KUALA LUMPUR (July 13): Higher postpaid subscriber mix, better quality prepaid base, and good traction on new digital innovations boosted Digi.com Bhd’s net profit to RM384.34 million in the second quarter ended June 30, 2018 (2QFY18), some 7% more than a year ago.

Earnings per share rose to 4.94 sen from 4.62 sen previously. Revenue in the quarter was 4% higher to RM1.62 billion from RM1.55 billion a year ago.

The group has announced a second interim dividend of 4.9 sen per share for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2018 (FY18), payable on Sept 28.

In a statement today, Digi said its service revenue grew 2.1% y-o-y to RM1.48 billion in the quarter, anchored by solid postpaid and internet revenue growth.

Internet revenue increased 26.4% y-o-y to RM805 million on the back of an 8.8 million active internet subscriber base, each using an average 8.2GB of data a month.

Postpaid revenue grew 15.5% y-o-y to RM619 million, while prepaid revenue slipped 5.7% y-o-y to RM865 million, with yearly and sequential decline narrowing due to stronger prepaid internet revenue, the statement added.

“We have maintained good momentum in the first half of the year, contributed by a disciplined cost focus, investing in areas with better margins and growing data usage in our base. Our digitisation efforts have given us valuable insights to better sell and serve various customer segments to easily access the internet the way they want.

“Our primary focus is to continue to provide our customers with quality digital experiences over a consistent network, and to do this in a sustainable manner,” said Digi’s chief executive officer Albern Murty.

Net profit for the first half increased 5% to RM770.45 million, compared with RM732 million previously, while revenue rose 4% to RM3.25 billion, from RM3.13 billion a year ago.

Moving forward, the group said its focus for the next six months will be to step up on growth and efficiencies across postpaid and prepaid, leveraging on data driven-insights and customer segmentation, as well as to ensure a sustainable and efficient cost structure.

Digi.com closed down two sen or 0.48% today at RM4.16, with 2.3 million shares traded. It had a market capitalisation of RM32.34 billion.