Maxis ... Feb11

- In the news on Friday, Maxis announced that its Maxis Movies mobile application has been downloaded 50,000 times since its soft-launch 3-months ago. VP and Head of Products, T. Kuhan said that Maxis is positive that all (of its currently 7.1m mobile internet users) would eventually use the application, which allows moviegoers to purchase movie tickets anytime and anywhere. Smartphone users may freely download the application but 50 sen will be charged for ticket bookings.

- Maxis tied-up with GSC and TGV Cinemas to enable its subscribers to book the cinema tickets. The company also entered a 1-year partnership with PayPal’s mobile payment service to ensure that all ticket payments would be simplified and secured in as little as 2 clicks.

- Maxis plans to further broaden its offering of mobile internet services and is looking into the healthcare and education segments. COO, Jean-Pascal van Overbeke said “we want to aggregate these different industries and content for a single customer base”.

Financial impact
- None currently as the financial impact is non-material at this point. However this reinforces our 2011 Telco Sector Outlook (“Competitive Partnerships Converging”, published on 19th January 2011) in which we expect partnerships to be formed between fixed, mobile telcos, and media & content providers.

Pros / Cons
- Maxis is positioning itself as an early adopter and partner of media and content providers. We await further signs of competition and revenue contribution to revise our numbers.

- The push towards the development of mobile applications and partnerships with content and value-added service providers is certain to be emulated by other mobile operators. This would serve to enrich the mobile dataservices ecosystem and invariably accelerate the adoption of mobile broadband and data services.

Risks
- Irrational competition, handset subsidies, regulation of mobile tariffs and pricing.

Rating / Valuation
Maintain Hold, with an unchanged TP of RM5.43
- Positives – New business opportunities, strong cashgeneration and defensive dividends.

- Negatives – Potential irrational competition, regulatory risks.

- At current prices, Maxis is trading at a PER of 15.8x and 14.8x for FY11 and FY12 respectively. A net dividend yield of 6% would serve to underpin its share price. Our unchanged TP of RM5.43 is based on DDM with aWACC of 7.8%.