Credit Suisse forecasts that Netcom’s H1 growth, which will be pronounced on August 22, will be lackluster, with EBIT dropping by 1 percent year on year.

The market has been expecting the company’s fixed-line business to keep soft, but its fast-rising broadband business will to a large extent offset the decrease, though question mark still hanging over whether the average revenue generated from each broadband user in the first quarter of the year can sustain, the investment bank says.

It rates Netcom at “outperform” with a target price of 26.5 Hong Kong dollars per share.