Digi’s Q1 profits flat at RM479.22m

PETALING JAYA: DiGi.com Bhd's net profit slipped 1.22% to RM479.22 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015 from RM485.16 million a year ago due to the absence of prior year tax benefits and higher underlying depreciation.
Revenue for the quarter under review rose 4.29% from RM1.72 billion to RM1.79 billion.
It has proposed to declare an interim dividend of 6.1 sen per share.
In a filing with the stock exchange yesterday, DiGi said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) and ebitda margins was down to RM775 million and 43% against RM778 million and 45% respectively.
DiGi noted that the strong data momentum seen in 2014 continued to pick up in 2015, with data revenue rising 17.7% from a year ago. DiGi's data revenue now accounts for 42.3% of the group's overall service revenue, up 5.6% from the same period last year.
It recorded strong subscriber growth during the quarter strengthening its customer base by 270,000 to 11.7 million.
It also said the increased number of internet subscribers, which grew rapidly by 30.6% to more than 6.6 million customers at the end of the first quarter, will pave the way for future service revenue.
DiGi CEO Albern Murty Murty reiterated the group's commitment to invest the same level it did in capital expenditure of RM904 million in 2014 in order to continue driving internet growth.