Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 20, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Maxis Bhd’s net profit rose 4.2% to RM523 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 (1QFY18) from RM502 million a year ago, driven by the post-paid segment and continuous cost optimisation initiatives.

Earnings per share came in flat at 6.7 sen in 1QFY18 compared with the year-ago period. Quarterly revenue, however, fell 5.8% to RM2.24 billion from RM2.38 billion in 1QFY17 on lower service revenue.

Nevertheless, the group declared an interim dividend of five sen per share for FY18, payable on June 28.

In a statement yesterday, Maxis said normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation remained stable at RM1.02 billion with a margin on service revenue of 51.5% against RM1.02 billion and 49.3% respectively in 1QFY17. This was mainly attributable to the continuous cost optimisation initiatives that offset the lower service revenue.

Service revenue for 1QFY18 was 4.6% lower at RM1.98 billion from RM2.08 billion in 1QFY17 due to intense competition, particularly in the prepaid market.

“Prepaid revenue softened to RM849 million in 1QFY18 from RM1.01 billion in 1QFY17 due to lower subscription base. This was driven by aggressive price competition, continued SIM consolidation and migration to post-paid. Prepaid average revenue per user (Arpu) stood at RM41 per month,” it added.

However, the lower prepaid revenue was offset by the post-paid segment, which saw revenue grow 5.2% to RM985 million in 1QFY18 from RM936 million in 1QFY17, registering the highest shared line acquisition and increased average revenue per account through mobile and fixed offerings.

Post-paid Arpu moderated marginally to RM92 against a larger subscription base of 2.9 million.

Maxis also noted that capital expenditure for the current quarter under review decreased to RM107 million on lower spend on network capacity.

It added that the group continued to see solid momentum in 4G LTE adoption with 6.5 million 4G LTE users from 5.1 million a year ago, with a 92% population coverage.

Going forward, Maxis said market competition is expected to remain intense.

“In the post-paid segment, we will continuously build upon our solid flagship MaxisONE plan with innovative product offerings. In the prepaid segment, we will maintain our focus on engaging high mobile Internet users, offering differentiated digital propositions,” it added.

“Our focus remains on providing attractive products, great connectivity and worry-free experience to our customers. This will only get better as we progress with our ambition to be fully digital,” said its chief executive officer Robert Nason in a separate statement.

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