YTL Power ventures into Jordanian oil shale projects

Written by Joseph Chin of theedgemalaysia.com
Tuesday, 14 December 2010 15:13

KUALA LUMPUR: YTL POWER INTERNATIONAL BHD [] is venturing into Jordanian oil shale projects which will see it building an oil plant with an output with 38,000 barrels per day.

YTLPI said on Tuesday, Dec 14 it had acquired a 30% stake in Eesti Energia, Near East Investment’s (NEI) Jordanian oil shale projects.

As the new strategic partner, YTLPI will contribute its experience in developing and operating large energy production and trading assets in emerging markets.

According to the new shareholding structure Eesti Energia owns 65%, YTLPI 30% and NEI 5% of the oil shale projects in Jordan.

Read here...

Bullet train project may zoom into master plan

The proposed high-speed rail linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore may be included in the national public transport master plan

THE proposed Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed train project, costing between RM10 billion and RM12 billion, may be included in the national public transport master plan, said the chief of The Land Public Transport Commission (Spad).

Spad chief executive officer Mohd Nur Ismal Kamal said a feasibility study is being undertaken to examine viability of the project.

"The project may be considered in the master plan but we are not sure yet. The study will show how the high-speed train can be integrated with other public land transport," he said on the sidelines of the National Summit on Urban Public Transport 2010 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Malaysia is mulling over a high-speed rail linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore that will cut travel time between the two cities to 45 minutes.

A few companies, including YTL Corp Bhd and Hartasuma Sdn Bhd have made presentations to the National Key Economic Area (NKEA) lab on the project, involving a distance of about 300km.

Read more: Bullet train project may zoom into master plan

Say YES ah ha

Note:

5 Dec 10, 11:29 PM

12000: YTLPOWER continue to expand power plants business in Indonesia, Singapore & Malaysia.... if Malaysia give YTL the fast train project.... YTLPOWER will take on the project....

My analysis http://tt-stockanalysis.blogspot.com/

Coming up Friday 4G service, five times faster than current 3G

By TEE LIN SAY
linsay@thestar.com.my

Launch set to make big impact on high-tech market

KUALA LUMPUR: It will be five times faster than the current 3G network but the price will be compatible ... very affordable and the best price.

That is all YTL Communications Sdn Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri Francis Yeoh will say for now about the rates of the much-anticipated 4G wireless broadband service or Yes to be launched Friday.

It will have the lowest rate in the industry with no monthly commitment and conditions, he said, in an interview with StarBiz, adding that the product line-up for the launch would include a 4G smartphone developed with Samsung (called Yes Buzz), USB dongle, MiFi device and a desktop WiFi router.

Yes, the next generation high-speed data service, is expected to have a coverage of up to 65% of the peninsula from day one while the states or areas which are not yet included will be covered not too long from now, according to Yeoh. The company has spent some RM2.5bil for the Yes 4G infrastructure.

“It will be five times faster than the current 3G network but the price will be compatible ... very affordable and the best price,” says YTL Communications Sdn Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri Francis Yeoh during the interview with StarBiz.

Tomorrow's launch has generated much excitement. Yeoh stressed that YTL Comms, with a staff strength of 2,000 built up over the past year, will be the first in the world to offer a converged 4G network voice, mobile Internet and mobile broadband.

Unlike current offerings where mobile data and voice are separated, we will bring everything into one plan with no additional charge. There will also be mobile TV at the end of next year, he said.

Yes will put Malaysia on par with the South Koreans, Singaporeans and Japanese on the technology front, Yeoh said, adding that the multiplier effect of such a technology was that it raised efficiency and productivity. With every 10% increase in broadband penetration, this increases the GDP by 1.3%, he said.

The response has been more than encouraging so far. Even prior to the launch, YTL Comms has received tens of thousands of pre-registrations three times above expectation which Yeoh said could partly be a reflection of the frustrations over the current wireless Internet speed.

3G is a legacy service. It is developed using voice technology and it can't cope with the massive amount of data that consumers are demanding. Devices such as iPhone and iPad have put a massive strain on current 3G networks. How many times have we tried to open files and experienced the buffering and streaming taking forever? The speed of our Yes' network is just amazing. Once people taste it, they won't go back to the old service, Yeoh said.

Under the Education Partner Programme, YTL Comms is providing free broadband services to 400,000 university students.

Quite interestingly, YTL's 4G network will be SIM-less. Simply put, Yeoh said the network runs on a user ID that comes with its own mobile number.

You don't need a SIM card and you're not locked on to one device. All you need to do is log-on using your user ID (we call this the Yes ID) and all your information is accessible on any device. You can log on to multiple devices, all at the same time. It's possible for you to receive a call and have it ring on your hand phone, your computer ... or your home phone, all at the same time. You pick the device most convenient to answer the call or make a call from, he said.

Yeoh said the market is spoilt by the voice network and that Malaysia's mobile call rates are far more expensive than Indonesia's. So many people make so much money on voice. That is why there is no innovation on data, he elaborated.

Under the mobile number portability, existing mobile phone users of other operators can port over their numbers to YTL Comms to enjoy 4G performance and innovation.

Internet is here to stay. That's the business of the future. We are targeting the youth market ... to engage the students. They are the customers we want. We are not targeting customers like my father, he said.

On how YTL's 4G differentiates from existing data networks, Yeoh said that Yes is a fully converged mobile network, and there is no other WiMAX operator in the country that is mobile.

In fact the services offered by Yes are among the first in the world. And this is just the beginning. We will continue to innovate and bring new services into the market, said Yeoh.

For 2011, Yes will offer the world's first wireless quad-play service giving its subscribers access to voice, data and television all on a mobile network.

The next big thing is making the Internet relevant. This entails looking at creating content and developing applications and service to take advantage of the enormous flexibility that the Internet has to offer, and we are ahead of the curve on this. Eventually, everyone will focus on this, because performance will be a given. Speed is fundamental but everyone will eventually be able to deliver this. The differentiator will be what can you go with that performance, how easy it will be for subscribers to use and how to make it as affordable as possible for everyone, he said.

Analysts expect YTL Comms' entry into the telco sector to galvanise the industry further, heightening competition particularly in the cellular broadband space, given the company's strong financial backing and track record.

Taken from here...

YTL Comms upbeat on its Wimax service

YTL Communications Sdn. is seeing “dramatic” demand for its WiMax service in Malaysia, with pre- registrations for the product exceeding expectations three times, Executive Chairman Tan Sri Francis Yeoh said in an interview.

Yeoh declined to give a specific target for the “Yes” wireless Internet and voice service, which allows users to pick an identification and number.

The company is the telecommunications unit of YTL Power International Bhd.

“I would expect that the uptake of this service, when people get the hang of it, will be tremendous,” Yeoh said in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“When people have tasted mobile Internet, they’ll never go back to mobile phone; same as when people have tasted color television, they’ll never go back to black-and-white.”

YTL’s broadband service is as much as five times faster than the already available third-generation, or 3G, network, he said.

This will enable businesses to be more effective and productive, in line with the government’s plans to turn Malaysia into a high-income nation, Yeoh said.

The company plans to spend 2.5 billion ringgit (US$798 million) to roll out the service to reach more than 65 per cent of the country’s population when it starts November 19, the company said in a statement. It will reach more than 80 per cent by the second quarter of 2011.

YTL Power has advanced 8.2 per cent in the past month, making it Malaysia’s best-performing stock, ahead of the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index’s 0.9 per cent gain. The stock fell 0.4 per cent to RM2.51 at 12.29 pm today.

The utility’s “shares have recently surged on news that the pre-launch response to its WiMax service has been above management’s internal targets,” Alex Goh, an analyst at AmResearch, said in a report today.

“But note that this is not confirmed registration or fee-paying subscribers as the current Internet bookings allow potential customers to choose their own numbers.”

The company is working with partners including Clearwater Corp, Intel Corp, Cisco Systems Inc. and International Business Machines Corp to roll out the service, which will be “competitively” priced against present broadband access providers, according to Yeoh.

The “Yes” service charges the consumer what they use, much like electricity, the company said on its website. The rates will be revealed on November 19. - Bloomberg

Taken from here...

YTL Comms to launch wireless hybrid TV

YTL Communications Sdn Bhd will launch an all-wireless hybrid television (TV) service by end-2011, making Malaysia the first in the world to offer the next-generation service.

This is made possible with the signing of the licence and services agreement between YTL Communications and next-generation TV innovator, Sezmi Corp, he said.

"The agreement gives YTL Communications the rights to deploy hybrid TV service in Malaysia and throughout Asia-Pacific," said its executive chairman, Tan Sri Francis Yeoh Sock Ping, at the signing ceremony in Kuala Lumpur today.

Also present were Minister of International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and chairman of Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Tan Sri Khalid Ramli.

The new service will bring together TV, video-on-demand and Internet content in one converged platform that is personalised to the specific needs of the users and is seamlessly accessible on a fourth generation (4G) mobile network.

Yeoh, however, declined to unveil details of the investment to deploy the service in Malaysia as well as the partnership with Sezmi.

California-based Sezmi, a four-year-old Silicon Valley start-up, offers an Internet-connected set-top box with a digital aerial.

Sezmi is working with service providers and content partners around the world to deliver a transformative TV choice for all TV consumers.

As for Malaysia, Yeoh said, there would also be local content.

"When we launch our 4G mobile Internet service next month we will deliver to Malaysia a wireless dual-play service -- broadband and voice on our 4G network," YTL Communications' chief executive officer, Wing K. Lee, said.

Earlier, Mustapa said with the venture, content and technology know-how would be delivered from Malaysia to the rest of the world.

"This will create a vibrant and healthy ecosystem of content, application and devices that will drive the growth of high-skilled, high-income jobs, in line with the government's drive towards high-income economy," he said.

The "quad-play", as the industry calls it, would require new devices and equipment to be developed and manufactured in Malaysia, he said.

"We will be able to attract manufacturers of these high-technology devices and equipment to meet the local demand and serves as a springboard to drive regional and global export opportunities," he said. -- Bernama

Read more: YTL Comms to launch wireless hybrid TV

YTL Power's RM2.5b WiMAX network plan unexpected

KUALA LUMPUR: RAM Ratings says YTL POWER INTERNATIONAL BHD []'s (YTLPI) move to roll out its RM2.5 billion worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) network is quite unexpected.


The rating agency said on Thursday, March 11 this was not in line with its track record of investing in long-term concession assets with stable and sustainable cashflow.

"Although RAM Ratings is less sanguine about the group venturing into a non-concession-based business, we note that YTLPI’s power and water concession assets will remain its major cashflow contributors," it said.

YTLPI's subsidiaries are in power generation, water and sewerage services, electricity transmission and telecommunications.

The ratings agency said while the group will be viewed to have a more aggressive risk appetite if it deviates further from its strategy of only investing in concession-based utility and infrastructure assets, "we note that the management has been circumspect in its investment decisions and has demonstrated good acumen in business execution thus far".

RAM Ratings, meanwhile, reaffirmed the AA1 ratings of YTLPI’s RM2 billion commercial papers/medium-term notes programme (2007/2014) (CP/MTN) and RM2.2 billion serial redeemable bonds (2008/2013); long-term ratings have a stable outlook.

It also reaffirmed the P1 rating of the YTLPI’s CP/MTN. The ratings remain supported by the group’s robust business profile stemming from its regulated asset base, particularly its investments in power and water-sewerage services via its unit YTL Power Generation Sdn Bhd (YTLPG) in Malaysia, PowerSeraya Ltd (PowerSeraya) in Singapore and Wessex Water Ltd (WWL) in the United Kingdom (UK).

In this regard, WWL has maintained its position as one of the most efficient water and sewerage-services companies in the UK. At the power-generation end, YTLPG has been able to achieve an availability level of around 90% for the past six years; PowerSeraya exhibits a strong operating performance, underscored by its availability of about 88% as at end-March 2009.

"Nonetheless, the group’s capital structure remained constrained by its hefty debt burden of RM22.92 billion as at end-December 2009, with a corresponding net gearing ratio of 2.02 times. However, most of these debts are parked under core subsidiaries that generate stable cashflow," it said.

RAM Ratings said YTLPI had healthy debt-protection measures; its company-level adjusted operating cashflow debt coverage (OCFDC) ratio was 0.28 times as at end-June 2009.

Based on RAM Ratings’ cashflow analysis, YTLPI’s OCFDC ratio is projected to range around 0.17–0.25 times throughout the tenures of YTLPI’s debt issues.