Challenger telco and potential takeover target Amaysim is keeping a close eye on the policy gyrations around power prices as the company looks to sustain the strong performance of its energy business.
With high energy prices a hot-button issue for policymakers, Amaysim chief executive Peter O’Connell said households were being stung by the barriers to competition in the retail market.
“There are two things that can be done to create a more efficient retail market. The first one is to have a regulation that requires everyone (retailers, generators and distributors) to port customers over to new suppliers within 24 hours,” he told The Australian.
“Right now it can take anywhere between 30 to 40 days on average.
“The second thing that can be done is to mandate that consumers get real time data over their energy use. The generators and distributors should be investing in it. When you have that level of transparency people make good decisions. It’s what opened up the mobile market and needs to happen in energy.”
Having built its reputation as a mobile broadband reseller, with more than a million customers, Amaysim’s recent foray into the energy market has helped it contain the damage to its 2018 full-year numbers.
The company posted a 76 per cent fall in recorded net profit yesterday, from $11.5 million to $2.7m, for the year ended June 30.
Revenue for the period increased 77 per cent to $577.6m, up from $326.6m, primarily on the back of the energy business.
The energy business, which includes Click Energy and Amaysim Energy, delivered $310m in revenue for the period, accounting for 54 per cent of the total.
Mr O’Connell said making money in the mobile market was harder than ever. “We are having a tough time in mobile and things are going to be hard for some time to come,” he said.
Amaysim’s full-year mobile revenue slipped 13 per cent to $241.5m, forcing it to streamline its overall operations.
The telco has announced a review of its fixed broadband business and has also shut down its online devices store, which was launched in October last year to help consumers buy handsets at a cheaper price.
“These measures will help us reduce costs and one of the challenges I am going to put to management in October is to start with a clean sheet of paper and see how we would do mobile if we launched tomorrow,” Mr O’Connell said.
The one light at the end of the tunnel for mobile, according to Mr O’Connell, is the potential merger between TPG Telecom and Vodafone, which analysts say should see more rational pricing return to the market.
“We want the carriers to compete rationally,” he said.
“What we have seen is the industry caught in a revolving cycle of generational change in network — from 3G to 4G to now 5G — and what that does is after the carriers get their networks built they run out of ideas and start competing purely on price. With four carriers it’s a race to the bottom.”
With the major carriers getting ready to invest in 5G technology, Mr O’Connell said they could start leaving some gaps in the lower end of the 4G market that Amaysim could better exploit.
“Once they start focusing on 5G, they start to look at developing premium products to lift their mobile revenues to help fund their network build and leave the segment of the 4G market we operate in,” he said.
As the local telco market enters a consolidation phase, Amaysim is widely seen as a takeover target, with The Australian’s DataRoom reporting yesterday that the telco is back on the radar of its mobile network partner Optus.
Mr O’Connell said he was open to discussions but was still waiting for any concrete details to land.
“We are always ready to entertain proposals if they offer good value for shareholders,” he said. “We have not had any formal approach from Optus or anyone else at this stage.”
AYS Price at posting:
$1.18 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
