UPDATE: Credit Suisse Downgrades SK Telecom to Neutral on Weak Q3

Credit Suisse lowered its rating on SK Telecom

from Outperform to Neutral. Credit Suisse noted, "Following 3Q12 results announcement, we are making downward adjustments to SKT on the back of (1) higher marketing costs and (2) a slower pick-up in ARPU. Although higher marketing costs for 3Q12 were widely expected, we are concerned about the relatively slow pick-up in ARPU despite strong LTE subscriber growth. Compared to LGU where ARPU picked up 4.4% QoQ and 17.9% YoY to W30,565 with 21.2% of total subscribers on LTE services, SKT's ARPU picked was up only 0.4% QoQ and down 1.8% YoY to W32,599 with 35.6% of total subscribers on LTE service." SK Telecom closed at $15.68 on Monday.