons why our fixed revenues have grown compared to where they were one year ago is because we bundle broadband with video products like Netflix and Fetch TV,” he said.

“The big opportunity for us is how we come up with a better proposition that enhances connectivity but also has something exciting attached, like video entertainment in the short term and a few other things in the long term.”

Telstra, which delivered a full-year net profit of $4.23bn on Thursday, still holds the edge with regards to network reach, but Mr Lew said Optus was catching up and already reaping the benefits of a broader, more robust network.

“Where we have parity of network with the biggest player in the market we see that our customers are much more engaged with us,” he said.

He added that the launch of WiFi Talk, which allows customers to make and receive calls and text messages over a Wi-Fi connection rather than a cellular network, allowed it to provide a competitive basic mobile voice service that went toe-to-toe with Telstra’s Air service.

The impending entry of tier-three players like Singapore-based internet start-up, MyRepublic, which promises to offer an unlimited 100 megabit per second service priced at $80-$90 per month, is expected to raise the competitive staked for the likes of Telstra, Optus and TPG-iiNet.

However, Mr Lew said that the start-up might find itself fighting for customers in a crowded market.

“These guys coming in here are going to have their hands full, and where we are with Optus we are one step above and beyond,” Mr Lew said.
The HOOQ is growing. It will make a different in Asia pay-TV market, if widespread support from consumers.

(not vested)

INCREASE IN ISSUED AND PAID-UP SHARE CAPITAL OF HOOQ COMPANIES

Singapore Telecommunications Limited (“Singtel”) wishes to announce that its
wholly-owned subsidiary HOOQ Holdings Pte. Ltd. (“HHPL”) has increased its
share capital from S$24,138,287 to S$44,554,007 via the allotment and issue of
20,415,720 ordinary shares at S$1 per share to Singtel.
...
http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/642-sgx....eID=366807
It is indeed a major investment of Singtel, with a price tag of US$770 million. Cyber security is a major concern globally. It has added a significantly wider moat for Singtel, amid the global competition...

(not vested)

Singtel completes Trustwave acquisition at lower price

SINGAPORE (Sept 1): Singapore Telecommunications has completed its purchase of a 98% stake in cyber security firm Trustwave for a lowered price of US$770 million ($1.09 billion).

The acquisition was initially priced at US$810 million, excluding net debt, when the deal was announced in April. Following working capital adjustments at closing, the aggregate consideration was trimmed by US$40 million.

Trustwave chairman and chief executive Robert J McCulen holds the remaining 2% interest in Trustwave.

Singtel shares closed 1.6% lower at $3.74 on Monday.
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/sg/article...ower-price
why singtel drop?
(02-09-2015, 01:03 PM)yeh Wrote: [ -> ]why singtel drop?

wondering the same thing as well
Optus tempts Telstra customers with data plans in time for Apple iPhone launch
DateSeptember 9, 2015 - 12:15AM
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[Image: 1425254652922.png]
David Ramli
Reporter



[Image: 1441721250954.jpg]
Apple's annual iPhone launches are popular enough to be a lightning rod for new and re-contracting customers and those signing new contracts. Photo: Getty Images

Singtel-Optus is increasing its data allowances on two high-end plans in readiness for the likely launch of Apple's iPhone 6s on September 9 in a move that analysts say will crank up pressure on Telstra to boost its offers.
From Wednesday Optus will give customers who are on $100 a month contracts a 12-gigabyte download allowance and 400 minutes of overseas calls. Users spending $135 a month will also have their data caps raised to 20GB – matching a similar offer to Vodafone Hutchison Australia's.
The move is likely to put more pressure on Telstra to launch plans with more generous data allowances in time for Apple's latest smartphone release in an effort to win over customers.
Apple's annual iPhone launches are popular enough to be a lightning rod for new customers and those signing new contracts. By comparison, Telstra mobile customers get 6GB of data for $95 a month and 10GB for $135 a month.
Optus has been fighting to win over Telstra's lucrative mobile customers in an effort to boost profits and revenue. Its mobile marketing vice-president Ben White said its latest plans would be available until the end of December, which covers the crucial Christmas shopping period.
"There are lots of big exciting launches of new handsets across the year but this is obviously one of the bigger ones that we would spend a lot of time getting ready for," he said. "I wouldn't necessarily say the changes we're announcing are specifically geared to this ... potential device launch.
"But we do see growing trends of data usage across our customers ... and the desire for more and more data in plans."
Though Optus has mainly been targeting Telstra, Optus chief executive Allen Lew has specifically pointed to Vodafone Australia's new plans and products as being particularly competitive. But Mr White said his network was better, especially in regional areas.
"We think there are some big points of difference between us and Vodafone and frankly Telstra as well," he said. "Now we have a national 4G network versus the 4G coverage for Vodafone, which obviously is a little more limited at this stage."
Vodafone Australia recently won funding from the federal government's regional black spot project to build 70 extra mobile towers for areas with little to no coverage.
Mr White also said there was no way to tell how much extra customers would have to pay to buy Apple's new iPhones without seeing an official release and price list. Mobile carriers typically charge an extra fee on top of monthly plans to help pay for new devices.
More perks
Another factor that could force Australians to pay more for their smartphones is the fact that the Aussie dollar has fallen by more than 25 per cent in the past 12 months against the US dollar, which has hurt their buying power.
Credit Suisse analyst Fraser McLeish said the Optus move to give more value was part of a trend by mobile providers to give customers more allowances and perks as part of their plans.
"It's a direct function of the increased competitive intensity in the mobile space," he said. "We've seen a lot of promotions on handset prices but plan prices have been stable.
"We don't expect [Apple's new device] to be a huge driver in terms of additional handset sales."
But he said customers were showing a willingness to pay more in exchange for better data allowances, which in turn was helping lift telco revenues.
"The competitive intensity has stepped up and that's why we've seen Telstra react in the way it has and we expect [it] to remain intense going forward," Mr McLeish said.
SingTel's Allen Lew has kept other Australia telecom operators on their toes.   Big Grin

The success story of Singapore strategy, might be able to replicate in Australia...

(not vested)
(09-09-2015, 09:37 AM)CityFarmer Wrote: [ -> ]SingTel's Allen Lew has kept other Australia telecom operators on their toes.   Big Grin

The success story of Singapore strategy, might be able to replicate in Australia...

(not vested)

I have no faith in GLCs as they are always behind the curve... low profile Msian are more hungry and going for major tranformation as oppose to band-aid solutions:
  • Sep 5 2015 at 12:15 AM 
     

  •  Updated Sep 5 2015 at 2:55 PM 
How TPG's David Teoh snared his prey iiNet
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[img=620x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/1/4/3/s/s/l/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gjf51p.png/1441449142470.jpg[/img]
Rob Homer

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by David Ramli
It takes a special kind of businessman to stalk his prey for four long years.
But in a market where money lives quarter to quarter, that's exactly what the reclusive billionaire and TPG Telecom executive chairman, David Teoh, did in his patient hunt for internet service provider iiNet.
In February 2011, as Sydney's skies turned grey with summer rain, Teoh invited iiNet chair Michael Smith and founder Michael Malone to breakfast at the Bambini Wine Room in the city across from Hyde Park.
As they ate among the wood-grained panels beneath a wall of pinot noir, Teoh insisted he was merely an investor chasing a bargain.
[img=620x0]http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/j/f/k/u/l/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1441352807249.png[/img]
In March 2015, four silent years later, Smith's phone buzzed with a second invitation to breakfast. Teoh decided now was time to strike and offered an all-cash deal the chairman felt he couldn't refuse.
TPG's $1.56 billion takeover of iiNet, which was finalised in the Federal Court late last month, has been a gruelling and controversial process amid claims the sale was bungled, and undervalued both the telco and the market – points the company strongly deny.
But what is indisputable is the quiet power skilfully amassed by TPG's Malaysian-born executive chairman in a relatively short time. Between the first fateful breakfast and September 3, TPG's market capitalisation has grown from $1.1 billion to over $7 billion.
One in four of Australia's fixed internet services are run out of his company.


The rise of iiNet
Perth-based iiNet has long been one of corporate Australia's most compelling underdogs, carving a lucrative niche based on high-quality service.
But the national broadband network's structure means national providers must have scale to survive. By 2013 the market had shrunk, with 90 per cent of Australia's fixed-line internet supplied by just five players – Telstra, Singtel-Optus, iiNet, TPG and M2 Group.
There was room for one big merger.

It was July 2014 when M2 approached iiNet about a merger of equals. Over several weeks the boards and bankers of both sides met – Azure Capital for iiNet and Goldman Sachs for M2, which signed a 'standstill' agreement not to buy iiNet shares for 12 months. By August talks were dead. iiNet's board had decided that M2's shares were too high to sustain – something proven wrong by its stable rise since then. Both parties fell back to their Plan Bs.
The fall
For iiNet this meant spending big on IT systems, mobile phones and 60 per cent of home installation provider Tech2 Group.
As a result, in February iiNet missed consensus expectations. Its share price dropped like a rock by 11.1 per cent to $6.41 a share.

Meanwhile in Sydney, TPG stirred.
Little is known about the 60-year-old Teoh, who is rarely found in a suit despite being worth $2.7 billion when combined with the wealth of his wife, Vicky Teoh. Three things are certain: he eschews publicity, is whip-smart across the details of his business, and runs an incredibly low-cost ship.
Teoh never uses bankers, thinking them a waste of money. But in a sign of how seriously he took checkmating iiNet, Teoh called in Macquarie Bank's Darren Keogh when his target's share price dived.
Within a month they had crunched the numbers and worked out a plan.
Moving in
Smith was a mess when TPG rang to arrange a meeting on March 6 – chairman to chairman. Even rarer was Teoh's offer to fly west and meet iiNet in its Subiaco headquarters.
Smith was already in Sydney – coughing his guts out at other board meetings – so they met there instead. Sweating hard beneath the beating sun, he trudged through the cool cavern of Establishment Bar and into the leafy, brick-walled Gin Garden out the back.
But this conversation had a different tinge: Teoh firmly criticised iiNet's decision to buy wholesale services from a rival provider, insisting it was the wrong move. It soon became apparent why.
Teoh produced a three-page letter, passing it over half-eaten poached eggs with toast and coffee. The contents boiled down to a simple message: he wanted to buy iiNet for $1.4 billion in cash, and Smith had a week to consider it before he walked away.
The offer was 30 per cent above the deflated price iiNet was trading at and Teoh emphasised that this was as good as it would get.
Smith thanked his host and walked unto the cacophony of George Street to his Sydney office and scanned the letter, calling Azure's David Flynn and Geoff Rasmussen along the way.
Flynn could barely hear the phone call as he led his son's school group through Perth's zoo. As they stepped between lions and gazelles he tried to work out a strategy – the clock was racing with a week to go.
Phone chatter among the iiNet directors on Friday afternoon was mixed. Some felt Teoh was taking advantage of a momentary lapse in share price and wanted more money.
But all of them eventually came around for two reasons, the first being that the offer was well above the current share price. The second was the implicit threat Teoh posed: he could buy 19.9 per cent of iiNet, which would act as a blocking stake stopping others making a bid.
It's a move most listed companies would avoid, but this was Teoh – a man whose 27 per cent stake in TPG meant just one other shareholder, Washington H Soul Pattinson's Robert Millner, would need to be convinced.
The iiNet board believed Teoh would let their company bleed out before picking up the remains. He was firmly in their heads; it was corporate hardball at its best.
They assembled at 10am at iiNet's Perth HQ. Rather than outing the deal in an effort to drive up the share price or shopping iiNet to rivals, they all agreed with Azure's advice to take the deal.
Azure began talks, trying to change the initial offer, which made it nearly impossible for any rivals to make a counter-bid.
At several points both sides threatened to walk away, but it was clear iiNet had more to lose. One thing iiNet had to insist on was the standstill agreement, which prevented TPG from buying its shares while the deal was backed by the board.
On deadline night both sides burned midnight oil. iiNet assembled its lawyers in Azure's 34th floor office in Perth's Exchange Tower, while TPG's team worked from Macquarie Bank's Sydney monolith.
Smith joined in towards the end, wearing a Hawaiian T-shirt having visited Sculptures by the Sea. Soon after midnight Perth time, and 3am in Sydney, all parties agreed.
Launch day
Hours later Smith and his chief executive David Buckingham, announced the deal to the market. The reaction from shareholders was mixed and some stood aghast at the stringent conditions.
The lack of TPG shares meant investors wanting to stay in the telco sector would be cashed out of iiNet. The provisions prevented iiNet from hawking itself to other potential buyers, lowering the chances of rival bids.
TPG's market cap also flew up by $1 billion after the announcement – a clear sign to some that it had extracted too sweet a bargain.
The biggest surprise for iiNet's board was its founder Malone. He backed it until speaking with customers, employees and other investors before changing his mind – declaring it "incomplete, unprofessional and … poor due diligence".
The counter bidder
M2 found out about TPG's offer through the alert to the ASX and an article in The Australian Financial Review.
Its senior leadership team were perplexed and displeased that they never received any warning that the company was open to a sale. The standstill agreement signed as part of earlier talks had limited its tactical options.
As the shareholder outcry grew to a storm, M2 grew bolder and in April offered an alternative all-scrip offer eventually worth $1.57 billion: iiNet shareholders could keep investing in the telco sector.
But this was a quarry that Teoh had stalked for far too long. On May 5 TPG lodged a $1.56 billion counter bid that was still largely cash with a smattering of its own shares as an olive branch to disgruntled iiNet shareholders.
And once again iiNet's board backed cash over scrip and decided TPG's counter offer was superior.
Race to the finish
It was relatively smooth sailing through to Federal Court approval on August 21.
The economy has tanked thanks to Asian economic woes, proving cash was genuinely more stable – at least in the short term. Azure took the team out for drinks at Perth's Alex Hotel straight from the courts, largely out of relief.
But a glimpse of iiNet's future comes from the fate of its highly respected chief executive, David Buckingham.
On the Friday morning, less than nine days after the merger was finalised, Buckingham got a message that his services were no longer required.
And as for Teoh, the chances are that his next target has already been lined up with long-term plans in play. He's a special kind of businessman.