[ET Net News Agency, 16 January 2018] Macquarie Research said China Mobile's
(CM)(00941) IoT (Internet of Things) and Video revenue grew 95% and 70% YoY in 1H 2017,
respectively, and it expects strong growth to continue in coming years.
It noted that CM has become the world's largest IoT operator (by connection volume),
with 200m connections in 2017 and is eyeing 320m connections in 2018. CM is also an early
entrant in digital content (started in 2006) and currently owns China's largest digital
content platform MIGU.
The research house expectd the two businesses to fuel CM's growth in the long term. It
is positive on CM, given its leading progress in 5G, dominance in 4G, and growing market
share in broadband. As at November 2017, CM had a market share of 65% in 4G and 34% in
broadband (up 6ppts YoY). The current valuation, at an EV/EBITDA of 3.1x on 2018, is
attractive versus the historical average of 4.1x.
Macquarie its "outperform" rating on the stock, with a target price of HK$112. (KL)