Nitin Soni, Director, Asian Corporates, Fitch Ratings Singapore
Nitin Soni has been analysing the telecom, media and technology (TMT) space for over a decade now. Calling it an “ever evolving” domain, he says the industry has changed dramatically since he started analysing it in 2007. Soni started his career with Deloitte Haskins and Sells, where he worked in its audit and assurance department, covering hotels, FMCG and power companies in India. His association with the TMT space began in 2007, when he joined Bank of America. The scope of his analysis expanded further to Asia-Pacific TMT corporates when he joined Fitch Ratings. In his current role as director, Asian Corporates, Fitch Ratings, he is responsible for understanding the credit implications of technological changes and other challenges for Asia Pacific TMT corporates.
Soni believes that the Asian telecom industry is witnessing rapid cannibalisation of traditional voice and text services by data services, which is pressuring telecom operators’ revenues and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation as well as cash generation. “It is interesting to see how the once-fragmented Indian telecom sector has consolidated from 10-13 participants to three large competitors,” he says.
In fact, he considers analysing the competitive Indian telecom market as his most memorable (and ongoing) stint. “The Indian telecom space is experiencing bouts of hyper-competition, marked by the entry of new participants in 2008 and Reliance Jio in 2016. I am really excited about how the competitive and other industry dynamics unfold, and the counter-strategies the incumbents adopt.”
One of the most interviewed TMT credit ratings’ analysts in Asia, Soni likes to comment on the Asian TMT industry, especially Indian operators. He completed his schooling in Delhi and graduated from the Shri Ram College of Commerce. He is also an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, and was an all-India rank holder in both the intermediate and final examinations.
During his spare time, he enjoys reading non-fiction books on business and technology. “I also play cricket on weekends and participate in cricket tournaments in Singapore. I will be visiting South Africa in December 2017 to play in the Last Man Stands World Championships,” he says. Soni’s family comprises his wife, who is a banker with an Indian financial institution in Singapore, and their six-year-old daughter, who is a first-grader at the National Public School, Singapore.
