KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 19): Maxis Bhd shares fell 2% at mid-morning today after its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 fell to RM513 million or 6.6 sen per share, from RM564 million or 7.2 sen per share in the same quarter a year earlier, as revenue slipped to RM2.26 billion from RM2.3 billion.

At 10.18am, Maxis fell 11 sen to RM5.40 with 192,900 shares traded.

The group declared a third interim dividend of 5 sen per share, payable on Dec 27.

The group's net profit for the cumulative nine months ended Sept 30 dipped to RM1.51 billion from RM1.64 billion a year ago, while revenue fell to RM6.75 billion from RM7.04 billion in the previous year.

Affin Hwang Capital Research in a note today said Maxis' results were slightly ahead of the street and house expectations — 9M18 core net profit accounts for 78% of street and 80% of house full-year profit forecasts.

"The earnings beat was attributable to higher-than-expected revenue from the U Mobile RAN sharing agreement and lower traffic, commissions and direct costs.

"Nonetheless, we still expect weaker earnings (q-o-q) in 4Q18 due to several headwinds including: (i) higher costs arising from reintroduction of the sales and service tax; (ii) declining revenue from the U Mobile RAN share agreement (expiring end-2018); and (iii) ongoing competition in the mobile segment.

"Elsewhere, management has maintained its 2018 EBITDA guidance of a high single-digit decline despite the decent 9M18 performance," it said.