RIVAL telcos have already turned in their latest results -- with Singtel posting its lowest annual profits in 16 years on Wednesday - but someone was missing from the party.

M1, now that it' s delisted, is no longer obliged to unveil its first-quarter numbers for the three months to March 31.

But there are reasons to believe that post-delisting, the company - which used to be Singapore' s smallest listed telco - will enjoy synergies from tie-ups with the various units in the Keppel group under its new, upgraded ownership.

M1' s new status followed a successful joint offer by Keppel andSingapore Press Holdings, which has a minority interest in the venture.

 

 

Recently appointed M1 chief executive Manjot Singh Mann, who took over during the buyout bid, has dropped a few hints about his plans.

 

 

" We are in the process of understanding our strategic moves and transformation at this point in time and addressing every part of the business, cost being one of them," he told Keppel' s earnings briefing in April.

But " increasing focus on (the) enterprise segment" will be a strategic thrust for M1, Keppel has said.

M1 already enjoys sway with customers - its final full-year results put its mobile market share at about 23.3 per cent as at Dec 31, 2018, although that includes Circles.Life subscribers.

Keppel has touted " the complementarity of consumer offerings in connectivity and energy" , citing M1' s 2.2 million users, Keppel Electric' s 100,000 retail customers and City Gas' 800,000 household consumers.

Yet M1 previously seemed overshadowed in the enterprise space, with chief technical officer Denis Seek telling BT last year that M1 preferred tie-ups (" We actually partner the best of breed" ) to acquisitions or in-house development.

That was in spite of efforts such as last December' s deal with Jurong Port to set up a wireless private network supporting " smart port" technologies like wearable devices and drones.

Now, Keppel has touted synergies between M1 and Keppel Urban Solutions on " smart city applications" , to say nothing of " optimising resources and utilities" - something that M1 has already been doing through a " smart meter" project with Keppel Electric.

DBS analyst Sachin Mittal predicted on Monday that Singtel' s domestic enterprise business will stay under pressure in the next year, on slower growth in Smart Nation orders and " pricing pressure from StarHub, which continues to expand its cyber security portfolio aggressively" .

Market leader Singtel could eventually find itself hemmed in on both sides - facing competition in infocomm technology contracts, from a newly resurgent M1, as well as cyber security from StarHub-Temasek joint venture Ensign InfoSecurity.

Keppel has also said that it is looking at " harnessing data for master development and retail properties in Singapore and overseas" . This may take a leaf out of StarHub' s playbook, as Ensign' s joint-venture centre of excellence with IronNet Cybersecurity, unveiled in March, plans on doing the same with metadata from StarHub.

Such opportunities sit adjacent to, and seem aligned with, Keppel' s re-invention of itself as an urban solutions provider - whether in real estate, which made up 23.5 per cent of its latest quarterly top line, or in infrastructure, which accounted for 46 per cent.

But even Keppel' s legacy offshore and marine business could benefit, as the M1 Jurong Port project suggests. Keppel Offshore & Marine is working to develop an " autonomous tug" - a self-driving boat - by end-2020, and has said that it will tap M1 connectivity for ship-to-shore communication and other maritime functions.

In the telecom market' s war of attrition, new fronts keep opening up. Going private may have been the shot in the arm that M1 needed: With Keppel as its majority backer, Singapore' s smallest telco could finally have the resources to go on the offence.