18th October 2007 : Leadcom voted "AIM International Company of the Year for 2007"




Main Web Site : http://www.leadcom-is.com/

Investor Relations Email : investorsinfo@leadcom-is.com

Yep, 2 Billion dollar deal for Ericsson from Bharti :


http://www.bloomberg.com:80/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aZLapz5IU1UI&refer=india

Ericsson Wins $2 Billion Order From India's Bharti Airtel

By Ashok Bhattacharjee and Shailendra Bhatnagar

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- Ericsson AB, the world's largest maker of wireless networks, said it won an order worth $2 billion from Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest wireless service provider.

Ericsson, which manages Bharti's networks in 15 of the 23 zones that make up India's telecommunications market, will provide equipment that runs on the Global System for Mobile Communications, or GSM, technology. The two-year contract is Ericsson's largest so far, the company said in a statement in New Delhi.

``This contract is an important part of realizing Bharti's vision of a converged network and of expanding coverage in rural India,'' Mats Granryd, managing director at Ericsson India, said in the statement.

Overseas wireless network makers such as Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent are competing for network orders in India, where phone companies are investing to accommodate new subscribers. The South Asian country, one of the fastest-growing mobile-phone markets in the world, added 5.39 million subscribers on the GSM platform in June.

Ericsson, based in Stockholm, won a $1 billion, three-year contract from Bharti in August 2006 to manage the design, development and deployment of its network, enabling expansion in rural India.

Bharti, based in New Delhi, on July 3 gave a $900 million order to Nokia Siemens Networks to expand its wireless networks in the remaining eight zones.

Ericsson and Nokia Siemens were also short-listed by state- run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., India's largest telephone company, to supply mobile-phone equipment valued at as much as $9.5 billion.

India's Communications Minister A. Raja said on June 1 he wants Bharat Sanchar to renegotiate the contract with Ericsson and lower the price to below $100 per line from $107.

Bharat Sanchar said July 13 new bids for the supply may be an option.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ashok Bhattacharjee in New Delhi at ashokb@bloomberg.net ; Shailendra Bhatnagar in Mumbai at sbhatnagar3@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: July 18, 2007 05:22 EDT

Yes looks good PP, I imagine some of that $2b will filter down to LEAD over the next few weeks/months.
2517

Looks like BSNL is now decided, and also, the growth in India remains massive for the next 3 to 5 years.


http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/19/stories/2007071956231300.htm


BSNL to place orders for 23 million GSM lines


New Delhi: The Central Government on Wednesday curtailed the GSM tender of BSNL to half at 23 million lines and the telecom PSU would place the order to successful bidders -- Ericsson and Nokia-Siemens -- in a day or two.

Shortly after it got the direction from Telecom Minister A Raja, who sought changes in the original contract valued at about Rs 20,000 crore, BSNL said the Advance Purchase Order would be placed in a day or two.

When contacted BSNL CMD A K Sinha told PTI: The Advance Purchase Order will be placed either today or tomorrow to the two successful bidders -- Ericsson and Nokia.

The APO would be for both 2G and 3G services, he said, adding that the order for 3G would be placed only after the policy on services and spectrum availability is put in place.

For Ericsson this comes as a major success, as only on Wednesday it bagged a $ 2 billion contract from the countrys largest private mobile player Bharti Airtel. PTI


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http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,134719-c,industrynews/article.html

Rapid Growth Seen for India's Mobile Market

Revenue from cellular services is expected to jump by more than 18 percent each year for the next five years.

John Ribeiro, IDG News Service
Wednesday, July 18, 2007 8:00 AM PDT

New research has confirmed that India's mobile phone market is set for a period of fast growth, with revenue from cellular services expected to jump by more than 18 percent each year for the next five years.

Most of the growth will come from rural areas, where only 2 percent of the population have access to mobile phones today, said Madhusudan Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner Inc., which conducted the research. Service providers have already started to focus on rural markets, with aggressive rates and handsets priced at under $25, he said.

Cellular service revenue in India will increase at a compound annual rate of 18.4 percent between this year and 2011, to reach US$25.6 billion, Gartner estimated. Cellular revenue last year was $8.9 billion.

As call rates fall from their current level of 2.6 cents per minute to rates comparable to fixed lines, which are about 0.9 cents per minute, a broad swathe of additional users will start using mobile phones, Gupta said. "The fixed-line infrastructure in India is not that good, which is giving enough of space for mobile wireless to move in," he said.

Revenue from data will outpace that of voice services and contribute to about one fifth of revenue in 2011, more than double its share last year, although most of that growth will come from urban markets, Gartner said.

As they expand into rural areas, operators will see their average revenue per user (ARPU) fall to $59.50 per year by 2011, from $82.1 last year. Successful operators will be those that make up for the falling ARPU through economies of scale, Gupta said. Operators are likely to collaborate by sharing infrastructure and outsourcing their network management to equipment vendors, and possibly system integrators, he added.

For example, Bharti Airtel Ltd., a large Indian service provider, said Wednesday it had awarded a contract worth $2 billion over two-years to Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, to expand its network in rural areas and provide capacity management.

The service providers should not be short of funds for expansion. Vodafone Group PLC's acquisition in May of a controlling interest in the Indian operator Hutchison Essar Ltd., for $10.9 billion, has increased the valuation of all Indian service providers, and is helping them to attract private equity and other investments, Gupta said.

The rural demand will come from businesses expanding into these areas, as well as from local businesses. Some individuals will own mobile phones, although the predominant model is likely to be a communally-owned handset, a concept already tried in some areas, Gupta said.

India added 15.5 million mobile subscribers in the first quarter of this year, taking the total to 165.1 million, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Gartner expects 58 percent of the rural population and 95 percent of the urban population to be covered by mobile networks by 2011. That year, the total number of mobile connections in India will have increased to more than 462 million, according to Gartner. India's total population at that time will be close to 1.2 billion, according to some estimates.

Just added more, am now overweight, bought 4000 at 69p showing as a sell. Looking good for a challenge on top of bull channel, I expect 74p+ next week

I am also overweight, with this co being my largest % holding, topped up couple days ago also @69p, think 80p challenge on horizon...

Some weakness atm, let's hope it's short lived.
2517

May be due to Ericson's figure's being slightly disappointing.
2517

Sudden sp increase there, perhaps good news on it's way, or will it be short lived?
2517

Latest BSNL news for those interested, and a very juicy 75m line new tender indeed :

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/07/24/stories/2007072450480400.htm

BSNL to float fresh tender for 75 m mobile lines

Raja meets employees union to defuse strike move

Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi, July 23 In a bid to keep up its expansion plans intact, the Communications & IT Minister, Mr A. Raja, has instructed Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to float a fresh tender for 75 million cellular lines by the end of the year.

The state-owned telecom major is also making a contingency plan to meet the immediate crunch in capacity including giving additional orders to existing vendors Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia and Nortel, in the event BSNL and Ericsson cannot arrive at a decision on the price for the truncated 23 million line contract over the next week.

3G services

This is aimed at tiding over the immediate capacity crunch being faced by the telecom major. Senior officials in the Department of Telecom said that BSNL has also been allowed to procure core equipment for 3G mobile services even before the policy is announced to keep it at par with the private operators. They said the radio part of 3G services equipment will be procured after the policy is finalised as it depends on the spectrum.

DoT officials said that Mr Raja has assured the employees union that these measures would take care of the PSUs interest. In a meeting held on Monday between the two sides, Mr Raja is understood to have told the BSNL unions Joint Forum not to go ahead with their plans of an indefinite strike given that 36.3 million cellular lines would be available to BSNL from the new tender, which will meet the companys requirement for 15 to 18 months.

The union had earlier said that they want BSNL to place order for 45.5 million lines as was initially planned or they would go on an indefinite strike.


Labour Ministry appeal

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour has asked the union not to go ahead with the proposed strike. In a note sent to the employees Joint Forum, the Office of the Regional Labour Commissioner (Central) said that it would hold conciliatory meetings between the union and BSNL management. The union is requested not to resort to direct action till the pendency of conciliation, said the letter from Ministry of Labour. However, the union is yet to respond to this.

DoT officials also pointed out that the strike call given by the BSNL employees could be termed as illegal as the Industrial Disputes Act 1947 stipulate that workers can go on strike only on issues connected with the terms of employment or conditions of labour. They said that higher Government authorities, including the Prime Ministers Office, have been briefed about the developments.

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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070724/asp/business/story_8097943.asp

BSNL union hardens stand

JAYATI GHOSE

New Delhi, July 23: The BSNL employees union today met telecom minister A. Raja to debate the pruned down telecom equipment deal.

The state-owned PSU placed an order for 23 million GSM lines to the lowest bidder Swedish vendor Ericsson.

Union members want BSNL to place the purchase order for the entire 45.5 million GSM lines as envisaged in the original tender. The forum has also strongly objected to the BSNL boards decision of not purchasing 3G equipment now. It will do so only after the announcement of the 3G policy by the government.

This tantamounts to denying BSNL of its much-needed technical edge to compete with private companies, said V.A.N. Namboodri, convenor, joint forum, BSNL union. He added that instead of reducing the order, BSNL should increase the number of GSM lines in the order, as provisioned in the tender.

Namboodri said since the meeting with Raja was not conclusive, the employees would go on an indefinite strike. However, a final decision will be taken after the union members meet on July 25, he added. The BSNL union had gone on a day-long strike on July 11 to protest the delay in placing of the order.

On July 18, BSNL decided to buy 23 million GSM lines, half of the original 45.5 million GSM tender, from bidders Ericsson and Nokia. Moreover, the PSU had restricted the order to 2G technology in the first phase.

The management is optimistic about finding a simple solution for the entire complicated deal. Both the BSNL union and the management have the company's welfare in mind and we expect to arrive at a suitable conclusion for the telecom equipment deal, said S.D. Saxena, director finance of BSNL.

Once Ericsson agrees with the finer points of the deal, we expect equipment to start coming in the next four to five months, added Saxena. Ericsson officials said they had received the advanced purchase order (APO) for 2G equipment and would start studying it shortly. Ericsson has two weeks to pledge bank guarantee with the public sector firm, a mark of accepting the APO.

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http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200707200337DOWJONESDJONLINE000360_FORTUNE5.htm

Ericsson CEO: Hopes To Soon See Closure Of India BSNL Deal

July 20, 2007: 03:37 AM EST

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Telefon AB LM Ericsson (ERIC) Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg Friday said he hoped to soon see the completion of a deal with India's third-largest mobile operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, despite recent delays.

BSNL was due to award Ericsson around 60% of a $4.5 billion contract last year, but this was delayed following legal intervention by rival Motorola Inc. ( MOT). The contract, which will also benefit Nokia Corp (NOK) and Siemens AG (SI) - through its Nokia Siemens Network joint-venture -, was delayed further after India's telecommunications minister said the bid price was too high

Comment from Zak Mir over at sharecrazy.com on the 19th July.


Zak Mir Re: Leadcom (LEAD) a leader ? [Re: PapalPower]
#396390 - 19/07/07 10:54 AM

We have seen a great bounce off the bottom of the 2006 price channel at 67p today, one that should start the process of an eventual 2006 resistance line projection target to 95p - the last 2006 resistance zone.

Consensus Broker Forecasts as at 29th July :


2007 PTP 11.43m
2007 EPS 6.35p
2007 DIV 1.54p


2008 PTP 16.46m
2008 EPS 9.30p
2008 DIV 2.35p


(2007 Interims will be 9th August)

10th July 2007 Altium Update now available :

http://www.esnips.com/web/LeadcomInfo/


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Ericsson have accepted the lower offer (just under 100$ a line) from BSNL and the work now commences. The acceptance came as Ericsson put the bank guarentee in place.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Ericsson_accepts_BSNLs_GSM_tender/articleshow/2251658.cms

Ericsson accepts BSNL's GSM tender
2 Aug, 2007, 2226 hrs IST, PTI

NEW DELHI: State-run telecom firm BSNL's plans to expand mobile network are finally ready for take off with Swedish telecom vendor Ericsson on Thursday accepting the GSM equipment contract and submitting bank guarantee.

Ericsson has paid the guarantee and accepted the order for laying GSM lines, BSNL sources said.

When contacted, Ericsson officials also confirmed the payment of bank guarantee.

BSNL will now offer an advance purchase order (APO) to Nokia-Siemens, the second lowest bidder for the remaining quantity of the GSM tender. The public sector firm plans to lay a total of 14 million 2G normal voice lines in the tender.

The PSU had placed an Advance Purchase Order with Ericsson on July 18 and the Swedish equipment supplier had time till August 3 to submit bank guarantee.

With this, the long-delayed process of capacity expansion of BSNL network is about to start. BSNL has already lost substantial market share due to this delay.

Although BSNL was able to lower the price from the earlier $107 per line, it took about two months and the whole tendering process took about one-and-a-half years.

The government had earlier curtailed the GSM tender to half at 23 million lines from the original 45.5 million lines.

The purchase order was placed after BSNL got directions from Communications Minister A Raja, who had sought changes in the original contract valued at about Rs 20,000 crore as approved by his predecessor Dayanidhi Maran.

The order for 3G would be placed only after the policy on third generation services and spectrum availability is put in place.


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And now the fun starts, as BSNL will now issue a new tender for 2G/3G and 4G services, and estimates vary from 50m to 90m lines, and time frame of year end/9 months from issue.

So, look forward to 2008 with yet more big BSNL tenders, and add on to that around about 8 Billion dollars of Reliance India spend, and a few Billion more from the others (like Bharti Airtel etc..)

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=30_7_2007&ItemID=14&Cat=5

BSNL to invite global tender for 90 mn GSM lines next month

UNITED NEWS OF INDIA

New Delhi, July 29:

Unfazed by recent set backs in GSM expansion plans, state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is planning to add 90 million lines tenders, for which it will be calling all top players including Motorola.
The new tender will also include second, third and fourth generation technologies.
This is more than the double of the earlier tender amount of 45.5 million lines which was grounded after the new telecom minister Azhimuthu Raja wanted a probe into the tendering process which was awarded to Ericsson after Motorola was found a misfit on executing the project for technical reasons.
Sources said the new tender is likely to include future technologies like 4G but will also include 2G which is plain voice and 3G which includes advanced voice and data.
In 4G, data can be transferred at a rate of 100mbps, outdoor and One Gbps indoor. The new tender is expected to be similar to the earlier tender for 45.5 million lines: The new tender will also stipulate that about 50 per cent of the lines be GSM-enabled.
The equipment orders for the new tender are likely to be finalised by the year-end, sources said. BSNL union leader V A N Namboodiri said he would defer the indefinite strike call over the earlier delay in procuring 45.5 million GSM lines.
We will not go in for a strike now, but have decided to postpone the earlier plan. Instead, we will launch a nationwide campaign to highlight the important issues. We hope our demands will be met. We will also have a national convention in Delhi soon and all members from across the country will attend. BSNL unions had earlier planned to go on an indefinite strike to protest the PSU boards decision to halve the tender size from 45.5 million lines initially, in line with the wishes of Mr Raja. The BSNL unions wanted an explanation from both the PSUs management and also Mr Raja on the logic of linking the 3G component of the tender to the 3G policy.
BSNL had earlier in the month placed an advanced purchase order (APO) with Ericsson, its lowest bidder along with Nokia for the first phase of the equipment tender since the bidding process began in March 2005.
After Mr Raja assumed office, he said the bid priced at 107 dollars a line was too high and the tender has been delayed on this issue.
Motorola, disqualified from participating in the tender on technical grounds is looking for a comeback into the worlds fastest growing telecom market.

http://reports.finance.yahoo.com/w0?r=39984438:2

Date: 16-Jul-07
Author: Rich Church
Contributor: C.E. Unterberg, Towbin
Title: LEAD.L: Raising Estimates; Reiterate Buy

Synopsis

We believe Leadcom has significant room for growth. Drivers include expansion of wireless networks in Africa, India and North America, expansion of relationships with vendors, and through the acquisition of Ytelcom. The company raised its 2007 revenue forecast to at least $225 million, reflecting 1H07 results and the Ytelcom acquisition. Ytelcom had revenues of $55 million and $6 million in operating income in 2006. At the end of June 2007, it is estimated that Ytelcom had net assets of approximately...........................................


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Leadcom Announces New Win in the MEA Region

Leadcom Integrated Solutions Ltd. ('Leadcom' or 'the Company', (LSE:LEAD), a
leading international provider of innovative telecommunication solutions, is
pleased to announce it has been awarded a significant project in Israel. The
value of the project is approximately US$12 million dollars, and will be
recognized in 2008 and 2009, building upon Leadcom's backlog for next year.

The scope of work rendered will include planning, deployment, integration and
maintenance of data networks. This new contract is with an existing customer of
the Company.

Management expects this project to grow in scope and value.

half year report out, obviously the market was looking for more...

outlook for second half very good though

i don't think LEAD will ever become a rocket, but it is not unreasonable to expect sp to continue to grow steadily, even if rather boringly

All is fine in my book. The results are weighted quite heavily to H2 (expecially with the acquisition) and should level out on margins by full year. Its the nature of the beast, you have excellent visibility, however within years you get lumpy income.

Note we are now going to quaterly reporting.

Nice to see the cash generation this time around.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20070809070500Z9242

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And a new contract win thrown in as well :


http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=20070809070000Z9246

.

As Leadcom, as announced today, now report quarterly, for a shorter term trade, I would suggest Q3 results are going to be very nice, and so will take some extra short term positions going into them, to ride alongside the long term holding.

Estimate, Q3 will be around 61m US$, giving a single quarter which should "nearly" equal the past half year in terms of profit and earnings.

Q4 being around 80m US$ and of course, being better than Q3 ;)