It remains our sectoral pick, premised on its service revenue recovery starting 2Q22, its being 5G leader and a decent dividend yield of 4%.
A bit short of our model
ADVANC posted a net profit of Bt6.31bn for 1Q22, down 5% YoY and 8% QoQ. Excluding extra items in 1Q22—Bt42m in net FX loss and Bt62m tax benefit from investment—core profit was Bt6.29bn, down 6% YoY and 4% QoQ. Both net and core profits were 6% below our estimate due to lower service revenue than modeled. Core service revenue was 1% below our estimate led by mobile and non-mobile enterprise revenues which were 1.1% and 1.5% short of our forecasts. However, fixed broadband (FBB) revenue beat our model by 2.4% due to higher net FBB subscriber additions and its ARPU. Service costs and SG&A expenses were well controlled—1% and 1.6% below our estimates—from marketing, amortization expenses and network OPEX.