KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s (TM) net profit soared to RM308.3 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2019 (Q1 2019) from RM157.2 million posted a year ago.
Revenue, however, was down 2.4 per cent to RM2.78 billion from RM2.85 billion previously, due to a decline in voice, Internet and multimedia services, as well as non-telecommunication related services.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, it said Internet and multimedia services decreased by 3.5 per cent to RM977.1 million from RM1.01 billion recorded in Q1 2018.
While unifi broadband services continued to see an increase in the customer base, the decrease in revenue was from Streamyx, as well as Unifi Mobile. Meanwhile, its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) doubled to RM504.8 million from RM195.6 million mainly due to a reduction in operating costs.
“Stripping off some non-operational items, such as unrealised foreign exchange loss on international trade settlement, group normalised EBIT also more than doubled to RM513.0 million,” it said in a statement.
Acting group chief executive officer/chief operating officer Imri Mokhtar said revenue challenges continued to persist with intensifying competition and price erosion.
“However, I’m pleased to report that our Performance Improvement Programme 2019-2021 (PIP2019-2021) is yielding results.
“Our operating expenditure/revenue also improved by 11.4 percentage points, while profit for the quarter also doubled mainly from the cost optimisation efforts undertaken to counter revenue decline,” he said.
Imri said TM also managed to lower capital expenditure, in line with guidance at RM151 million or 5.4 per cent of revenue.
By asset type, access comprised 67 per cent of total spending followed by core network at 18.0 per cent and 15 per cent for support systems.
“In the coming months, we will continue to focus on our strategic pillars of ‘Converged Services’, ‘Simple and Digital’, and ‘Lean and Lower Cost’ in our daily operations to drive our performance and generate more value,” he added.
In the Q1 2019, its convergence penetration increased to 56 per cent of TM households.
In total, there are 19 million broadband users base comprising 1.32 million unifi and 871,000 Streamyxcustomers.
In addition, TM One has expanded its digital infrastructure with the launch of Klang Valley IP Core Data Centre (KVDC) in Cyberjaya completing its Twin Core Data Centre; certified by the Uptime Institute as Tier III in design and in constructed facility.
– BERNAMA