Lower valuations add to telecoms’ appeal

Article Excerpt

Traditional telecommunications service providers, such as Telus and BCE, are trading at substantially lower valuations compared to other “infrastructure” type companies. This is not only true for Canadian companies, but also for U.S. and other similar companies in Europe. Growth and profitability: Railways in the lead In order to compare the various infrastructure groups, we selected the main Canadian and U.S. operators in each of the four industries. Companies included in the comparative analysis are Telus, BCE, Rogers, AT&T, and Verizon (telecommunications); Enbridge, TC Energy, Williams Companies and Kinder Morgan (pipelines); Fortis, Hydro One, NextEra and Southern (utilities), and CN Rail, CSX, Union Pacific, Canadian Pacific Kansas City (railways). A comparison of the various infrastructure groups (see table below) indicates that the railway companies produced the highest annual revenue growth over the past 5 years—although the average was skewed by the high growth recorded by CP Rail after its acquisition of Kansas City Southern. The other three groups lagged somewhat, but still managed to…