Telekom revenue up 9.9%, operating profit up 64.7% in Q3 2013

By Digital News Asia November 29, 2013

Group Reported Operating Profit (EBIT) surged 64.7% YoY to RM364.9mil
Total broadband customer base increased 7.7% YoY to 2.18 million

TELEKOM Malaysia Berhad (TM) has announced a 9.9% Year-on-Year (YoY) growth in group revenue to RM2.6 billion for the third quarter ended Sept 30 2013, from RM2.4 billion in the same quarter last year on the back of higher revenue contribution from Internet and data services.

Internet and multimedia services saw 14.1% higher revenue YoY to RM685.4 million in the quarter, mainly from increased UniFi customers and content revenue. Data services also recorded a 17% increase YoY to RM635 million in the current year quarter, in line with higher bandwidth demand, the company said in a statement.

Group reported operating profit (Earnings Before Interest and Tax or EBIT) jumped 64.7% YoY to RM364.9 million from RM221.6 million in Q3 2012, attributed to higher revenue and lower operating costs.

Group Profit Before Tax (PBT) increased 11.1% to RM264.9 million in the current quarter from RM238.5 million in 3Q2012.

Group Reported Net Profit or Profit After Tax And Minority Interest (PATAMI) stood at RM240.9 million in the current year quarter. Normalised Net Profit or PATAMI (excluding unrealised foreign exchange loss and higher tax expense) rose 32.4% YoY to RM270.3 million from RM204.1 million last year.

[RM1 = US$0.31]

“Cost as a percentage of revenue also improved from 89.1% to 87.2% in the year to date (YTD) Sept 2013. In terms of capex (capital expenditure) efficiency, we continued to manage our capex prudently and efficiently with our capex spend/ revenue ratio improving from 19.8% in YTD Sept 2012 to 14.5% this year,” said TM group chief executive officer Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa (pic).

He said TM’s broadband products recorded a 7.7% growth YoY to 2.18 million customers in Q3 2013, with UniFi, the company’s high-speed broadband (HSBB) offering driving this growth.

“As at end Sept 2013, we have rolled out HSBB projects to 1.462 million premises covering 103 exchanges nationwide. We closed the quarter with more than 607,000 UniFi customers – a net add of about 180,000 or 42.2% growth YoY,” he said.

“This translates to a take up rate of about 42%. To date, we have over 620,000 UniFi customers,” he added.

TM’s Streamyx high-speed broadband products, which are now being offered in non-UniFi areas, are also seeing good take-up, according to Zamzamzairani.

“To date, 39% or 841,000 of our total broadband customers are on high-speed broadband packages (Streamyx 4Mbps and 8Mbps and UniFi),” he said.

The recent launch of TM’s three latest initiatives – the My1Hub, Iskandar International Gateway (IIGW) and its first privately-owned submarine cable system, Cahaya Malaysia Submarine Cable System (Cahaya Malaysia) – has boosted the company’s aspirations towards becoming an international, regional and a neutral hub.

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