With the approval of the 4th telco, all 3 existing telcos (Singtel, M1, Starhub) took a beating in their share prices. I used to hold some Singtel shares (bought at $3.79) but had sold them at a small profit before Standard Chartered's minimum commission kicked in.
With the fundamentals of Singtel remaining more or less the same as before, the reduced price of $3.66 meant that it was now more attractive as a value play. Was actually looking to buy in a few days ago, but decided to see how the trend was going, before committing today with 700 shares @ $3.66.
So, looking at the fundamentals of Singtel, we have:
1) Business earnings is well diversified geographically, if I'm not wrong Singapore only accounts for approx 11% of their earnings, thus the 4th telco is unlikely to affect the earnings much
2) Profit margin of approx 20%, compare with 15% for Starhub and M1
3) Payout ratio of 75%, meaning there's room for dividends to grow or unchanged even if their results should decline (touch wood!)
4) P/E of 15, which is slightly higher than Starhub and M1 at 13 and 11 respectively, however Singtel's P/B is the lowest at 2.3, with Starhub and M1 coming in at 21 (!!!) and 5 respectively.
In essence, the buying of Singtel represents a value buy, given that I was able to buy in at a lower price than previously. Singtel's fundamentals looks to be far and away more resilient than the other 2 incumbents, and I am quite confident that Mr Market will realise this before long.
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