Keywest...Aug 2008

Telecommunications services provider Key West Global Telecommunications Bhd is banking on its upcoming new economy products to take it to the next level. It will launch four new economy products, two for its retail arm and two for its wholesale arm, by the end of the year.

It would take two to three years to see growth coming from the new economy products. New economy products are web-enabled multi-media telecommunications product and services.

It has proposed a corporate restructuring exercise that will see the demerger of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Times Telecom Inc (TTI), on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) Venture Exchange, a public venture-capital market tailored for emerging companies.

TTI group’s main activity is in the retailing of long-distance telecommunications services in Canada. Yong said in Malaysia, the price earnings ratio for a comparable company was at 12 times whereas in Canada, its retail business would be valued at 37 times.

Financial Results …

For its year ended Jan 31, 2008, Key West returned to the black, registering a RM1.86 million net profit compared to a RM643,000 net loss in FY07, despite revenue dropping 20% to RM175.9 million from RM219.6 million.

Out of the revenue achieved in FY08, about 72% of it was derived from the wholesale telco sector while 28% was from the retail sector.

On its subscriber growth, For FY10, the retail business was expected to have 80,000 to 90,000 new subscribers to add to its current 280,000 customers while it expected to add another 50 new subscribers to its 450-base for its traditional business.

Most major telco companies such as Telekom, DiGi and AT&T were its traditional business clients.