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Technology Stocks : Pacific Internet Next HOT IPO? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Herc who wrote (652)	5/12/1999 11:20:00 AM
From: Nanchate	Respond to of 912

Singapore's Pacific Internet First-Quarter Profit Doubles Singapore, May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore's Pacific Internet Ltd., Asia's first Internet company to trade in the U.S., said its first-quarter profit more than doubled as it signed on more customers. Profit doubled to $1.7 million, or 14 cents a share, from $720,000, or 7.3 cents, a year earlier. That beat an IBES International Inc.'s forecast of 10 cents a share. Sales rose 29 percent to $11.7 million from $9.1 million. Pacific Internet, commonly known as PacNet, said its dial-up customers rose 50 percent to 217,014 from 144,852 a year earlier. It set aside $720,000 to match an offer by rival SingNet, the Internet unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., which absorbed phone charges for its customers when they're online. ''We countered head-on SingNet's price cut through its toll absorption, and our customer base is still growing,'' said Chan Wing Leong, PacNet's chairman. He warned, though, that ''this year should see a squeeze in margins due to increased competition and expansion costs.'' PacNet, which operates in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines, may buy one or more Internet service providers in Australia this year, it said. Other markets it's expanding into are India, Korea and China. Investors have been upbeat about the company, along with other Internet stocks traded in the U.S. Its share price soared four times from its offer price of 17 on Feb. 5. It closed Tuesday at 66 1/4. Still, analysts say it must do more to stay ahead. ''Pacific Internet is a plain vanilla Internet company,'' said David Leow, associate director at HSBC Securities (Singapore) Pte. ''If it can move successfully up the chain by getting in e-commerce and becoming a content provider, certainly you can justify higher valuations.'' PacNet is a unit of SembCorp Industries Ltd., Southeast Asia's largest civil engineering company. May/12/1999 7:34 For more stories from Bloomberg News, click here. (C) Copyright 1999 Bloomberg L.P. Any redistribution of Bloomberg content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Bloomberg L.P. Any reference to the material must be properly attributed to Bloomberg News. The information herein was obtained from sources which Bloomberg L.P. and its suppliers believe reliable, but they do not guarantee its accuracy. Neither the information, nor any opinion expressed, constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities.(C) Copyright 1999 Bloomberg L.P. BLOOMBERG, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Financial Markets, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg News Radio are trademarks, tradenames and service marks of Bloomberg L.P.