Starcomms

[zainabusman]

Originally Posted by nosa2

your conviction towards this company is almost swaying my opinion about it. Over the short period that i have been on this forum i've learnt to know whose opinions i can trust and who is just too short term for my liking now i would have shared your believe on the viability of this company but i have just one problem and its that you dont have any stock in this company? is it that your waiting for the stock to drop further or what? i would like to know

This stock will continue to drop. Nigerians have no appetite for loss making companies. If u really want to buy it u should watch carefully. If u can get it at N1 or less ur risk will be lower than buying at N2.

Japaul just declared a poor result, so did airlines services. They have been dropping. So imagine the fate of starcomms with a loss last year and in Q1 this year.

[Babs_O]

Originally Posted by zainabusman

This stock will continue to drop. Nigerians have no appetite for loss making companies. If u really want to buy it u should watch carefully. If u can get it at N1 or less ur risk will be lower than buying at N2.

Japaul just declared a poor result, so did airlines services. They have been dropping. So imagine the fate of starcomms with a loss last year and in Q1 this year.

Should be better at N1.0 and even best at N0.50
I will keep it on my watch list.
My first strike will be at N 1.0

[knightofdelta]

Originally Posted by nosa2

your conviction towards this company is almost swaying my opinion about it. Over the short period that i have been on this forum i've learnt to know whose opinions i can trust and who is just too short term for my liking now i would have shared your believe on the viability of this company but i have just one problem and its that you dont have any stock in this company? is it that your waiting for the stock to drop further or what? i would like to know

Right now, I am not a long term investor because the market has not started making sense to me yet. The policy makers are just going around from pillar to post making decisions and reversing them in the next breathe. Frankly I have no confidence in the market right now.

Like Zain said, Starcomms is likely to keep falling and its volatility is not in doubt as I can confirm that there are people who have large amounts of this stock and if they decide to offload, it can become catastrophic.

When the market stabilizes and our dear NSE and SEC stop bumbling all over the place, Starcomms is going to be on top of my priority list. But for now, no. Even if it drops to 50K I will not buy because NSE may come tomorrow and tell us that the 50K floor has been removed and I also have other things to do with my money.

But I will reiterate that fundamentally Starcomms is a good company, I am not just sure about the stock yet.

[hispy99]

Originally Posted by knightofdelta

I agree that Starcomms is gradually shifting attention to data. I got an EVDO two weeks ago from them and that sparked a sudden interest in my office. A cycle could just start there because I wonder why these people that have been in Lagos for ages did not know something like that existed.

Where is your office that they have not heard of Starcomm's EVDO? in the bush?

[hispy99]

Originally Posted by zainabusman

I wish somebody will give me a CFO job!

Easy, you are now the CFO of SMN. Chief Forum Officer.

Please contact EIC for your job duties and responsibilities.

[zainabusman]

Originally Posted by hispy99

Easy, you are now the CFO of SMN. Chief Forum Officer.

Please contact EIC for your job duties and responsibilities.

I laugh......

[tonidol]

Originally Posted by zainabusman

I laugh......

Zain, don't you like the position, it comes with presidential jet o!!!

[wanaj0]

KOD, dont even talk of corporate governance with Starcomms. They promised that there will be no listing for 3 years!!!!

You can't have a dollar denominated loan and be keeping Naira that is losing value everyday? That's what almost killed WAPCo and they had to raise funds from the Capital market to repay and restructure the foreign loan. See what exchange rate losses have cost them.

Cash ablance reduced in Q1 2009. What did they do with the money? Expansion or what?

If I have to buy stocks now, Starcomms will not be on my shopping spree.

[knightofdelta]

Originally Posted by wanaj0

KOD, dont even talk of corporate governance with Starcomms. They promised that there will be no listing for 3 years!!!!

You can't have a dollar denominated loan and be keeping Naira that is losing value everyday? That's what almost killed WAPCo and they had to raise funds from the Capital market to repay and restructure the foreign loan. See what exchange rate losses have cost them.

Cash ablance reduced in Q1 2009. What did they do with the money? Expansion or what?

If I have to buy stocks now, Starcomms will not be on my shopping spree.

Opening your books wide for the public and calling them for a review of your performance and allowing them to fire you with questions is the beginning of sound corporate governance. It was not an AGM, that is usually orchestrated and taken to the farthest parts of the country so few people can attend but in the middle of Lagos and analysts were called to come and scrutinize their performance. That singular act is enough to sway me.

A brief calculation. The figures show interests, exchange differences and financing cost of N4.0 billion with liabilities less accruals and taxation of N33.9 billion in 2008 and N18.5 billion in 2007 with an average of N26.2 billion. That gives a before tax cost of debt 15.3%. Now please note that this interest cost is inclusive of exchange rate losses. Where in Nigeria will they be able to get before tax loans of less than 20%?

In their disclosures, they said the focus of their business in 2008 was for capital expenditure and drive for new customers. This is inline with keeping huge cash balances in the telecoms industry. The increase in subscriber base of almost 100% during this period means that the strategy was largely successful. They also stressed that their business focus in 2009 will be less in expansion as they are going into only 9 cities in Nigeria and they want to work towards profitability. This is also in line with the reduction in cash balances for the first quarter of 2009.

For a business that has been able to declare a good operating profitability in view of the cut throat competition in the industry but yet feel the need to incorporate non-operating profitability and also boost the present operating profitability means that the management knows what it is doing.

I will reiterate Starcomms is sound as a company but the stock is not interesting given the present capital market conditions but any discerning investor will keep an eye on it.

[zainabusman]

Originally Posted by knightofdelta

----------------------------
I will reiterate Starcomms is sound as a company but the stock is not interesting given the present capital market conditions but any discerning investor will keep an eye on it.

The key issue is that it is not interesting at the moment.

Whether it is a sound company, we will know in due course.

[BigJay01]

I'll keep buying on the bad news. Already bought 50K units at about N2. I believe in them. I love their level of disclosure. I blv there is nothing to hide.

[hispy99]

UPDATE 2-Forex pushes Nigeria's Starcomms to 2008 net loss
Fri Apr 17, 2009 9:42am GMT

UPDATE 2-Forex pushes Nigeria's Starcomms to 2008 net loss | News by Country | Reuters

[yemo]

Originally Posted by eniyanman

The only thing they improved was operating expenses. Nothing significant.

Personally, I don't know how Starcomms will cope this year without raising significant debt or equity.

My sentiments exactly.

Originally Posted by knightofdelta

Everybody has differing views about this company ...

...I do not have a stake in this company but I am encouraged by their attitude.

I liked their style when they were innovative about mobile broadband data services when other providers never even had it on their vision roadmap. I believe they made these other companies scramble to reposition themselves (certainly Multilinks), even the GSM providers suddenly realised that mobile broadband data was key . [They are also the only provider that I can even access in my village at Xmas! :-) ]

Originally Posted by knightofdelta

...In their disclosures, they said the focus of their business in 2008 was for capital expenditure and drive for new customers. This is inline with keeping huge cash balances in the telecoms industry. The increase in subscriber base of almost 100% during this period means that the strategy was largely successful. They also stressed that their business focus in 2009 will be less in expansion as they are going into only 9 cities in Nigeria and they want to work towards profitability. This is also in line with the reduction in cash balances for the first quarter of 2009.

For a business that has been able to declare a good operating profitability in view of the cut throat competition in the industry but yet feel the need to incorporate non-operating profitability and also boost the present operating profitability means that the management knows what it is doing.

I will reiterate Starcomms is sound as a company but the stock is not interesting given the present capital market conditions but any discerning investor will keep an eye on it.

As I said, I believe that they gained a lot for their innovative approach to mobile data services, and that it was this that fuelled both the desire for an expansion in infrastructure and increase in subscriber base.

However since then a number of other providers have also entered the mobile/wireless data services market, and this list of newcomers also include non- CDMA companies (ie satellite companies) who, funningly enough, were probably inspired by the demand seen for Starcomms and other providers broadband data services. I guess it was this observation that fuelled my initial scepticism about their future performance since its fast becoming a "crowded market" for both CDMA voice AND mobile/wireless broadband.

Originally Posted by Babs_O

Should be better at N1.0 and even best at N0.50
I will keep it on my watch list.
My first strike will be at N 1.0

30 Day Price/Vol

[hispy99]

The Punch: Starcomms offers 100% money back package

[Gengen]

Originally Posted by hispy99

Starcomms offers 100% money back package
By Agency Reporter
Published: Tuesday, 28 Apr 2009

TELECOMMUNICATIONS operator, Starcomms Plc, is offering its subscribers who purchase the Starcomms’ Cordless (Huawei ETS 8521), fixed wireless phone this season, full money back within a period of six months.....

The Punch: Starcomms offers 100% money back package

I have looked at various marketing strategies of Starcomms, including this one. Their marketing strategy has always been very aggressive. This can only pay off in the long term.

However, is the Nigerian economy, (especially the Telecommunications sector), suitable for long time strategy? Will policies not suddenly change overnight? (E.g. Exchange rate, concessions for local companies, lending rates, etc.)

Time will tell and I wish them all the best.

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by hispy99

Starcomms offers 100% money back package
By Agency Reporter
Published: Tuesday, 28 Apr 2009

TELECOMMUNICATIONS operator, Starcomms Plc, is offering its subscribers who purchase the Starcomms’ Cordless (Huawei ETS 8521), fixed wireless phone this season, full money back within a period of six months.

...

Upon buying the cordless phone, the customer gets N1000 free Starcomms-to-Starcomms calls every month for six months with the usage of a minimum N500 per month, and this would give the subscriber free N6,000 on net airtime within the six months.

Additionally, the customers would also be entitled to earn off-net free talk time worth N250 per month for six months totaling N1,500 within the first six months of activation, while the subscriber would have earned back all the initial amount of N7500 paid for the phone with diligent usage of just N500 per month.

...
The Punch: Starcomms offers 100% money back package

O God... I thought they said they were putting a stop to all these bonanza!!!

[hispy99]

Originally Posted by Taipan

O God... I thought they said they were putting a stop to all these bonanza!!!

That's what I thought too....

[knightofdelta]

Originally Posted by Taipan

O God... I thought they said they were putting a stop to all these bonanza!!!

Now I am wondering where the profitability they talked about is going to come from when they are still doing things that will reduce profit margins.

[savvy]

Originally Posted by knightofdelta

Now I am wondering where the profitability they talked about is going to come from when they are still doing things that will reduce profit margins.

Its called competition..
Also as I read the article, my gut feeling suggests they do have a good backbone which would lead to greater profitablility for them to come out to make this guarantee..(sorry for those folks who prefer hard evidence)

Visafone, Zoom, MultilinksTelcom.. I even think with proper marketing they can secure a greater market share..the Nigerian market is not even penetrated in terms of broad band services and PTO's..

Where are the experts please shed more light

[hispy99]

The Punch: Starcomms rolls out data service in Maiduguri, Ibadan, others