Thursday, November 01, 2012

Reliance Communications Ltd: (EGoM) meet might bring in surprise
Reliance Communications Ltd informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on November 08, 2012, inter alia, to consider and approve the unaudited Financial Results for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2012 (Q2). The results according to my sources will be along the expected lines or may be a tad better. Reliance Communications Ltd in September, 2012 hiked its base rate for local calls by 25% in the telecom zones of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. The move will help improve top line revenue and operative margins per user.
Reliance Infratel and Reliance Digital TV comes  under Reliance Communications. In case of Reliance Digital TV, rigorous program management framework for capex and opex cost efficiencies has been undertaken. 
Reliance Digital TV (DTH) has 4.4 Mn. subscriber as of June 30th, 2012. Industry’s 1st offerings of its kind - All the 250 channels are in High Definition like quality. Settop box and Content are being mooted. Digital viewing experience will create revolution in TV entertainment platforms. On the other hand Reliance Infratel, has huge potential of value unlocking for Reliance Communication shareholders. Reliance Communications has a presence in 24,000 Towns and 600,000 Villages of India. It has one of the largest retail distribution network in the industry. Distribution Wireless Business & Reach:
  • 900 exclusive flagship retail showrooms on High streets/Malls with world class design & layout,
  • High quality reach & national footprint through 5,000 distributors & over 1 mn retailers,
  • Over 20,000 full-time direct & indirect sales force to cater to corporate and retail customers,
  • Dimensioned to handle over 35 mn sales transactions annually,
  • Tie-up with leading bank ATMs to provide Any Time Recharge (ATR)
Moreover, Reliance Communications Ltd, has signed marquee partnership with Google on Android to drive data usage on mobile devices. At present it is doing several S&D initiatives to expand data distribution reach. 
It has also, tied-up with Samsung, HTC & LG for ten new smartphones and one tablet. Reliance Communications Ltd, continues to maintain stable & healthy RPM since the last 10 quarters despite intense pricing pressure. It is able to maintain a revenue growth with stable margins in hyper-competitive environment. Reliance Communications Ltd is among Top 15 largest international long distance carrier with over 15 billion minutes of traffic. It has 2.5 million retail customers in 14 countries. It is the world’s largest private submarine cable system owner and capacity provider. It is a leading NLD Infrastructure provider in India. It is among Top 11 Managed Services providers in the U.S. and Europe (Gartner Report March 2010). It is amongst Top 10 Data Centers in the world and # 1 in India (in terms of Saleable space). It caters to 2.5 million retail customers in 14 countries and 380 corporates have contracted these services in 3 continents. It has 1.25 million broadband customers in India. 
It has scalable and proven infrastructure and capabilities are in place, which targets to scale up the business. It has 60,000+ managed sites with reach in 160 countries and territories. It has Metro Ethernet connectivity across 26 Metros outside India. It is the biggest Data Center player in India with more than 550,000 sq ft of space. It has 18 (9 India; 9 Outside India) Data Centers across the globe with more than 550,000 sq ft of facilities space. It is expanding capacity to cater to fast growing demand. 
It  has over 200 customers based on strong long term relationships with over 70% repeat orders; particularly strong in Asia, the Middle East and India. It is Among Top 5 Managed Network Service providers with over 200 global corporate customers. 
It is among the Top 6 Global Ethernet Service providers with over 1,200 customers in US alone; # 1 or # 2 service provider to world’s top exchanges including CME, NYSE, NASDAQ; Serve 850 of top 1000 enterprises in India.  It has over 2.5 million retail customers in 14 countries including U.S, Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, Canada, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria and India. 
Triggers:
(i) Peak investment phase over: RCOM continues to be free cash flow positive. This trend is likely to continue in succeeding years.
(ii) Financials are at inflection point as GSM and 3G momentum scales up.
(iii) Besides wireless, massive opportunity exists in expansion of Enterprise / IDC and newer segments including DTH.
(iv) Potential for unlocking shareholder value at subsidiary level (Infratel, Global Enterprise, DTH.
This is expected to give Reliance Communications Ltd, the much needed, stable business performance with significant free cash flow generation which is expected to place RCOM in a much stronger financial position in the coming months.
Therefore I find that at Rs.54.85, the scrip is nowhere near the target price of around Rs.120--130