TM posts lower pre-tax profit in 1Q17

KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s pre-tax profit fell to RM263.74 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2017 from RM393.22 million recorded in the same quarter last year.

Revenue, however, rose 3.8 per cent to RM2.96 billion from RM2.886 billion previously, thanks to higher revenue contribution from Internet and other services, the company said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Following the higher revenue, TM’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew 8.5 per cent to RM303.8 million compared with RM279.9 million chalked up in the same quarter of 2016.

The telecommunication company spent RM352 million in capital expenditure (capex) during the just-ended quarter, which centered mostly on major projects such as the High-Speed Broadband and Sub-Urban Broadband.

Of the total spent, 53 per cent was for Access, 23 per cent (network) and the balance was utilised for support systems.

TM’s total broadband customer base stood at over 2.37 million customers, as at end-March.

UniFi accounted for 979,000 customers with 91 per cent of them using broadband packages with speeds of 10Mbps and above.

Newly appointed Group Chief Executive Officer Datuk Seri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly said this was the best first quarter ever and hoped revenue would surpass the RM3 billion-level in the first quarter next year.

Asked on what he would do differently for TM, going forward, he said no changes would be made to the company’’s existing business plan but they would be executed his ‘’zest-way’’ and as fast as possible.

“We will continue the business plan as it has been crafted and we are (now) almost in the first half of the year where most of the plan have been put forward by the management very well to support the convergence champion play (aspiration),” he said.

Meanwhile, newly-appointed Chief Financial Officer Nor Fadhilah Mohd Ali said TM was on track to achieve its key performance indicator target for this year.

The company aimed to grow its revenue between 3.5 per cent and 4.0 per cent this year and sustain EBIT at the same level as that of last year’s RM1.15 billion.

She also said TM had allocated between 25-30 per cent of revenue for capex this year. — Bernama