In this briefing:
1. Indian Telcos: What Not to Expect in 2019
Predictions for Indian mobile in 2019 are likely to be as much about what won’t happen as what will! In summary, we do not expect Jio to lift prices and ease pressure on the incumbents. Nor do we expect significant relief from the government towards the private telcos. The environment is likely to remain tough. With this outlook, by the end of 2019, we expect concerns that Vodafone Idea (IDEA IN) will require more capital to resurface. Bharti Airtel (BHARTI IN) is closer to an inflection point in returns and we are confident that unless prices fall again (which we don’t expect), revenues bottomed for Bharti in 2QFY19. The bottom line is that Bharti can live with current pricing while we don’t believe Vodafone IDEA can.
2. Ten Years On – Asia’s Time Is Coming, Don’t Miss The Boat
We noted in Ten Years On – Asia Outperforms Advanced Economies Asia’s economies and companies have outperformed advanced country peers in the ten years to 2017. Growing by 6.8%, real, through the crisis the region is 188% larger in US dollar terms while US dollar per capita incomes 170% higher compared with 2007. In this note we argue even though Asian stock markets have underperformed since 2010 and the bulk of global capital flows have gone to advanced countries, Asia’s time is coming. Valuations are cheap. Growth fundamentals strong. There are few external or internal imbalances. Macroeconomic management has been better than in advanced economies and the scope to ease policy to ward off headwinds in 2019 is greater. China has already started.
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