KUALA LUMPUR: DiGi.Com Bhd saw its net profit fall 6.9% to RM464.36 million or 5.97 sen a share for the second quarter ended June 30, 2015 (2QFY15) from RM498.91 million or 6.42 sen a share a year ago, due to higher depreciation and amortisation charges as well as higher tax expenses.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the mobile service provider said revenue for the quarter also dropped by a marginal 1.3% to RM1.72 billion from RM1.75 billion in 2QFY14 due to competition intensity in international direct dial (IDD) services as well as the confusion over the post-goods and services tax (GST) implementation.

Nevertheless, DiGi.Com declared a second interim dividend of 5.9 sen totalling RM459 million for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), payable on Sept 4, 2015. This brings its total dividend to 12.14 sen per share for the year.

For the six months period (6MFY15), DiGi.Com's net profit came in at RM943.58 million or 12.14 sen a share, 4.1% lower compared with RM984.07 million or 12.66 sen a share a year ago. This is despite revenue for the period having strengthened by 1.4% to RM3.51 billion from RM3.46 billion in 6MFY14.

In a statement yesterday, DiGi.Com chief executive officer Albern Murty said it will continue to expand its 1800 Mhz and 2600 Mhz spectrum for Long Term Evolutiuon (LTE) to enable more customers to enjoy access on the LTE-enabled devices, in addition to boosting capacity and improving indoor coverage.

"We understand customers demand reliable and consistent experiences on our network, and this has been our core focus," he said.

"Over the years, we've ploughed significant investments into building a brand new network and in rapidly rolling out our high-speed network in more areas around Malaysia, while keeping a strong focus on quality of service to ensure more customers can enjoy the best mobile Internet experience," Murty said. 

Murty said DiGi.Com spent RM200 million in 2QFY15, primarily to boost data network coverage and quality and over RM2.3 billion has been spent as capital expenditure in the last three years. 

As of June 30, DiGi.Com's 4G-LTE network coverage reached more than 65% of the population in all the five key market centres, with the Klang Valley and Kota Kinabalu at 79% and 78% penetration, respectively. 

Consequently, its customer base has grown to 11.8 million primarily bolstered by a solid increase in its post-paid subscribers. Internet subscribers also steadily rose by 57.9% or 6.8 million of its total customers, with the quantum of smartphones on its network expanding by 57.1% in 2QFY15.

Going forward, Albern said that in the second half of this year, the group will build on the solid 4G LTE momentum with an ambition to continue expanding its reach to more areas nationwide to ensure even more customers enjoy quality experience on its network.

"We will also continue to strengthen our products and services value proposition, and introduce new digital innovation to encourage adoption and stimulate usage on our high-speed network," he added. 

Shares in DiGi.Com closed unchanged at RM5.53 yesterday, for a market capitalisation of RM43 billion.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 14, 2015.