Maxis records Rm358mil net profit in third quarter

Telco declares interim dividend of five sen

PETALING JAYA: Maxis Bhd has recorded a net profit of Rm358mil on the back of Rm2.29bil in revenue for the third quarter ended Sept 30.

The telco said it delivered a solid operational performance for the quarter posting growth in service revenue driven by a resilient core business, stable average revenue per user (ARPU) and positive momentum in its converged solutions.

In its filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Maxis reported that its earnings per share were 4.6 sen while it declared an interim dividend of five sen a share.

For the nine months, its net profit was Rm1.164bil on a revenue of Rm6.72bil.

Comparing the quarter’s performance with that of the second quarter, Maxis saw a 1.1% improvement is service revenue to Rm1.94bil from Rm1.918bil, backed by a resilient core performance.

The telco also showed continued leadership in postpaid with a monthly ARPU of RM90 and an increase in postpaid subscribers by 128,000 which brought its total user base to 3.2 million.

Mymaxis app adoption increased to 46%, with a monthly average data usage of 15.1 GB.

It also said that the Hotlink Postpaid Flex and Maxisone Share offering continued to attract entry level postpaid as well prepaid subscribers.

Postpaid revenue including wholesale grew to Rm979mil from Rm972mil while stronger prepaid performance saw an increase to Rm794mil from Rm791mil. Monthly ARPU remained high at RM41, with continued strong Hotlink RED app adoption of 61% and data usage of 15.2 GB.

Maxis also reported solid growth in fibre, adding 34,000 net new fibre connections, bringing the total to 344,000.

Maxis CEO Gokhan Ogut said it was a strong 3Q performance, with many positives across all its business segments.

“Our convergence ambition is on track. We are making very good progress in our enterprise growth strategy with solid partnerships, and continuing to build a strong home fibre base in line with the recently launched National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP).

“We are already forging ahead with our 5G readiness and committed to deploy as soon as spectrum is made available.

“We will continue to deepen our engagement with our customers – individuals, homes and businesses – and in providing them with the best digital experience and converged solutions,” he said in a statement yesterday.

On a year-on-year (y-o-y) comparison, Maxis’ net profit was 30.21% lower at Rm358mil for the quarter although revenue rose 1.3%.

Service revenue for the quarter came in lower at Rm1.94bil as compared to Rm2.03bil in the same quarter last year.

This was due to the termination of a network sharing agreement, decline in prepaid revenue generating subscribers (RGS) and overall reduction in prepaid and postpaid ARPU, offset by the growth in postpaid and home fibre subscribers.

Service revenue, excluding wholesale revenue was Rm1.92bil, an slight increase of 0.2% compared to a year ago while normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the quarter declined 7.9% or Rm83mil to Rm964mil from Rm1.047bil compared to last year.

On its prospects for the financial year ending De 31, 2019, Maxis said it will focus on building its core offerings in the consumer and enterprise segments with innovative new solutions and services.

“In the fixed broadband market, we will focus on executing new access agreements with access providers, migrating our existing base to new price points and higher speeds and providing new innovative solutions to both consumer and enterprise customers and increased bundling.

“The group entered into a new commercial agreement with Astro, cross-selling residential services. Our priorities remain to execute our growth strategy whilst maintaining leadership in the core mobile business,” said Maxis.