- Maxis has named Morten Lundal as its new Chief Executive Officer. The appointment is effective 1st October 2013.

- The new appointment came after Sandip Das resigned earlier this year and his intended successor, Johan Dennelind (who succeeded Lundal at Digi) had turned down the position.

- Morten Lundal was previously CEO at Digi (from 2004 till 2008) before moving to Vodafone as its Chief Commercial Officer in 2008.

- Lundal adopted the internal tagline “Time to Change” during his tenure and was aggressive in implementing changes at Digi.

- Among others, Lundal was responsible for changing market perception of Digi from a “value” brand to a “hip” brand targeting the youth segment.

- The move involved aggressive pricing strategies including introducing cheap starter packs and bundling.

- The aggressive moves saw Digi’s market share increase from 16% in 2003 to 25% in 2007 despite lacking in 3G development relative to peers – Digi did not have a 3G spectrum until its tie-up with Time dot Com in late 2007.

- It was in 2007 (at the tail end of Lundal’s tenure with Digi) that Digi started adopting aggressive capital management policies, which included a few capital repayment exercises and raising dividends.

- We view the appointment of Morten Lundal as Maxis’ new head positively.

- Ironically, both of Maxis’ CEO candidates i.e. Lundal and Dennelind (previously) are both ex-CEOs at Digi at a time when Maxis is aggressively trying to regain market share from Digi, as has been seen in the past 15 months.

- Maintain HOLD on Maxis at unchanged FV of RM6.55/share.

Source: AmeSecurities