KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) anticipates revenue for financial year ending Dec 31, 2019 (FY19) to be lower versus FY18, amid continuous competition and higher customer expectations.

Acting group chief executive officer Imri Mokhtar said today that TM expects the challenges it faced in 2018 to continue. Imri said industry revenue is declining, and customer expectations have gone up by a few notches, as they want better services with lower prices. 

"So TM needs to go beyond just providing connectivity; we need to bring solutions, enabling more digital businesses. To do that, our investment will continue, and invest into digital infrastructure, not just network infrastructure," he said here today at a media briefing on the group's FY18 results.

Earlier today, TM said in a statement to Bursa Malaysia that its 4QFY18 net profit fell to RM69.66 million, from RM277.01 million a year earlier. TM said revenue dropped to RM3.09 billion, from RM3.2 billion.

For 1HFY18, TM said cumulative net profit fell to RM153.15 million from RM929.75 million a year earlier, while revenue was lower at RM11.82 billion versus RM12.09 billion.

For FY19, Imri said at the media briefing that TM will focus on various cost optimisation initiatives to increase earnings before interest and tax (Ebit).

Therefore, he said TM expects FY19 Ebit to be higher but declined to provide guidance on the expected quantum of improvement.

Imri, however, offered guidance on TM's capital expenditure (capex). He guided that TM's FY19 capex will be 18% to 20% of the group's total revenue and will have a balanced investment into enhancing connectivity and digital infrastructure.

For FY18, Imri said TM spent RM2.1 billion on capex.