Macquarie predicts SingTel will beat peers in telco industry

Thanks to better India and Africa markets.

According to Macquarie, SingTel remains its preferred play for its strong domestic operations coupled with upside form an improved outlook out of India and Africa. It also adds, data pricing should be a key theme in the Singapore telecoms market for 2013. 

Here's more:

New tiered data plans introduced from mid-2012 are finally set to tie rising mobile data usage with telco revenues. In the fixed market, the NextGeneration National Broadband Network (NG NBN) appears to have overcome some initial teething rollout issues.

While the threat in the corporate segment has always been on SingTel, the incumbent appears to have taken steps to defend this lucrative market.

Meanwhile in the residential segment, risks appear to be building for StarHub, especially as SingTel has secured the BPL rights for the 2013-2016 season in a clever way retaining quasi exclusivity, for which StarHub would have to sacrifice cashflows/earnings and potentially dividends to gain access to.

We see StarHub‟s yield upside as limited under these circumstances while SingTel remains our preferred play for its strong domestic operations coupled with upside form an improved outlook out of India and Africa.