Malaysia mobile operator, Maxis reported its fourth quarter results for 2013 yesterday.
In Q4 2013, Maxis has about 12.9 million subscribers, down from 13.2 million customers in Q3 mainly caused by prepaid. Despite launching #Hotlink in September 2013, Maxis prepaid subscriber dropped to 9.5 million in Q4 2013 compared to 9.8 million in Q3. Maxis says that the drop in prepaid subscribers are mainly driven by “non-active & non-revenue generating Hotlink Youth Club SIM expiry & legacy plans”.
Currently, there are about 3.3 million postpaid subscribers, 586k Wireless Broadband subscribers and Home Fibre has close to 52k customers. ARPU(Average revenue per user) is at RM101 for postpaid and RM33 for prepaid.
From the network perspective, Maxis has 5600 sites that are 3G HSPA+ enabled of which 4200 sites are capable of delivering speeds up to 42Mbps. LTE is now available in Penang & Johor Bahru. The mobile operator claims that its LTE network now covers 15% of the population in Malaysia.
In terms of network investment, Maxis invested RM815 million in 2013 primarily to expand its 4G LTE coverage footprint and population coverage nationwide. Maxis says that it intends to spend more than RM1 billion on network this year.
There are 56% smartphone users in the Maxis mobile network, out which 520k owns a LTE-enabled devices.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2013 (FY13), Maxis revenue grew 1.3% to RM9,084 million on the back of contributions across all business segments except Mobile segment. Excluding Career Transition Scheme (CTS) costs totalling RM143 million, content cost written-off of RM4 million and provision for contract obligations related to Home services of RM65 million, normalised EBITDA improved 3.7% to RM4,522 million and EBITDA Margin to 49.8%.
Excluding one-off items, normalised Profit After Tax (PAT) registered a 2.3% growth to RM2,097 million (about RM2.1 billion).
For the quarter under review, Maxis posted a revenue of RM2,224 million mainly due to decline in Mobile and International gateway segments. Excluding CTS costs totalling RM41 million, content cost written-off of RM4 million and provision for contract obligations related to Home services of RM65 million, normalised EBITDA for Q4 2013 stood at RM1,081 million with EBITDA Margin at 48.6%. PAT was RM466 million.
Chief Executive Officer Morten Lundal said, “2013 was not the easiest year for Maxis and yet we successfully delivered stable revenues with increased profit. 2014 will be a transformational year for Maxis. Looking ahead, it is clear where we need to go and what we need to do. Most importantly, we want to make sure that Maxis delivers the best Internet experience. So we will invest in network and IT, and design products and more services that maximise our customers’ freedom to communicate. There will be many challenges and much excitement, and we are well positioned to take advantage of the many opportunities to deliver shareholders’ value for the longer term.”
Maxis announced a fourth interim dividend of eight sen per share and proposed final dividend of eight sen per share bringing the total dividend for the full year 2013 to 40 sen per share and total dividend pay-out to shareholders to RM3 billion.
