Analyst is also upbeat about the company&rsquo s dividend outlook

 

MAYBANK Securities has lifted its target price on Singtel : Z74 +0.36% by 5 per cent to S$3.40 from S$3.24, after its associate, Bharti Airtel, said last week that it would raise mobile prices across various plans.

 

On Monday (Jul 1), analyst Hussaini Saifee said the new target price could be attributed mainly to a higher valuation of Singtel&rsquo s 29 per cent-owned associate, Bharti Airtel.

 

He expects the price hike of 10 to 21 per cent to raise Bharti&rsquo s India mobile revenues by 7 to 9 per cent for the fiscal year 2025 to FY2027. This projection came after the analyst factored in a price elasticity of 60 per cent and assumed a nine-month impact for FY2025.

 

He also projects that Bharti&rsquo s India mobile earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) will rise 7 to 10 per cent in FY2025 to FY2027, after assuming a 60 per cent pass-through impact of higher revenues on Ebitda.

 

Given the potential improvements in top line and Ebitda, and after accounting for a 25 per cent corporate tax rate, the analyst estimates Bharti&rsquo s earnings to increase 28 billion rupees (S$452 million) to 42 billion rupees in FY2025 to FY2027.

 

Additionally, he also highlighted that the price hikes in Bharti&rsquo s mobile plans could raise Singtel&rsquo s earnings. Hence, he lifted the company&rsquo s FY2025 to FY2027 earnings estimates by 4 to 8 per cent.

 

&ldquo Although Bharti does not pay meaningful dividends, we think Singtel can raise its dividends in line with the lift in earnings helped by past and potentially a future small stake divestment in Bharti Airtel,&rdquo he added.

 

He also noted that Singtel&rsquo s plan to recycle S$6 billion of capital in the medium term could &ldquo partly come from a small Bharti Airtel stake sale&rdquo .

 

Noting an &ldquo all-round operational turnaround&rdquo and &ldquo multiple catalysts on the horizon&rdquo , the analyst reiterated his &ldquo buy&rdquo call on the counter.

Telco also lowers total greenhouse gas emissions by 30.8 per cent

 

SINGTEL chief executive officer Yuen Kuan Moon earned S$3.3 million for the year ended Mar 31, a slight dip of 2.9 per cent from FY2023&rsquo s total pay of S$3.4 million, according to the telco&rsquo s annual report released on Monday (Jul 1).

 

This comes as Singtel reported a 64 per cent fall in FY2024 net profit to S$795 million, on the back of a S$1.47 billion exceptional loss arising from impairment charges on goodwill and the fixed network assets of Australian unit Optus&rsquo enterprise business. Underlying net profit was up 10.1 per cent to S$2.3 billion.

 

Yuen&rsquo s FY2024 remuneration comprised a S$1.3 million salary, S$1.9 million cash bonus and S$76,384 in benefits, which include car benefits, medical cover and club membership.

 

His FY2023 pay package had also included a S$1.3 million salary component, but came with a S$2 million variable bonus and S$77,321 in benefits.

 

Singtel said that under Yuen, &ldquo the group has sharpened its business focus, made significant operational improvements and executed a proven capital recycling programme to build a strong foundation to move to its next phase of growth&rdquo .

 

Separately, Singtel disclosed that its chairman Lee Theng Kiat requested to receive and was paid $960,000 in chairman&rsquo s fees for FY2024, lower than the all-in chairman&rsquo s fee of $1.15 million. Lee has also requested to receive the lower fee of S$960,000 for FY2025.

 

In a message to shareholders, Yuen and Lee said that the company is now focused on its &ldquo Singtel28&rdquo strategy to lift business performance and embark on smart capital management.

 

The telco had already unlocked S$8 billion over the past three years through capital recycling, and has identified a further pipeline of S$6 billion in monetisable assets.

 

It is also delving into new revenue streams such as GPU-as-a-Service, a cloud-based solution that offers access to graphics processing units on demand.

 

Singtel noted that it had merged both the consumer and enterprise units in both Singtel Singapore and Optus to drive synergies, make cost improvements and boost competitiveness.

 

The company&rsquo s IT business NCS and data centre arm Nxera have also been expanding into the region. In the regional associate markets, Singtel has integrated the fixed broadband business IndiHome with Telkomsel in Indonesia and Internet provider 3BB with AIS in Thailand.

 

Sustainability updates

Singtel also provided updates on its sustainability strategy on Monday, in line with its 2045 goal to hit net-zero emissions.

 

In FY2024, the company lowered its total greenhouse gas emissions by 30.8 per cent to three million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).

 

Scope 1 and 2 emissions &ndash which represent direct emissions and emissions associated with electricity respectively &ndash fell by 7.1 per cent to 409,120 tCO2e. Compared to Singtel&rsquo s 2015 baseline, this marks a 25.9 per cent reduction.

 

Singtel &ldquo made strides to switch out internal combustion engine vehicles to lower-emission vehicles (that are) either electric or hybrid&rdquo , the company said. This contributed to a decrease in emissions from mobile fuel combustion in Singapore and Australia.

 

That said, Singtel&rsquo s Scope 1 and 2 emissions in Singapore were up 1.9 per cent, after incorporating the retirement of 26,000 local renewable energy certificates.

 

Singapore operations saw an increase in Scope 2 emissions, due to higher consumption of electricity across the board and the increase of the national grid emission factor, Singtel said.

 

Over in Australia, Optus saw electricity consumption rise 0.7 per cent, amid more data transmission. The increase was mitigated by its efforts to decommission legacy infrastructure and switch to energy-efficient radios and baseband units

 

Singtel&rsquo s Scope 3 emissions, which arise from its value chain, fell 33.5 per cent to 2.5 million tCO2e, with emissions coming from investments reduced by 10.6 per cent.

 

&ldquo This year, we continued to improve our accounting method by increasing the use of supplier-specific emission factors and applying hybrid methods to a wider data set, which resulted in significant emissions reduction,&rdquo the company said.

 

Singtel has set targets to reduce 55 per cent of its absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions and 40 per cent of Scope 3 emissions by 2030, using FY2023 as the base year.

 

&ldquo It has always been a priority for Singtel to manage climate-related and other emerging risks while ensuring that our business remains resilient and sustainable,&rdquo said Yuen and Lee in the sustainability report.

 

In the past year, Singtel has added over 1,000 kWp of onsite solar energy generation capacity in facilities, such as its Singapore data centre DC West.

 

It has also contracted over 1,200GWh of renewable energy power purchase agreements from 2025 to 2033 for Singapore and Australia, and will continue to pursue more of such agreements.

 

Singtel is &ldquo on track&rdquo to meet climate disclosure requirements issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board, Yuen and Lee added. The new reporting requirements will be mandatory in Singapore and Australia for the telco&rsquo s FY2026 reporting year.

 

The company has also met the performance targets for its sustainability-linked loans and bonds for FY2024.