OCK Group’s vision to build a pan-Asian tower company
Having drawn considerable attention by securing a contract to build 920 towers for Telenor Myanmar late last year, Malaysia’s OCK Group has shaken up the Asian tower market once again with its acquisition of Southeast Asia Telecommunications Holdings Pte Ltd (SEATH) and their 1,938 towers for US$50mn. This is the largest tower transaction to date in the Vietnamese market, and we caught up with Sam Ooi, MD of OCK Group to find out more about his company, this exciting new deal, their activities in Myanmar and their pan-Asian vision.
Please tell us about your role at OCK and the experience you bring the team.
Sam Ooi, MD, OCK Group:
I founded OCK in 2000, drove it towards listing on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia, and led its development into the foremost telecommunications service provider in Malaysia.
Our Group CEO Yap Wai Khee joined OCK in early 2015. Wai Khee has over 21 years of experience in strategy and commercials, with 16 years in the telecommunications industry. He has acted in senior management roles for several telecom companies within this region. At OCK, we have a highly experienced management team with many years of experience in the telecoms industry that has contributed to the company’s success.
How does the tower construction and leasing business fit into your business model?
Sam Ooi, MD, OCK Group:
Our telecommunications network services business is the largest contributor to OCK Group’s revenue, and it our intention to grow this business further by expanding our construction and/or leasing of telecommunication towers.
We were granted with a Network Facilities Provider (Class) license by the Malaysian regulator, and own 133 sites in Malaysia.
We started to expand overseas by securing a master lease agreement for the construction and lease of up to 920 towers in Myanmar last year and were granted a Network Facilities Services (Class) license by the Myanmar government. And just last week we announced our entry into Vietnam.
Congratulations on the announcement of OCK Group’s acquisition of SEATH. What attracted your company to invest in this portfolio and in the Vietnamese market?
Sam Ooi, MD, OCK Group:
We have been evaluating the telecom tower industry in Vietnam, as this country is expected to have one of the greatest mobile broadband growth rates within the next few years, coupled with the rollout of 4G/LTE network later this year/next year.
SEATH is the largest independent tower company in Vietnam, and it is a profitable business; it will immediately contribute financially to OCK Group, and allows us to tap into the Vietnamese market.
Could you share some insight into OCK Group’s plans for further acquisitions or new builds in Vietnam?
Sam Ooi, MD, OCK Group:
We are open to explore discussions with existing tower companies in Vietnam as we feel the tower industry is highly fragmented. In addition, the upcoming launch of 4G in Vietnam will also increase demand for new towers in Vietnam.
Considering OCK Group’s presence in Myanmar and now Vietnam, are there plans for further expansion in the region? Which other markets are being evaluated?
Sam Ooi, MD, OCK Group:
We own tower assets in Malaysia and Myanmar, and with SEATH, we will own tower assets in Vietnam too.
OCK is a full turnkey contractor in Cambodia, where we are involved in tower construction and fibre rollout. In Indonesia we focus mainly on managing active and passive infrastructure for telecom networks.
We will continuously evaluate opportunities within the ASEAN region.
OCK has come to market at a very competitive lease rate in Myanmar – what innovations will you use to ensure you can build and maintain towers at this price point?
Sam Ooi, MD, OCK Group:
OCK is a full turnkey solutions provider, and we are able to leverage our expertise from other countries into Myanmar, resulting in a lower cost to build and maintain towers. These benefits are passed on to our valued customers.
We understand that towercos in Vietnam provide just the structure and land (“steel and grass”) whereas in Myanmar a full service (“tower and power”) is the norm. Which business model are OCK most comfortable with? And will you source and maintain your own power equipment in Myanmar or outsource to third parties?
Sam Ooi, MD, OCK Group:
We are capable of providing a complete suite of services to our customers, and we are comfortable with any arrangements which may be unique to a particular country.
OCK performs network operations maintenance and/or managed services to approximately 25,000 towers in this region, and we are assessing the market in Myanmar too.
OCK Yangon has erected 201 towers (of which 189 had been delivered to Telenor Myanmar by end- August), and is set to ramp up delivery in the remaining months. All the telecommunication towers have installed sufficient specification to cater for three players.
After 920 towers this year, hopefully OCK even more aggressive next year... how about bid for another 1000 or more...
Telenor has achieved the fastest subscriber growth in Myanmar, racing to just under 17mn subscribers in two years. Telenor remains broadly on track with their rollout plan, having lit 5,831 towers by the end of Q216 – all independently owned – with a target to reach 7,000 by year end 2016, and as many as 13,000 sites to achieve solid nationwide voice and data coverage.
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Let me top up some information about OCK that it was not reported in any analysis report. Telenor is a very stingy company, the reason it awarded contrat to build and lease for OCK because of the tempted offer from OCK. Yes, is the lease rate that was mention before. Let me give you the figure, is 30pct cheaper lease rate than average price in Myanmar . Can you imagine !! It should be around US920 inclusive of power Basically the target of 3000 tower by Telenor is 99.9pct already bag by OCK.
Let me analysis OCK competitor in Myanmar. I will exclude 4big boss namely IGT,Apollo, edotco, Pamel let focus on the same size as OCK, there was EFT and MIG. so can you imagine, a newly join in Myammar as a independent towerco surprise anyone by provide a)cheaper lease rate - 30pct discount b)cheaper build cost - 20pct less build cost c) on time delivery - Pending until end of this calender years but so far so good
The allocation so far for EFT/MIG/OCK : this 3 company need to build at lease 8000 towers. The most weak company is MIG, they have plan to quit as a independent towerco and focus on other field, therefore this fellow always dissaponted Telenor in term of lead time. i wrote to OCK asking them to consider take over this company but so far no response from them.
Well,, at the end, i wan to say OCK will continue deliver excellent on every qtrl result ( increasing revenue ) but the profit margin will dissapointed investor due to the burden of interest and depreciation. You need to wait patiently until a breakeven point . Please read SOS commend for more detail. Good attitude requirement to win big
Those invovled in initial startup phase 1&2 facing higher risk especially the uncertainty of the future political situation back in late 2014. so they deserved to demand for premium leasing rate in order to build the towers else nobody willing to take the risk... OCK new kid on the block sure need to compete on price to penetrate and gain the market share in this phase 3 stage.. OCK management know what they are face with....relax...
here is one crucial key point from that article that I like:
Newest entrants OCK have been bullish about their plans to rollup a pan-Asian portfolio of towers – indeed they recently announced the acquisition of 1,938 towers in Vietnam for US$50mn. OCK are the wildcard in our forecast; if they can build at speed and drive to their targeted 3,000 Myanmar towers at their discount price point, they are going to prove popular with all four Myanmar MNOs.
i believe when it shoot, will very fierce. coz u see the candle. always someone pressing down the price. which majority of the candle is with long upper shadow. may be someone is collecting
A company might have been successful in terms of maximizing sales and minimizing costs, yet if they have just recently made high investments in assets, they have to properly depreciate those assets. It is a very good plan for investors to follow, because when the depreciation has been paid off (or whatever the numbers are that force the company to make the earnings appear smaller), then the company will appear to be in a much healthier and more profitable position. The truth is that they are still operating in the same way as before but now they are able to realize higher earnings.
A good move into high growth Vietnam market yet to reflect on the share price....
Two foreign shareholders of large stakes in leading Malaysian telecommunications companies (telcos) are exploring the possibility of divesting their stakes, indicating that the industry could be maturing here.
Reports also indicated that these parties might be more keen on investing in higher-growth markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam.
also mean potential for these big three players in Malaysia to outsource or sell their towers asset to third party... Opportunity for OCK...
somehow my gut feeling tell me that OCK may spin off their towers asset into some sort of REIT in near future (probably 2-3 years)...to free up some capital for more towers business in SEA....
It is time for Vietnam to implement the 4G LTE network to meet customers' rising demand for high-speed data services, according to telecom experts.
Talking at an international conference on 4G LTE 2016 held in Hanoi on August 18 by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) in collaboration with the International Data Group, MoIC Deputy Minister Phan Tam said 2016 is a good start for LTE and 2017 will be the year the 4G network develops in Vietnam.
Myanmar 920 towers should have completed half by now. Foresee more tower biz acquisition will be materialized coming years. This year sales 390M? Targeting 500M sales next year with lower profit margin perhaps? Short term no surprise but accumulate stage for some. I believe breakeven cost acquired a new tower comp is around 7 years, and we might seeing profit margin starting improve at 4th year of each purchase? OCK may truly shine on 2018.. I can wait.
Sam already start dreaming huge $$$ from Vietnam tower business with the rolling out of 4G... How big is the market potential? Vietnam’s top three MNOs are expected to need to create at least 50,000 new tenancies either in existing towers or by building new towers.
1) Increase in tenancy ratio for the existing 1938 towers... what do you think achievable?
As at end-December 2015, SEATH registered a tenancy ratio of 1.23 times and this is expected to increase to 1.27 times by the end of the year 2016.
"We're even targeting 1.5 to 1.6 times within the next three to four years," OCK founder and group managing director Sam Ooi told a press conference
2) Huge opportunity for growing tower assets...possible?
Sam Ooi Chin Khoon tells StarBizWeek that the focus in Vietnam is to build more towers and that OCK remains committed to growing its tower assets in the region. “Seath is the largest independent tower company with 1,938 telco towers spread throughout Vietnam and we are confident of growing the number of towers there with the expertise we have,” he says... the opportunities for growth in Vietnam is huge, says Ooi, adding that a mobile network operator had recently requested for 90 towers to be built.
Google did some research on the Vietnamese market and found that slightly over 80% of smartphone users watched video, for instance, the third highest rate in the world, and 75% accessed the internet. Email, social networking and other data-oriented activities over mobile devices are also steadily increasing.
This uptick in data service demand has signalled a need for further capacity, and this is without factoring in LTE, which will be another driver when launched in 2016. As a result, there is a real need for densification; the smaller operators in Vietnam are at a disadvantage in terms of infrastructure and they need to do whatever they can to maximise return on capital invested. It’s very likely that they will continue to look at co-operating with towercos rather than spending huge amounts on new infrastructure to compete with the market leaders.
The larger companies like Viettel also do some co-location on private towers where it’s hard to get permits due to zoning. Given the strong demand for tower space, they look at the existing network first in these situations, then they look at build to suit. Some of the market leaders, especially Mobifone, have a history of working with private tower owners.
The estimates of new tower requirements are high; the smaller MNOs are going to have to find tenancies on some existing towers to continue to expand their coverage. Beyond this, there is expected to be a 30% increase in demand for capacity every year.
Vietnam’s top three MNOs are expected to need to create at least 50,000 new tenancies either in existing towers or by building new towers.
Looks like regional growth is unfolding... shall we buy before they accomplished their projects?
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 (Bernama) -- Telecommunications network service provider OCK Group Bhd expects a higher return of revenue from its regional business from 18 per cent in its financial year 2015 to 25-30 per cent next year.
Group Managing Director Sam Ooi said the group's optimism arises from its investments in Myanmar and Vietnam.
"We have delivered about 300 telecommunications (telco) towers out of 920 telco towers to Telenor Myanmar and hope to hand over the remainder by the end of this year.....
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
peishan16
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Posted by peishan16 > 2016-08-30 15:52 | Report Abuse
Target price 0.93 ~^^