Telekom Malaysia Q1 earnings up 150% to RM322m

Telekom Malaysia Bhd earnings for its first quarter surged 150% to RM322.43mil versus RM128.91mil a year ago. (thestar.com.my)

It said on Wednesday that revenue grew 2.9% on-year to RM2.85bil from RM2.77bil, driven mainly by higher contribution from Internet services revenue.  Earnings per share were 8.58 sen compared with 3.47 sen previously. Elaborating on the financial results, it said group operating profit (EBIT) for first quarter grew 15% on-year to RM279.9mill compared to RM243.4mil a year earlier due to higher revenue and better cost management.

“Stripping off some non-operational items, in particular foreign exchange loss on international trade settlement, its normalised EBIT was at RM312mil, which was 26.9% higher on-year,” it said. It said profit before tax for Q1 2016 was higher versus RM393.2mil a year ago from lower operating cost over revenue, higher other operating income and other gains. Group normalised PBT was higher by 24.9% on-year, at RM270.3mil.

TM group CEO Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said the first quarter was an encouraging one despite an overall challenging environment.  “We recorded group revenue of RM2.9bil, an increase of 2.9% against the corresponding period last year. This growth was primarily driven by higher contribution from Internet services revenue.  “We continue to strengthen our leadership position with a 4.3% increase in our total broadband customer base to 2.36 million customers. This was driven by sustained growth in UniFi. UniFi stood at 877,000 customers as at 31 March 2016 and more than half of them are on packages of 10Mbps and above. Of our total broadband customer base, 59% of them are now on packages of 4Mbps and above,” he said.

Zamzamzairani said total capital expenditure for 1Q2016 was RM318.0mil or 11.1% of revenue.  Of the total spent, 50% was for Access, 19% for core network, and 31% for support systems.  TM earlier announced its capex guidance for the year to be at 25%-30% of revenue excluding webe. The higher expected capex spend is mainly for the expansion of HSBB footprint. By Joseph Chin – www.thestar.com.my

The post Telekom Malaysia Q1 earnings up 150% to RM322m appeared first on Top Asia Business News, Trends, Insights & Analysis.