Forum Archive Index - June 2000

["malcolm coleman" <malcolmcoleman@hotmail.com>]

For what its worth,  my 'clippings' on Newcall (http://www.newcall.co.nz)  
are below. I'm a former shareholder, bought @ 45c,sold 48c about a month ago 
(reluctantly - case of having to raise cash!).  Seemed very steady until 
Telstra/Telecom started falling.  Much smaller coy,  into office small 
business telecoms systems with 'single-billing' facility.  Singapore 
'license' seemed highly lucrative - but very little news forthcoming on 
this. Look at Telstra's desperate attempts to get into Sing! MD Norman 
Nicholls is approachable - informed me (if memory is correct!) that 
Director's escrow shares can be traded from July? Don't quote me...
My 'Bollinger' bands (two glasses between 7 and 9pm is sufficient) tell me 
it seems to have found the sea-bottom at 34c.
All IMHO!
Mr Y2K

28/4/00  Newcall moving in Asia
Second-tier telecommunications company Newcall will  become active in more 
Asian markets as they deregulate, says  managing director Norman Nicholls.   
The Auckland-based company's ultimate parent,  Taiwan-based Pacific Electric 
Wire and Cable had "made a  strategic decision to utilise Newcall as the 
vehicle to expand its  telecommunications operations in Asia," he said.   
Last month, Newcall was issued with a licence to become a  service-based 
operator in Singapore, where the telecoms  market was deregulated from the 
beginning of the month. Mr  Nicholls said the first Newcall service there 
would be a prepaid  card, which would be launched next month.   Pacific 
Electric owns a majority stake in Newcall through its  subsidiary Charoong 
Thai Wire & Cable. Another subsidiary,  Pacific Den-Den Investment, 
yesterday bought 10 million  shares, or 8.3 per cent of the capital, in 
Newcall from  Charoong at 50c a share.   Pacific Electric also has an 
interest in Taiwan cellular, which  has a customer base of over 3.5m and has 
been awarded one  of three licences to build and operate a fixed telephone 
line  network in Taiwan.   Newcall shares yesterday closed up 2c at 49.

25.04.2000 - By ADAM GIFFORD
New Zealand listed telephone company Newcall Group  is looking for Singapore 
investors to fund its expansion  into that country's deregulated 
telecommunications  market.   Chief financial officer Guy Pierce said the 
expansion  was expected to cost between $S5 million to $7 million  over two 
years to build up the brand, with the business  conservatively forecast to 
start turning a profit in the  second half of next year.   The company will 
get the money by selling a minority  stake in its Newcall Singapore 
subsidiary.
``We're looking for strategic, corporate players in  Singapore because there 
is an opportunity to take this  into the public arena later,'' said Mr 
Pierce.   He said Newcall's board had a policy not to invest  financially in 
subsidiaries. Its contribution was the  intellectual property, methodologies 
and experience it  had built up in the New Zealand market.   Singapore was 
seen as the springboard into other Asian  markets as they deregulated.
Mr Pierce said the Singapore expansion was driven by  Newcall New Zealand, 
rather than its 65 per cent  shareholder, Bangkok-listed Charoong Thai Wire 
and  Cable Public, which in turn was largely owned by  US-based Pacific 
Electric Wire and Cable.   ``They have identified Newcall as the vehicle for 
  telephone expansion in Asia,'' he said.   Sales and marketing director 
Stephan Goodburn said  there was an opportunity for healthy returns in the 
early  years, before margins dropped significantly.   He said because 
Singapore had gone for 100 per cent  deregulation, including full number 
portability, ``we can  go to a client and take their total bill overnight.'' 
   ``If we sell to a  business in New Zealand today, we  can take at best 40 
per cent of the bill.''
There was also advantage in moving fast against  Singapore Telephone because 
``satisfaction is dropping  as people realise the profits Singtel has been 
making.''   Newcall was installing a calling card switch and would  start 
selling phone cards in Singapore in the next  couple of weeks, followed by 
other services such as  local and mobile access as the local sales force was 
  ramped up.   Because it was leasing bandwidth on existing cable  networks, 
Newcall could be in business a lot more  quickly than many of its 
competitors.   ``The larger carriers will want their own cable, so they  
will take longer to be up,'' Mr Goodburn said.   As well as the licences it 
had won already, Newcall had  applied for a facilities licence which would 
give it its own  dialling code.   Mr Goodburn said Newcall's model was to 
combine the  Softel switches with French-made billing software and  have 80 
per cent of staff working in the sales area.   Its target market was small 
and medium-sized  businesses, as well as the ``foreign residents'' who  made 
up a third of Singapore's 5 million population

28/3/00   Listed new generation telecommunications company Newcall Group has 
won a licence to operate in the $5 billion Singapore market, which will be 
completely deregulated from April 1. NEWCALL Group is one of only ten 
telecommunications companies in the world to be awarded a Services-Based 
Operator (SBO) Licence by the Singapore Government. The first round of 
licences to be granted for the new deregulated market valued at more than 
NZ$5 billion per annum take effect from 1 April. In a ceremony in Singapore 
today NEWCALL was awarded the licence by the Singapore Minister of 
Telecommunications Mr Yeo Cheow Tong. NEWCALL is the only New Zealand based 
telco in the list of successful applicants which includes key global 
telecommunications players. 'We are and will remain a New Zealand based 
telecommunications company,' explains Nicholls. 'Our growth locally has been 
spectacular, with a 50 per cent increase in revenues this year alone, and we 
are on target to meet our operational forecasts, achieving profitability 
before the end of the year.' 'NEWCALL was established in the deregulated New 
Zealand market with the long term intention of migrating the skills learnt 
and honed locally into Asian markets as they open up to competition. Our 
main shareholders are based in the Asia Pacific region and we already have a 
Singapore office for the wholesale telecommunications market in Asia. The 
consequent expansion into the exciting Singapore retail market is a natural 
progression for us.' In February this year the Government of Singapore 
decided to bring forward the introduction of full market competition in the 
telecommunications sector by 2 years from 1 April 2002 to 1 April 2000. The 
direct and indirect foreign equity limits for all public telecommunications 
services licenses were also lifted. These measures are designed to encourage 
global communications players to participate actively in that market as well 
as locate their regional and global hubs in Singapore, thereby furthering 
that country's development as a leading knowledge-based economy and 
info-comms hub in the Asia Pacific.

20/12/99  from Sharechat boards  I was surprised to see this announcement to 
the NZSE this morning from  Newcall, a "telecommunications" company --  >  
"Newcall has announced that it has acquired 75% of Auckland based  embryonic 
  electricity reseller, Energy Options Limited (EOL). The purchase price of 
$600,000 has been met by the issue of 1,050,000  ordinary shares in Newcall 
at 57cps, with all shares subject to a  restraint  of trade. The total 
issued capital of the company following the issue of these  shares  will be 
120,877,685 ordinary shares. Newcall have retained the management of EOL, 
both of whom were previously  with Power NZ, to ensure industry knowledge 
and expertise is protected".  These statements are taken from their press 
release -- "EOL has customers in the small and medium size business market, 
and  that's  exactly where NEWCALL is focused. We can offer additional 
telephony  services  to EOL customers and our customers have the benefit of 
reduced electricity  prices. "In fact we were so impressed with EOL that we 
changed to buying our  electricity from them early in our discussions, 
resulting in significant  savings in our energy bill," (MD Norman) Nicholls 
said.  >  Nicholls said, "At one level we are able to share call centres and 
billing  systems while at another we have the exciting prospect through our  
recently acquired subsidiary, Iprolink, to provide Internet billing and 
other  e-commerce marketing to a broader client base."  At a strategic level 
the move exploits the international trend towards  utility convergence, 
Nicholls said. The purchase mean we have an  opportunity  to explore the 
provision of utility services at a very low cost."  --

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