SINGAPORE-One of Singapore’s four paging operators has been put up for sale, but there so far have been no takers due to poor growth prospects. Hutchison IntraPage, which began operations less than two years ago when the market was liberalized, reported a loss of S$4.9 million on turnover of just S$2.4 million for the year ended 31 December, 1997.
Its shareholders, Hong Kong’s Hutchison Telecommunications and Singapore’s Teledata Ltd. and Intraco Ltd., are believed to be looking actively for buyers, but to date without success.
Analysts say the firm’s decision to bail out of the paging industry is not surprising.
With more than 1.3 million paging subscribers, Singapore boasts the world’s highest paging penetration rate of 43 percent. The market leader, SingTel Paging, has some 1 million subscribers under its belt, leaving little room for growth amongst the remaining three-Hutchison IntraPage, ST Sunpage and M1.
As of January, Hutchison IntraPage had a customer base of about 90,000. But dealers have noticed little activity from the firm since then. They say the firm has stopped practically all of its advertising and promotional campaigns following the sudden departure of three top executives in July.
