Dear Shareholders
TeleChoice
International
Limited
(“TeleChoice” or “the Group”) has
successfully negotiated the economic
challenges during the financial year ended
31 December 2015 (“FY2015”) and turned
in a strong set of results, with top and
bottom-line growth and a healthy balance
sheet.
FY2015 PERFORMANCE
The Group registered a 12.4% improvement
in revenue of S$580.7 million for the year.
Group operating profit before tax (“PBT”)
was 6.5% higher than the previous year
(“FY2014”) at S$12.2 million on the back
of higher gross profits. Net profit after
tax climbed 9.5% to S$10.3 million, while
earnings per share stood at 2.26 cents.
The Group’s balance sheet closed with
cash and cash equivalents of S$44.6 million
as at 31 December 2015.
DEEPENING CONNECTIONS,
ENHANCING CAPABILITIES
Personal Communications Solutions
Services (“PCS”) division performed well
over the course of the year, registering
revenue improvement in all but the first
quarter of FY2015. Benefitting from
higher prepaid sales with its appointment
as the master distributor for StarHub
prepaid cards, the division also forged
closer ties with existing partners through
joint marketing and business initiatives.
Through TeleChoice’s wholly-owned
subsidiary, Planet Telecoms (S) Pte Ltd
(“Planet Telecoms”), PCS increased its
retail footprint with a new retail outlet at
Waterway Point and enhanced customer
experiences with its expanded range of
mobile device and accessories offerings.
Across the causeway, PCS division
continued to offer integrated managed
and fulfilment services to U Mobile Sdn
Bhd (“U Mobile”) in Malaysia, maintaining a
well spread-out network of U Mobile shops.
Moving forward, there are opportunities to
be pursued in new horizontal as well as
vertical business, tapping on the growth
of our partners and the resulting need for
additional services, in particular in areas
of enterprise offerings, infotainment and
smart homes.
The Info-communications Technology
Services (“ICT”) division ended the year
strongly, as public sector projects and
enterprise sales drove its performance.
The division’s domain expertise in specific
sectors such as healthcare, education
and finance has begun to yield results
as it enjoyed success particularly in the
public sector in the areas of contact
centre solutions and managed services.
Building on its steadily growing project
portfolio, the Government’s spending on
ICT relating to software development,
data centres and storage facilities, and
initiatives supporting the transformation
of Singapore into a Smart Nation, will drive
the division’s development of new services.
With its focus previously on increasing
its infrastructure capabilities, the
enhancement of its services capabilities
will become more important in order for
ICT division to become a truly integrated
solutions provider.
Network
Engineering
Services
(“Engineering”) division continued to
maintain its leadership position in Radio
Network Planning and Optimisation and
In-building coverage. The division’s focus
was on pursuing regional expansion into
new markets such as Myanmar. With
the success achieved in securing sales
in Vietnam, it established a stronger
foothold there with the incorporation
of a subsidiary. Engineering division
secured partnerships for new products,
resulting from its concerted efforts to
source for adjacent technology products
in telecommunications and transmission to
complement its core engineering offerings
and add value to its customers. The
division will continue to expand regionally,
as it takes advantage of network upgrades
and telecommunications infrastructure
investments in the region.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Financial and organisational performance
aside, with our firm belief in devoting
attention and resources to the betterment
of the community, we were pleased to
partner Dignity Kitchen, Singapore’s first
hawker training school for the disabled
and disadvantage, in their efforts to bring
cheer to the elderly. Through a series of
“Lunch Treats for the Elderly”, sponsored
by TeleChoice, senior citizens from
various homes were brought on a city
tour, followed by lunch at Dignity Kitchen,
hosted by TeleChoice staff. In the year
ahead, we plan to deepen our support of
this initiative and intensify our involvement
in this outreach programme.
FUTURE READY FOR A NEW
TOMORROW
The times ahead are exciting. Disruptive
technologies, 5
th
generation mobile
networks, increasing connectivity with
the dominance of the Internet of Things
(“IoT”), all spell a new paradigm for every
aspect of our lives. It is estimated that the
IoT could generate total services spending
exceeding $200 billion this year, a 22%
increase from 2015. There will be 6.4
billion connected devices in use worldwide
this year up 30% from 2015, reaching
20.8 billion in 2020
1
. The convergence of
these technologies will open up a whole
spectrum of services and products as the
workspaces, homespaces and public places
become connected ecosystems. Big data
analytics, cloud applications, intelligent
systems and the like, will gain traction
facilitated by the faster speeds and
connectivity. With faster data transfer,
business and consumer behavior will
be impacted, opening the door for the
provision of services for the sharing and
“on-demand” economy. For TeleChoice, it
heralds opportunities for verticalisation
with new viable upstream or downstream
offerings. This is a trend we will pursue in
our effort to remain relevant and to find
new avenues of growth.
Internally, our commitment to improving
productivity, developing our people
and strengthening our structures and
processes will continue in earnest in the
new year in order to ensure TeleChoice’s
strengths at its core and future readiness
to leverage the key trends in business and
consumer lifestyle.
06
TELECHOICE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
2015 ANNUAL REPORT
LETTER TO
SHAREHOLDERS
