Digi’s Q4 profit dips 2%

PETALING JAYA: Digi.com Bhd reported a 2% drop in net profit to RM374.63 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2016 against RM382.36 million in the previous corresponding period, after accounting for associated cost of higher device sales, increased marketing cost for subscriber acquisition and progressive network expansion costs.
Revenue for the quarter under review was down by 3.2% from RM1.72 billion, to RM1.67 billion.
The group has proposed a fourth interim dividend of 4.8 sen per share, equivalent to almost 100% dividend payout or RM373 million.
In a filing with the stock exchange, Digi said its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) margin remained robust at 44% following strong operational efficiency discipline and well-managed cost structure.
During the fourth quarter, Digi invested the remaining RM240 million from its planned capex to accelerate 4G+ network expansion with improved capacity and quality, as well as commenced network readiness works for the newly allocated 900Mhz and 1800Mhz spectrum bands.
Digi’s active internet subscribers reached 8.1 million or 65.8% of total subscribers while LTE subscribers grew another 509,000 to 4.2 million subscribers, representing 34.9% of total subscribers.
The group said the key priorities in 2017 will focus on relentlessly growing postpaid and Malaysian prepaid opportunities while defending core service revenue streams.
It aspires to turn in a stronger performance than industry with improved efficiencies and service revenue and ebitda margin, at around 2016 level of RM6.23 billion and 45% each, alongside with capex at 11% to 13% of service revenue.
For the full year of 2016, Digi’s net profit dropped 5.2% from RM1.72 billion to RM1.63 billion on the back of a 4.6% dip in revenue from RM6.91 billion to RM6.6 billion.