Maxis profit rises to highest in 5 years

KUALA LUMPUR: Maxis Bhd has posted a robust third-quarter performance, with both net and pre-tax profits being highest in five years.

Its net profit edged up 10 per cent to RM554 million while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) soared to RM1.2 billion in the quarter ended September 30.

Its revenue increased 2.8 per cent to RM2.22 billion from RM2.16 billion a year ago.

Maxis declared an interim dividend of five sen a share.

Its group chief executive officer Morten Lundal said the quarter was “very strong” for Maxis.

“Record high demand for data and our high quality network created an all-time high customer satisfaction score,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Maxis said for the nine months, its earnings were up 8.2 per cent to RM1.63 billion from RM1.51 billion in the previous corresponding period.

Revenue increased 2.3 per cent to RM6.55 billion from RM6.4 billion.

Maxis said its Ebitda margin on service revenue in the third quarter was strong at 55.8 per cent against 54.1 per cent in the same period last year.

Normalised net profit rose 8.3 per cent to RM562 million, compared with RM519 million previously, due to higher Ebitda.

Service revenue grew two per cent to RM2.15 billion in the third quarter from RM2.1 billion a year ago, supported by strong growth in postpaid segment.

Maxis’ postpaid market delivered a high year-on-year growth of 9.3 per cent with RM1.05 billion revenue, compared with RM965 million last year.

“This was mainly driven by a solid base of almost two million MaxisONE plan customers, which contributed a stable and high average revenue per user (ARPU) of RM117 per month,” it said.

Maxis also said the Hotlink Fast subscriptions grew to more than two million and continued to lead the 4G prepaid market with high Hotlink Fast ARPU of RM43 per month.

“However, intense price focused competition and lower revenue generating subscription base due to SIM consolidation resulted in prepaid revenue declining six per cent year-on-year to RM955 million, compared with RM1.02 billion a year ago,” it said.

Record high demand for data and our high quality network created an all-time high customer satisfaction score.