Telekom 3Q pre-tax profit rises to RM235.51 million

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KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s (TM) pre-tax profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (Q3 2017) rose to RM235.51 million from RM218.87 million recorded in the corresponding quarter last year.

Revenue increased to RM2.94 billion from RM2.92 billion previously.

In a statement yesterday, TM said the group’s year-to-date (YTD) pre-tax profit slipped 8.4 per cent to RM740.4 million from RM807.91 million in the corresponding period in 2016 due to higher operating cost, while revenue was steady at RM8.89 billion compared with RM8.82 billion previously.

It said the YTD revenue growth of about 0.7 per cent was attributed to higher Internet revenue contribution through higher unifi customer base and premium channel buys which were partly offset by lower voice and data services revenue.

TM said YTD Internet revenue rose 8.8 per cent to RM2.96 billion as compared to last year, contributing 33 per cent of the group’s total revenue.

For Q3 2017, it said Internet revenue crossed the RM1.0 billion revenue mark for the first time, adding that the group also reported its highest quarterly premium channel buys in the quarter since the launch of HyppTV in 2010.

Group chief executive officer, Datuk Seri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly, said as at Sept 30, 2017, TM saw stronger growth in unifi as net addition doubled quarter-on-quarter by 55,000 to 1.06 million customers.

“This is the highest quarterly unifi net add we have achieved since Q3 2012. To date, more than 94 per cent of our unifi customers are on 10Mbps and above packages compared to only 75 per cent last year.

“Our mobility service, unifi mobile (previously known as webe) showed very encouraging performance. To date, we have achieved eight per cent of TM’s household penetration for the financial year 2017 target ahead of expectations,” he said.

On products and services, Mohammed Shazalli said TM had recently launched special unifi packages tailored for online entrepreneurs and students at institutions of higher learning to further boost technopreneurs’  businesses and students’ learning on a digital platform.

He said TM was progressing well in executing Perfexe 10 to quicken its pace in accelerating convergence and empowering digitisation.

The group have firmly embedded its aspirational targets in its business planning and will continue to roll out various initiatives with very precise execution plans, and to date, has achieved numerous internal milestones in the programme..

TM said the total capital expenditure for the first nine months of 2017 as a percentage of revenue was at 18.4 per cent, which amounted to RM1.63 billion.

By asset type, access comprised 43 per cent of total spending, followed by core network at 36 per cent and the remaining 21 per cent was for support systems. — Bernama

“We have recently implemented our master brand strategy, resulting in the integration of multiple brands, namely TM WiFi, Streamyx and webe mobile under the umbrella of our ‘unifi’ brand.

“We have the roadmap towards full consolidation and convergence, namely the transitioning of our digital mobility services brand, ‘webe’ to ‘unifi mobile’, Streamyx to Broadband, and TM WiFi service to ‘wifi@unifi’.

“With this consolidation, unifi is now the single largest telecommunications brand in Malaysia,” he added.

On the reorganisation of business clusters, Mohammed Shazalli said TM had rebranded and revitalised its Managed Accounts cluster into “TM ONE” from a sector-based approach – Enterprise and Public Sector, into a verticals approach.

TM ONE was set to be the only trusted partner and enabler for enterprises and the public sector to fully realise their digital opportunities, he said.

Moving forward, for the current financial year ending Dec 31, 2017, the Group foresees sustainable performance in the remaining quarter of the financial year despite competition and challenges in the telecommunications industry.