PETALING JAYA: Maxis Bhd saw its net profit in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2018 (Q4FY18) tumble 51% to RM266 million, from RM541 million in the previous corresponding quarter.
The group said in a statement today that its net profit was impacted by one-off costs in Q4FY18, associated with the launch of a new strategy to become a converged communications and digital services company in both the fixed and mobile markets.
Revenue for the quarter up slightly by 3% to RM2.45 billion, compared with RM2.38 billion in the same quarter a year ago.
For the full year, its net profit fell 18% to RM1.78 billion, against RM2.18 billion a year ago, while revenue marginally down by 2% to RM9.19 billion, from RM9.42 billion previously.
In FY18, its service revenue dipped by 2.5% to RM8.07 billion from RM8.27 billion in FY17, while prepaid revenue declined 11.4% to RM3.4 billion from RM3.84 billion previously, mainly due to SIM consolidation and migration to postpaid.
However, Maxis said the Hotlink RED prepaid offering showed positive traction with growth in Mobile Internet which now accounts for 57.1% of prepaid revenue, contributing to a high and stable prepaid average revenue per user (ARPU) of RM42 per month.
“With the introduction of attractive and affordable plans, fibre revenue improved by 17% to RM359 million from RM306 million and our base grew by 33% with over 249,000 home and enterprise subscribers,” it added.
Meanwhile, the group said its normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (ebitda) margin on service revenue remained stable at 47.6%, driven by a focus on profitable segments and cost optimisation initiatives.
Nevertheless, its normalised ebitda was down 8.4% to RM3.84 billion in FY18, from RM4.2 billion in FY17, primarily due to one-off costs in Q4FY18 associated with the new strategy, including migration of the existing fibre base to new plans.
Maxis declared a fourth interim dividend of 5 sen net per share for the financial year under review, which brings the full dividend for the year to 20 sen per share.
