Digi reported its Second Quarter 2016 (2Q16) financial results yesterday. The Telco added 1k new subscribers in 2Q16, now with a total subscriber base of 12.35 million.
There are 8 million Internet subscriber representing some 64.5% of the total subscribers. Out of these, 3.3 million are using 4G LTE and approximately 27% of Internet data traffic are delivered via the Digi 4G LTE network.
Some 62% of the total Digi subscribers are smartphone users.
There are 10.39 million Digi prepaid subscribers as of 2Q16 with an ARPU of RM34 (vs RM35 in 1Q16). Digi prepaid subscriber declined about 4,000 in the quarter.
Some 1.95 million users are Digi postpaid subscribers. ARPU increased RM82 compared to RM80 in the previous quarter. Digi added 5,000 new postpaid subscribers in the quarter.
Digi’s 4G LTE coverage now stands at 76% nationwide with 6,500 4G LTE sites. Digi 4G LTE-A coverage is currently at 34% in key market centres.
In Q2 2016, Digi recorded steady sequential service revenue at RM1.56 billion. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the quarter improved 4.4% to RM735 million (Q1 2016: RM704 million) or a 44% margin anchored by solid growth in postpaid and stronger data monetisation efforts. Consequently, PAT (Profit After Tax) strengthened 5.5% to RM421 million (Q1 2016: RM399 million).
Digi’s postpaid service revenue registered a record growth of 9.8% year-on-year and 6.1% quarter-on-quarter. Postpaid Internet subscribers increased to 1.6 million, representing 81.7% of the company’s postpaid subscriber base and contributed to higher postpaid Internet revenue of RM239 million (Q1 2016: RM207 million). Digi said the postpaid market was challenged by the industry’s aggressive Internet quotas and heavy discounts but it manged to increase its subscriber base and ARPU.
Digi’s CEO Albern Murty said, “In spite of intense competition in the industry, we continued to build a strong postpaid portfolio by delivering relevant smart plans and digital services on a high-quality 4G LTE network, and innovations that put customers in charge of their digital experience. Customers have full control in managing their accounts, deciding on their own Internet usage or sharing with others, and more at their fingertips. This comprehensive proposition has unlocked growth opportunities for us with postpaid customers who are increasingly confident we can deliver this kind of value to them.”
According to Albern, a key part of digitising its core business is revolutionising the entire customer experience across its touchpoints. “We plan to have 80% of our customer interactions through digital channels by 2020; where each offering or service will be mobile-first, easy to use, fast, personalised and relevant to the individual customer no matter where or how they engage with us.”
“We have begun building these innovations into our robust self-serve MyDigi app, which puts our customers in complete control of their accounts from not only paying for their own but friends and family bills to enabling roaming services, and more recently with our mobile service agent app that has eased customer registrations at retail stores to 20 seconds per transaction. We will focus on introducing more of these innovations in the next few quarters to continuously improve on the quality of our customers experiences.”
The company announced a second interim dividend of 5.4 sen per share equivalent to RM420 million or 100% payout ratio that it will pay to shareholders on 30 September 2016.
