KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd reported a RM309.4 million loss in the final quarter of 2016, in contrast to a net profit of RM467.2 million that the company reported in 4Q2015.
Quarter revenue for the same period was up, at RM5.78 billion (up 8.4 per cent) compared to the same period in 2015 when it was RM5.36 billion.
Year-on-year, the company's revenue for FY2016 stood at RM21.5 billion, a rise of RM8.4 per cent over FY2015's RM19.8 billion.
Axiata President and group CEO Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim said that the company was impacted by forex losses as the ringgit weakened against the US dollar last year, as well as aggressive competition in India which led to lower contribution from its Indian operating company Idea.
He said Celcom's underperformance was also to be blamed for the company's weak showing.
Jamaludin was speaking to reporters at Axiata's financial results media briefing here today.
The company, he said, has set aside RM6.6 billion in capital expenditure this year, and a significant portion of that will go towards plugging Celcom's weak presence in strategic markets in Malaysia.
As a result, he said that between RM1.2 billion to RM1.4 billion will be spend strengthening Celcom's data and connectivity in the market.