KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Research has maintained its Hold call on Axiata with a target price of RM6.75, as it sees limited re-rating catalysts given the weak earnings growth prospects in 2015.

In a note on Thursday, the research house said it believe Celcom’s performance will remain weak in 2Q15, due to slower consumer spending during the initial period of GST implementation, more intense market
competition, and its recent initiatives will take time to yield results. 

"We expect Celcom to chart a gradual recovery only in 2H15. Meanwhile, XL’s next few set of quarterly results are likely to be weak due to its change in strategy to focus on higher value customers," it noted. 

CIMB has also cut its FY15/16/17 core net profit by 7.3%/9.1%/7.4% to factor in weaker XL performance. 

"We also lowered our SOP-based target price by 3.6%. We see limited catalysts for a re-rating given the weak earnings growth prospects in 2015. 

"For Asean telcos, we prefer Telkom Indonesia, Thaicom and Singtel," it said.