Maxis reports that it currently has about 12.4 million subscribers via its it third quarter (Q3) financial results ended 30 September 2014.
Maxis has a total of 3,334 postpaid subscribers (including wireless broadband) as of September, down 25k subscribers compared to 3,359 in Q2. For mobile postpaid, there are 2,840 subscribers, up 12k from 2,828 in Q2. However Maxis Wireless Broadband customers is down about 37k to 494k in Q3 compared to 531k subscribers in Q2.
Prepaid subscribers is currently at 9,042 and there are 7.6 million Maxis mobile Internet users.
Maxis postpaid ARPU is at RM94, down from RM97 in Q2. For prepaid, ARPU is at RM35, up RM1 from RM34 in Q2. As for Minutes of Usage (MoU), Maxis postpaid customers uses an average 278 minutes a month, down from 283 minutes in Q2.
Despite the lower Minutes of Usage in Q3, Maxis is saying that “MaxisONE plan continued to gain good traction, bringing in good balance of new and migrated subscribers as well as good ARPU impact.” Launched at the end of Q2, MaxisOne Plan is a postpaid plan that offers truly unlimited voice calls within and outside the Maxis network.
Minutes of Usage for prepaid in Q3 is at 131, up 7 minutes from Q2.
Maxis blended smartphone-penetration in the network is currently at 54%, up 5% points, fuelled by attractively priced low-to mid-tier devices. About 67% of its postpaid and 50% of its prepaid subscribers are smartphone users.
In terms of network, Maxis said the new “modernised network” will reach more than 75% of the population before the end of this year. Maxis claims that it leads the LTE population coverage in the country, which stood at 21%, covering key market centres and state capitals. Maxis’ 2G and 3G population coverage is in excess of 95% and 85% respectively.
The Telco invested RM337 million in capex this quarter and is on track to spend more than RM1 billion this year.
Gaining momentum from its transformation and market initiatives, Maxis delivered a normalised Profit After Tax (PAT) of RM494 million, up 2.9% from RM480 million registered in Q2 2014. Service Revenue is at RM2,049 million while Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) stood at RM1,070 million, with an EBITDA Margin on Service Revenue at 52.7%.
Maxis said that it took a RM16 million revenue hit from the re-pricing of postpaid pay-per-use (PPU) charges. Despite that, Maxis acquired higher Mobile Internet (MI) users with revenue growing 6.7% quarter-on-quarter and MI share of mobile revenue improved to 30%, driven by momentum gained from worry-free propositions and higher smart phone penetration.
Morten Lundal, Maxis Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are progressing well with our transformation journey. Our Q3 numbers were broadly stable, but with operational drivers showing an upward trend. We see many more opportunities to create positive surprises that make the customers feel special and create ‘Like’ moments. We already have a very competitive network serving a majority of the population as well as leading the LTE population coverage in the country. We want to improve our capabilities further and ensure that we deliver unmatched experiences to our customers – a truly worry free Internet experience on the best network.”
The company announced a third interim dividend of eight sen per share.
