Why SingTel losing the Myanmar telco bid is actually a good thing

It has very low penetration levels.

According to Nomura, SingTel missed out on the Myanmar license where QTel and Telenor were announced as successful applicants.

The licenses will likely be issued in September this year and services be rolled out in 2014.

Here's more from Nomura:

Given SingTel’s strong regional presence, it was considered one of the preferred candidates by many observers; but Myanmar, although appealing on a long term basis given very low current penetration levels etc, would have also encountered many challenges in the near term given it is largely a green-field operation.

This would have required significant capital commitment upfront too – peak capex could even be USD2-3bn before it is self funding.

This would not have materially impacted SingTel strong financial capacity, but now without it, there is potential for sustained increase in dividends or specials, we think.

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