[ET Net News Agency, 31 July 2020] Morgan Stanley lowered its target price for China
Unicom (CU)(00762) to HK$6.5 from HK$8 and maintained its "overweight" rating.
The research house expects CU continued to benefit from lower D&A (depreciation and
amortisation) and interest expenses as a result of tight capex control in the past few
years, driving 30% net profit growth.
Morgan forecast 2Q service revenue of Rmb68.8bn (+4%), EBITDA of Rmb24.8bn (+1.2%), and
net profit of Rmb4.1bn (+28.8%). It estimated mobile service revenue will decline by 1.2%,
while fixed-line revenue grows 12% and EBITDA margin falls 1.0ppt to 36%. (KL)