Analysts see potential in South-east Asia’s undervalued telco tower companies

THE lofty valuations in play when Singtel sold a 70 per cent stake in wholly-owned subsidiary Australia Tower Network (ATN) in 2021 may have sparked interest in telecommunications tower companies in the region, say market watchers.

Two years on, however, the valuations of these companies in South-east Asia remain depressed – despite expectations that they will continue to earn strong revenues – which is why analysts see opportunities to buy into the undervalued sector.

Singtel’s sale of the stake in ATN, which operates telecommunications towers for Singtel’s Australian telco subsidiary Optus, put ATN’s enterprise value (EV) at A$2.3 billion (S$1.99 billion).