KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 26): DiGi.Com Bhd saw its net profit fall 18.55% to RM396.62 million or 5.10 sen a share for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) from RM486.92 million or 6.26 sen a share a year ago.

The country's third largest telecommunication services provider attributed this to the higher progressive depreciation from network expansion and accelerated depreciation of RM26 million relating to migration of data centre.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, DiGi said revenue for the quarter also dropped 5.11% to RM1.67 billion from RM1.76 billion in 3QFY14 amid intense international direct dial (IDD) and data price competition.

Nevertheless, DiGi declared a third interim dividend of 5.1 sen totalling RM397 million for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), payable on Dec 4, 2015. This brings its total dividend to 17.1 sen per share for the year.

For the nine-month period (9MFY15), DiGi's net profit came in at RM1.34 billion or 17.24 sen per share, 8.84% lower compared with RM1.47 billion or 18.92 sen per share a year ago. Revenue for the period fell marginally by 0.57% to RM5.19 billion from RM5.22 billion in 9MFY14.

In a statement today, DiGi chief executive officer Albern Murty said the volatile consumer sentiment from the goods and services tax, shrinking wallet size from weaker ringgit and fierce competition has brought about a lacklustre 3QFY15, despite the industry's prospects remaining optimistic.

"Our focus now is to fuel data momentum to drive future growth," he said, adding the group will continue to make access to high-speed internet easy through its wide service touchpoints in stores and online, with competitive smart device bundles and plans in the coming months.

"We will do this while driving deeper focus on customer experience. Demand for quality internet access will be the key driver, and we are hopeful of increasing revenues from our growing number of internet users going forward," said Albern.

During the quarter, he said DiGi has invested another RM223 million, with year-to-date cumulative investment of RM616 million in capital expenditure (capex), primarily on 4G-LTE (long-term evolution) network deployment nationwide.

He added the group remained committed to its RM900 million investment to drive robust data network for consistent high-speed internet services on-the-go and aims to add another 1,500 4G-LTE sites by year end.

"This will provide a good platform and head start leading into financial year 2016 (FY16) to capture internet growth and data monetisation opportunity," he added.

Currently, DiGi delivers 4G-LTE on 1800Mhz and 2600Mhz spectrum bands, and overlays both spectrum bands for 4G-LTE in an increasing number of key market centres to provide customers with wider network coverage, greater capacity and significantly improved indoor and outdoor internet experiences.

Its customer base remained solid at 11.7 million with active internet subscribers continuing to climb to 7 million or 60.2% of the total subscriber base. Its post-paid subscribers grew 4.6% on year to 1.8 million while the pre-paid user base levelled to 9.9 million.

Shares in DiGi was traded at RM5.62, down one sen or 0.18%, as at 12.30pm midday break today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM43.77 billion.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)