KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd’s net profit slipped seven per cent to RM238.53 million in the third quarter (Q3) ended September 30, 2017 from RM256.56 million, as the telco continued to be affected by its Indian investment.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, Axiata said share of results from associates and joint ventures were lower by over 100 per cent to record a loss of RM141.8 million for the quarter.
“The decline was the result of losses in India amounting to RM156.4 million as compared to a loss of RM0.2 million in Q3 2016 as the Indian mobile market continues to be negatively impacted by the new entrant’s aggressive price competition,” it said.
Its revenue in Q3 increased 13.6 per cent to RM6.2 billion from RM5.46 billion, fuelled by continued traction in the data revenue segment.
For the nine-month period, Axiata’s net profit increased 8.7 per cent to RM884.76 million from RM813.75 million, as a result of improved earnings and foreign exchange translation gains of current year as oppose to forex translation loss in the prior year.
Its revenue increased 14.9 per cent to RM18.14 billion from RM15.78 billion.
Axiata president and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim said as the group continued to be impacted by the challenges in India, it remains focused on driving improvements at Celcom and XL, and continue with its successes in strong execution in all other markets.
“We are also very focused on our Group-wide cost optimization initiatives. In terms of growth opportunities, we are growing in all our frontier markets as well as in edotco and our digital businesses.
“Nevertheless, we are cautiously optimistic on our fourth quarter performance given the recent surge in competitive activities in Indonesia and Cambodia, and remain very concerned with the Indian market,” he said in a separate statement.