[ET Net News Agency, 7 June 2018] Credit Suisse lifted its target price for China
Unicom (00762) to HK$12.4 from HK$11.3, and maintained its "outperform" rating.
Following the October 2015 carve-out, China Tower Corporation (CTC) holds a de-facto
monopoly over tower assets in China. In return for injecting in their tower assets, China
Mobile holds a 38.0% stake in CTC, while Unicom holds a 28.1% stake, and China Telecom
holds 27.9%.
The prospect of rising network density thanks to 5G roll-out represents upside potential
for tower associate CTC, which is expected to deliver compound revenue growth of 6.4%
across FY2018-22.
The change in depreciation rates for towers constructed by CTC, from 10% (10 years
useful life) to 5% (20 years useful life), effective 1 January 2018 leads Credit Suisse to
expect CTC to make a positive associate contribution to the net profit of the China Unicom
in FY2018. After factoring this in, its FY2018 earnings estimate for China Unicom has been
revised up by 4.1%. (KL)