I cannot find reports of any recent projects online but the fact that TM plans to launch LTE services via its subsidiary Packet One Networks by the end of this year will no doubt provide business for wireless communications equipment manufacturer Greenpacket to supply LTE broadband modems, etc. and also earn a share of the revenue from P1in which it still owns 31.1%

This Digital News Asia report of March 2015 describes Greenpacket's plans to return to profitability this year and also its international expansion plans.

Greenpacket was in the red each year since Packet One Networks went live.

"Green Packet, which at one point was the majority shareholder of Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (P1), has posted an average of about RM98 million of net losses annually from fiscal years 2008 to 2013."

But now that it has divested its majority statke in P1, Greenpacket hopes to return to profitability this year.

"Plans for 2015

"One of the areas Green Packet will look into seriously is cross-selling its services. For example, selling its LTE devices to an operator which is already doing voice wholesale business with it."

"Another area it will focus on in 2015 is geographical expansion. Currently, 55% of its solutions customer base is from Asia, 32% from Latin America, and 9% from Europe."

"However, in terms of revenue contribution to the group, Tan said that Latin America and the Middle East are currently contributing less than 10% of the total."

“We hope to increase this contribution to a double-digit percentage this year,” he added.

"2015 will also be the year it expands its product range for its solutions pillar, to attract more customers."

“If we go into emerging markets, we want to have devices and solutions that are more cost effective; and if we go into Tier-1 and developed markets, we want to be able to offer feature-rich products … that give them better connectivity and throughput,” Tan said.

“Ultimately, we like to position ourselves as having the widest portfolio in fixed and nomadic wireless products – so that we can go to any operator and be able to give it a product that suits it,” he added."

https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/mobile-telco/green-packet-expects-to-be-in-the-black-this-year-ceo

This is what The Star reported in March

======
PETALING JAYA: Mobile broadband and networking solutions provider Green Packet Bhd aims to increase its operating profit and turn around by its financial year ending Dec 31, 2015, riding on growth in its old core businesses.

Since relinquishing operations of Packet One Networks Sdn Bhd (P1), chief executive officer Kay Tan noted that the company was “going back to its roots” as a software solution company.

It will now focus on its two core businesses, namely software and device, as well as communications.

“We hope to widen the operating profit by this year,” he said.

He added that the company was already profitable, if the losses from now associate company P1 and interest on its exchangeable bonds were stripped out.

“The overhang is not encouraging but this business is already profitable. It’s just that the size is not enough to cover the interest and losses from P1,” said Tan.

He said that long-term evolution (LTE) was a key growth area for Green Packet, and hoped to double the size of the company’s LTE clients.

As of Dec 31, the company had 17 LTE clients with 47 on trial, which was an improvement from the previous quarter when it had 14 clients and 36 on trial.

“The key thing we want to grow is actually the LTE market. If you look at the past five years, it’s actually WiMAX. Of course WiMAX is a technology that is able to deliver the same service as LTE, it’s just that worldwide adoption has tapered down. So, in order for us to grow our revenue base we would want to be able to sell more through LTE versus WiMAX,” he said.

http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2015/03/03/green-packet-aims-to-widen-operating-profit/?style=biz
==================

I don't expect Green Packet's share to shoot up like a rocket but I see a longer term potential in this counter.

I missed this Bloomberg report of July 3 in my earlier post.

I can find no later news of the LTE launch but according to this report, it will be a mobility add on for Unifi subscribers.

With a 31.1% stake in P1, Greenpacket should benefit or lose too but it stands to gain from supply of LTE modems and other access equiment.

====
3 July 2015

Telekom Malaysia On Course To Complete P1’s Turnaround

Efforts to turnaround Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s 55.3% subsidiary Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (P1) is progressing well with the country’s dominant fixed line operator having finalized and approved the latter’s business plan, according to TA Securities Research.

With the latest development, the research house expects P1’s shareholders to subscribe to the company’s convertible bonds (CB) by this month. To recap, P1 will issue a RM1.65 billion eight-year redeemable CB to TM, Green Packet Bhd and SK Telekom Co Ltd to fund the rollout of P1’s 4G LTE (long-term evolution) network.

“(Moreover,) TM has approved a vendor to deploy 4G for P1 and the network is currently at the testing stage,” TA Securities Research pointed out in a company update following its recent meeting with TM’s management. “Meanwhile, the management is hopeful that P1’s existing WiMax subscribers will opt to migrate to LTE so P1 may finally switch off this legacy network.”

P1 has an existing subscriber base of approximately 200,000 users with the bulk rely on WiMax. But the research house observed that P1’s subscriber base has more than halved since a year ago (490,000 back in June 2014).

For P1’s all-new product targeted for launch before end-2015, TA Securities Research was made to understand that it will be a complementary add-on service (similar to HyppTV) to enhance the attractiveness of TM’s fixed broadband offerings. “Instead of a standalone product, it will likely be bundled with Unifi, thus offering users optional mobility and an integrated ‘converged’ experience,” explained the research house. “Via bundling, P1 is also able to piggyback on TM’s established marketing and distribution channels.”

On TM’s high speed broadband phase 2 (HSBB2) and sub urban broadband (SUBB) projects, TA Securities Research noted that the government and TM are in the final stage of negotiation, including finalizing areas covered under these projects.

“Despite concerns on P1’s earnings drag, TM’s core driver remains as the fixed broadband where the group has a near-monopoly (current market share: 92%),” enthused the research house. “Furthermore, TM will expand its broadband coverage to 1.16 million (+69% year-on-year) households by 2020-2021 under HSBB2 and SUBB.”

All-in, TA Securities Research upgraded TM to BUY (from HOLD previously) with a target price of RM8.16, mainly stemming from optimism that its HSBB2/SUBB projects will drive long term earnings growth and eclipse short term earnings dilution from P1.

At today’s market close, TM was up 2 sen to RM6.85 with 5,315,000 shares traded.

http://www.bloombergtv.my/telekom-malaysia-course-complete-p1s-turnaround/

-/ Contd

Whilst Greenpacket's revenue for the quarter ended 30 June 2015 is an impressive RM78.3 million, its loss of RM24.3 million may be concerning but judging from its negative cash flow of RM103 million and negative net-case from investing of RM11.6 million suggests that it is investing heavily in technology and equipment development and is sharing investment in the P1 network with TM and SK Telecom.

http://disclosure.bursamalaysia.com/FileAccess/apbursaweb/download?id=188327&name=EA_FR_ATTACHMENTS

This pattern of heavy operational loses and investment cashflow are apparaent in its earlier quarterly reports.

The downside could be that the wireless broadband market is highly competitive with six players in the market - i.e. Celcom, DiGi, Maxis, U Mobile, P1 and YTL Comms (Yes4G) but still, telecoms stocks generally do well.

However, with Greenpacket founder Puan Chan Cheong (CC Puan) now as P1 CEO and MD, I'm pretty confident P1 and Greenpacket will do well. After all, P1 was Puan's and hence Greenpacket's baby from the beginning.

http://www.p1.com.my/aboutus/

Meanwhile, Michael Lai, P1's former CEO of seven years joined Singapore-based fibre broadband provider MyRepublic as its fundraiser and will spearhead its expansion into Malaysia and Cambodia.

https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/mobile-telco/ex-p1-chief-michael-lai-joins-singapore-upstart-telco-myrepublic

https://myrepublic.com.sg/

Anyway, I'm bidding for Greenpacket right now.

This Bloomberg article of June 9 which follows below says that TM is going to launch LTE by end of 2015, which is just over a month away.

http://www.bloombergtv.my/telekom-malaysias-lte-get-ground-end-2015/

Whilst Packet 1, in which TM holds a majority 55.3% stake, South Korea's SK Telecom owns 13.6% and with Greenpacket holding 31.1% and stands to benefit to some extent if this LTE service venture works out. Also with Greenpacket providing the WiMAX and LTE equipment such as wireless (WiMAX and LTE) modems which will be used in the P1 service, it also stands to gain from this revenue stream.

Whilst P1 was Malaysia's first WiMAX network operator which launched its services in August 2008, however its network expansion was constrained by limited finances and it had to build and operate base stations one by one based upon customer demand and was a loss making operation which pulled down Greenpacket's profit from a modest profit each year prior to P1 launch to a loss each year after after P1 launch.

In 2007, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission granted WiMAX licenses and allocated spectrum at 2.3GHz to four operators - namely P1, Asiaspace, Redtone and YTL Comms. P1, Asiaspace and YTL Comms had spectrum for Peninsular Malaysia, whilst Redtone had spectrum for Sabah & sarawak. However today, only P1 and YTL Comms are left standing as WiMAX operators.

However, WiMAX is a wireless bearer technology which lost the battle against and WiMAX operators are gradually migrating their networks and customers to a variant of 4G LTE known as TD-LTE (Time Division - Long Term Evolution), whilst the cellular operators Celcom, DiGi, Maxis and U Mobile use FD-LTE (Frequency Division LTE). LTE is a 3G Partnership Project (3Gpp) 4G technology which is a successor to the 3Gpp's 3G and 2G technologies. SK Telecom is the technology partner for LTE.

Technologies aside, now with TM as a majority stakeholder, P1 has access to the much bigger financial resources of TM which has multiple revenue streams, unlike P1 on its own which only had WiMAX wireless broadband. Yes, P1 subsequently also provided fibre service but this was over fibres leased from TM.

Deployment of telecommunications networks is a very expensive business and size matters, which is why whilst YTL Comms was the last ofthe WiMAX operators to go live in late 2010, it did so with a network which provides much wider coverage than P1 and YTL Comms has the benefit of being part of a large group with multiple verticals and revenue streams.

Now TM's Unifi fibre service is currently mostly available in urban areas and is a fixed service available to residential and business premises but with this wireless channel via P1, TM can now provide service to nomadic and mobile users, which it could not do so with fibre. For example, someone renting a room in a house where the landlord either does not have Unifi service or does not allow tenants to use their services can now subscribe to wireless service which they have full control over. Also, people with mobile devices are able to use P1 for anytime, anywhere connectivity provided they are within P1 coverage and theoretically enjoy "Unifi in the sky".

Also, with P1, TM can also provide service to customers outside major urban areas and in new areas where the physical communications distribution infrastructure has not yet been laid, since all it needs is a base station with physical backend connectivity to the core of the network core.

Contd /-

What sentiment caused the KLCI to pull back hard at 4pm?
Was it foreknowledge of Dow Jones drop of 160 points later on 31 December?

Waiting to see trend of Opensys counter when KLCI opens this morning.

Thanks L.C. Chong.

Quite frankly, I am not all that comfortable with Armada myself and its steady pullback from a close of RM1.21 on 22 December after a small rise is cause for concern. Managed to take some profit yesterday as I bought at its lowest on 15 December but still holding some Armada shares and will decide whether to let go when market opens.

-15.48 point drop in Dow at close could result in less vibrant KLCI today..
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia

... and drop in Brent Crude 29 Dec could adversely affect Armada share price today.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/29/us-markets-oil-idUSKBN0K701D20141229

ogt8989 - Why then RM6 million bids vs RM4 million asks shortly before close?

Further to the above, these reports are something to consider.

"An Annotated History Of Oil Prices Since 1861"

http://www.businessinsider.my/annotated-history-crude-oil-prices-since-1861-2014-12/

"Crude price drop triggers major layoffs in US oil industry"

http://rt.com/usa/217959-us-oil-industry-prices/

This October 2014 report is about two months old but India oil & gas company ONGC which contracted Bumi Armada's floating production vessel (in 2013) expects to increase production from Cluster 7 by 50%.

“Last year (2013), our oil production from offshore fields was 15.541 million tonnes. This year we are targeting 16.915 million tonnes,” he said. ONGC will use a floating production system to ramp up output from the Cluster-7 fields by 50 per cent to 12,000 bpd.

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/ongc-scripts-turnaround-plans-to-ramp-up-oil-output-by-23/article6541342.ece

"The C-7 field which comprises several fields including B-192, B-45 and WO-24, are in water depths of about 85 metres."

"The fields are to be operated utilising an FPSO"

http://abarrelfull.wikidot.com/cluster-7-oil-and-gas-fields

A positive sounding report in October 2014

"Malaysia-listed Bumi Armada Berhad’s CEO Hassan Basma sees potential demand for as many as 30 floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels off India, as state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) ramps up cluster developments of oil and gas fields."

https://www.rigzone.com/iPhone/article.asp?a_id=135481

I am new to online stock trading and I certainly am NO oil & gas expert nor insider but Bumi Armada is not an oil company but is an O&G production equipment company and despite the oil price war by Saudi Arabia/OPEC which has depressed oil prices in general, still I presume ONGC is extracting oil for India which is a growing economy in need of oil, so there could be an exception to the general rule here in terms of fundamentals in Bumi Armada's case.

Anyway, my gut feeling is that as petroleum remains the primary source of energy to power land, sea and air transport vehicles, there will always be demand for petroleum, so even if sentiment pulls O&G and related stocks down in the short term, the fundamentals in general are still strong for this sector in the longer term.

Hydroelectricity may power electric cars in countries where hydroelectric sources and generation facilities are available and possible, whilst nuclear powered electricity generation is rather controversial with the ongoing saga of Fukushima.

http://www.fukuleaks.org/web/?p=14246

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201412250035

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20141225p2a00m0na002000c.html

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20141226/1016268617.html

On the other hand, another necessity of modern life are jambans unless we want to do it on the floor or in our pants, so maybe I should invest in share of a jamban producer when its share price is down.

http://www.gbhgroup.com.my/Catalogue/catalogue.html

Based upon the expected glut in oil supply on 24th of December...

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/dec/24/oil-price-nosedive-a-shocker/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/24/us-markets-oil-idUSKBN0K204Z20141224

...e weak rise of the Dow, with indications of reversal.....

https://www.google.com.my/search?q=DJIA&gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=9_uaVKHPO4uHuASUrIK4CQ

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia

....and with the KLCI just marginally up on 24th December.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2014/12/24/KLCI-ends-marginally-higher/?style=biz

I expected there would be nett downward pressure on oil industry -related stock when the market opened on 26th December but after a choppy first hour, Armada closed at the same RM1.17 on 26th December as it had on 24th December.

I had expected Dialog to suffer a worse drop just 1 sen, though it went through quite a roller coaster ride throughout the trading day.

Glad to see that these counters held up pretty well on the 26th.

Dunno about the 29th.

The resumption of downward pressure on oil prices is not good news as it puts downwrd pressure on oil-related stock prices in the longer term.

"Oil price nosedive a shocker"

"OPEC, for example, expects the world to need 28.9 million barrels of its oil per day next year – yet production target is 30 million barrels per day. More oil on the market than consumers demand is a recipe for low prices."

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/dec/24/oil-price-nosedive-a-shocker/

"Oil prices down again, big U.S. inventory build surprises"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/24/us-markets-oil-idUSKBN0K204Z20141224

Not sure if the weak rise in the Dow on 24th December sufficient to reverse the downward pressure.

https://www.google.com.my/search?q=DJIA&gws_rd=cr,ssl&ei=9_uaVKHPO4uHuASUrIK4CQ

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/djia

Let us see what the Dow will be at at the end of the trading day.

KLCI just marginally up on 24th December.

"At 5pm, the KLCI closed up 0.69 of a points or 0.04% to 1,749.74. Turnover was 1.048 billion shares valued at RM995.55mil. There were 333 gainers, 394 decliners and 313 counters unchanged."

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2014/12/24/KLCI-ends-marginally-higher/?style=biz

I could be wrong but I expect nett downward pressure on oil-rekated stock when market opens on 26th December.

I am not trying to be negative as the DJIA is still up but this recent Reuters report seems to have triggered lots of sell orders in Malaysia with asks overwhelming bids by a huge factor.

"Oil slides as Saudi Naimi tells market to forget OPEC cuts"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/22/us-markets-oil-idUSKBN0K007O20141222

Yesterday Reuters reported

"RPT-Brent crude oil rises above $62 a barrel as Asian markets open strong"
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/12/22/markets-oil-idUKL3N0U61AJ20141222

Rally on DJIA slowed Friday
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/DJIA

U.K. oil industry "close to collapse"
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/12/18/390738/uks-oil-industry-close-to-collapse/

Maybe next week not so good all round.

Good news! Thanks CIMB.

I was about to dump by GHLSYS shares but looking at the majority of positive price targets in i3investor I held and with this report, this company has longer term promise.

Bank of America predicts crude to drop to US$50 per barrel, decline of OPEC and failure of many shale oil producers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/oilprices/11283875/Bank-of-America-sees-50-oil-as-Opec-dies.html

Anyway, I tend to agree with Ah Moi.

"The rout has all started with O&G, the rebound therefor will start with O&G "
Here is something on oil which might be of interest.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-2014-Oil-Price-Crash-Explained.html

The bigger question is that if Bank of America is right about oil hitting $50 a barrel and the shakeout of the weaker oil producers in OPEC, then what will be the impact on the opportunities and fortunes of Bumi Armada and Dialog?

There also are allegations of oil price manipulation by the powers for geo-strategic objectives.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/11/28/387919/is-saudi-arabia-targeting-us-shale-oil/

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/plunging-oil-prices-undermine-u-s-adversaries/

http://www.russia-direct.org/opinion/sinking-oil-prices-could-sink-russias-economy

Anyway, the bottom line for me is -- that as long as humankind needs energy to power our modern lifestyle and as long as there are no viable alternative energy sources to replace oil, then there will always be demand for oil and hence value in O & G companies in the long term.

That said, there seems to be even more money in helping people to kill themselves slowly as could be suggested by how BAT's share price has risen from RM42 in January 2010 to around RM66 today.

I shall now go out and buy a pack of ciggies.