Yoma

Yoma: announces consortium bid for Telco license in Myanmar. Given that there are over 92 bids submissions to date, vying for a single license, the probability that Yoma’s bid is successful is just over 1%. Its telco partner, Digicel Group, pales in comparison with the competition from the global telcos giants like SingTel, China Mobile, which have also submitted bids of their own. Digicel operates in the Caribbean, Central America and Oceania regions and only has about 13m wireless subscribers. Myanmar alone has a population of 70m. While Soros’ Quantum Strategic Partners as a JV partner to Yoma is a small plus, it remains to be seen if this will translate into a more direct investment into Yoma. Yoma’s smallish announcements of late have received lukewarm attention from the market. Focus will continue to be on when Yoma will receive the requisite approvals to proceed with the Landmark Development and rights issue, and should be watched for as a key catalyst for share price re-rating. Yoma trades at 2.5x P/B. P/E is not meaningful at this stage, though earnings are expected to receive a big boost on progressive completion of units at its 9000 unit Star City project over the next 6-8 yrs. Shares open +7.3% at $0.80.