KUALA LUMPUR (May 30): Telekom Malaysia Bhd's (TM) net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 (1QFY19) almost doubled to RM308.28 million, from RM157.16 million a year ago, thanks to a decline in the group's operating cost.
Earnings per share rose to 8.2 sen, from 4.18 sen previously.
In its filing with Bursa Malaysia, however, the group disclosed that revenue declined by 2.4% to RM2.78 billion for the quarter under review, from RM2.85 billion in 1QFY18.
In a statement today, TM said total capital expenditure (capex) for 1QFY19 was in line with guidance at RM151 million, or 5.4% of revenue.
Moving forward, TM expects the market to be increasingly competitive, with players exploring opportunities to sustain and grow their business.
In the coming months, the group said it will continue to focus on its strategic pillars of "Converged Services", "Simple and Digital" and "Lean and Lower Cost" in TM's daily operations to drive performance and generate more value.
TM's acting group chief executive officer Imri Mokhtar said revenue challenges unexpectedly continued to persist into 1QFY19, with intensifying competition and price erosion.
"However, I'm pleased to report that our Performance Improvement Programme 2019-2021 (PIP2019-2021) is yielding results. We recorded improved operational efficiency and increased profitability. Our operating expenditure (opex)/revenue also improved by 11.4 percentage points, whilst profit for the quarter also doubled mainly from the cost optimisation efforts undertaken to counter revenue decline.
"Our capex spending was lower compared to 1QFY18 and within our guidance, as we continued to sweat our assets and optimise our network. We expect the industry and competitive landscape to continuously evolve. We remain focused on delivering our strategies of accelerating convergence and empowering digital to enable a Digital Malaysia; whilst we strengthen our resilience with our PIP initiatives and improve on customer experience," he said.
TM's share price went up by eight sen or 2.94% to RM2.80 at the market break today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM10.41 billion.