KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 29): Telekom Malaysia Bhd's net profit rose 51% year-on-year to RM210.48 million in its second quarter ended June 30, 2017 (2QFY17), thanks to the impact of foreign exchange gain on its borrowings in the quarter under review.

In contrast, the group booked foreign exchange losses in the corresponding period last year, when net profit came in at RM139.45 million, its Bursa Malaysia filing today showed.

Meanwhile, 2QFY17 revenue declined 2% y-o-y to RM2.98 billion from RM3.05 billion, mainly due to contributions from data, voice, other telecommunication and non-telecommunication related services.  

"The decrease in revenue led to operating profit before finance cost decreasing 7.8% (RM21.8 million) to RM258.2 million from RM280 million in the corresponding quarter last year," it said.

TM declared a first interim dividend of 9.4 sen per share, payable on Oct 13.

For its cumulative six months ended June 30 (1HFY17), TM's net profit slid 5% y-o-y to RM440.92 million from RM461.89 million, though revenue was up marginally from RM5.9 billion to RM5.94 billion.

"Operating profit before finance cost decreased by 8.7% (RM53.1 million) to RM557.3 million compared with RM610.4 million recorded in the preceding year mainly due to higher operating costs and absence of any significant other gains that was recorded in the corresponding period last year," it said.

The improved half-year topline was mainly due to higher revenue from Internet and multimedia and other telecommunication-related services, it added.

In the 1HFY17 period, its mass market segment returned to the black with a profit of RM45.1 million versus a loss of RM28.3 million a year ago — on 4.4% revenue growth — mainly due to lower operating costs which included lower impact of accelerated depreciation and write-off of WiMAX assets, as well as higher contribution from UniFi, HyppTV Premium Channels, VOD, TV-over-Streamyx and webe.

It said that as of June 2017, UniFi recorded its first million customers, while webe recorded 5.6% penetration of TM households, with over 80% coverage in major cities.

Over at managed accounts, a 2.9% decline in revenue was recorded mainly due to slower voice, data and other telecommunication services topline, despite growing contribution from Internet and multimedia. Lower revenue and higher operating costs dragged the segment's profit by 19.5% to RM423.8 million.

Global wholesale registered a 1.7% rise in revenue, thanks to higher data revenue and telecommunication services. Correspondingly, profit grew 30.3% to RM211.2 million, with lower operating cost.

Commenting on prospects, TM's group chief executive officer, Datuk Sri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly, said in a separate note that the group is accelerating execution to expedite its strategic goals of Deliver Convergence and Go Digital via a new approach called “Perfexe 10”.

“We will simplify and focus our go-to-market overall. We are focused on empowering digitisation in our daily operations to optimise processes and productivity. We are expediting our fiber rollout and expanding our reach with our ongoing investments, for example to high-rise buildings”, he said.

He added that TM is working towards liberating its WiFi Access Points and continue to strengthen the group's mobility presence with the continued expansion of its LTE coverage.