Maxis H1 revenue up 3.6% to RM4.4bil

• Non-voice revenue prime growth driver, contributing 45.3% to mobile revenue
• Long-term partnership with Astro to bring the best of both worlds to Malaysian consumers

MAXIS Bhd said its revenue grew for the first half for the year ended June 30, 2012, was RM4.45 billion (US$1.42 billion), up 3.6% year-on-year from the previous corresponding period’s RM4.291 billion, with non-voice revenue being the prime growth driver.
 
Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) rose 2% to RM2.239 billion (US$715 million) from RM2.196 billion last year. Maxis continued to retain an industry-leading EBITDA Margin of 50.4%, it said in a statement.
 
The cellular services company also said it delivered a normalized Profit After Tax (PAT) of RM1.107 billion, up 1.4% from a year ago. Including the last-mile broadband tax incentive of RM16 million reported in the first quarter of 2012 and RM10 million in the second quarter, as well as write-offs of property, plant and equipment (after tax) adjustments of RM94 million in Q2 2012, PAT for the first half of 2012 was RM1.039 billion.
 
[RM1 = US$0.32]
 
“Since the start of this year, we have launched major market moves across product categories and are encouraged with the response we have received from our customers,” said Maxis chief executive officer Sandip Das (pic).
 
“As a result, our performance in the first half of the year has been steady despite the tariff wars in the market.
 
“We registered the highest prepaid net additions in five quarters on the strength of the new Hotlink plan launched in March, offered a wide range of globally contemporary data products such as personal cloud storage and online book stores, a wide range of smart devices and made definitive inroads into the migrant market with attractive international calling tariffs,” he said.
 
Maxis’ non-voice revenues climbed up to 45.3% of mobile revenues with 62% of the revenue coming from Internet and data services.
 
“Already, more than a third of our customers are using smartphones and we have eight million active mobile Internet users, giving us a solid base to drive future data growth,” said Sandip.
 
Maxis also entered into a strategic partnership with satellite TV company Astro to provide broadband, voice and television services to its customers via fiber broadband.
 
“This will allow us to develop new and exciting services and multi-screen experiences seamlessly delivered across different network platforms to continue to attract new customers to our fixed and wireless platforms,” said Sandip.
 
The company declared a second interim dividend of eight sen per share amounting to RM600 million to shareholders this quarter.