Maxis first quarter bottom line dips 2.5% to RM505 million

PETALING JAYA: For the first quarter of 2017 (Q1), Maxis Bhd saw a 2.5% drop in net profit to RM505 million from RM518 million in the preceding year’s corresponding quarter, as a result of its investments to enhance its efficiency for long-term structural cost benefits. Revenue, however, was up 0.8% from RM2.14 billion to RM2.16 billion.
Maxis has proposed to declare an interim dividend of 5 sen per share.
In an announcement with the stock exchange, Maxis revealed that it has invested RM162 million in the quarter under review and is guiding for RM1.2 billion in 2017.
For the financial year ending Dec 31, 2017, Maxis expects service revenue, absolute earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) as well as base capital expenditure to remain at similar levels with 2016.
The group will continue to further enhance its core customer propositions and maintain a high quality network to enable a worry-free digital experience.
While it attracted 862,000 new MaxisONE subscriptions with an average revenue per user (ARPU) of RM121, both prepaid and prepaid revenue dropped RM8 million and RM3 million, respectively.
“It was a good and steady quarter for Maxis with positive underlying momentum. Data volume keeps growing and we are matching demand with a higher performing network experience. This is a very important year for us, where we will be going digital to create unmatched customer experience,” Maxis CEO Morten Lundal said.
The group now has 5.2 million LTE devices on its network, which was 3.2 million last year, while average 4G LTE now stands at 6.5GB per month compared with 2.62GB a year ago.