Maxis reported its First Quarter 2018 (1Q18) financial result yesterday. At the end of March 2018, Maxis had 9.85 million revenue generating subscribers (RGS). Maxis revenue generating subscribers (RGS) are defined as active line subscriptions that excludes those without revenue generating activities for more than 30 days. The Telco lost 153k RGS subscribers from 10 million RGS mobile subscribers it had at the end of December 2017 (4Q17).
By market definition, on a comparable basis with the other Telcos, Maxis has 10.88 million mobile subscribers as of 1Q18. It lost 216k mobile subscribers between January, February and March 2018 from 11.09 million subscribers it had at the end of 2017 (11.27 million in 3Q17).
There are now 6.79 million Hotlink prepaid RGS subscribers (vs 7 million in 4Q17) and 2.91 million postpaid RGS subscribers (vs 2.85 million in 4Q17). Prepaid ARPU was RM41 while Postpaid ARPU was at RM92.
Maxis said “our flagship MaxisONE Plan (MOP) which continued to attract high-value subscribers” reporting that there are now 2.02 million MaxisONE plan subscribers, adding 283k new subscribers between January-March 2018. However, in 1Q18, Maxis adjusted its entire MaxisONE plan subscribers base dating back to January 2017. It said “MOP subscription adjusted to exclude a business rate plan that no longer satisfies the MOP criteria”. With the new numbers, Maxis only crossed 2 million ONE plan subscribers in 1Q18, not in 4Q17 as it claimed before.
The new “adjusted” MaxisONE plan subscriber base as below:
- 1Q17- 1,788 million (adjusted to 1,738 million in 1Q18)
- 2Q17- 1,889 million (adjusted to 1,830 million in 1Q18)
- 3Q17- 1,946 million (adjusted to 1,877 million in 1Q18)
- 4Q17- 2,026 million (adjusted to 1,950 million in 1Q18)
- 1Q18- 2,021 million
Unlike the previous quarters, Maxis did not reveal the ARPU of MaxisONE plan subscribers for 1Q18.
Other key numbers from Maxis 1Q18:
- 8 million mobile Internet users, dropped from 8.2 million in 4Q17
- Average data usage: 6.73GB for Prepaid, 9.88GB for Postpaid
- Smartphone Penetration in the network: 80% Prepaid, 86% Postpaid
- 184k Home Fibre Subscribers (up from 172k subscribers it had in 4Q17)
- 151k wireless broadband subscribers
- Postpaid Revenue dropped to 985 million from 994 million in 4Q17
- Prepaid Revenue dropped from 903 million in 4Q17 to 849 million in 1Q18
Maxis claims to have the largest 4G LTE population coverage nationwide at 92% on a comparable basis with other Telcos.
Other key highlights according to Maxis:
- Normalised PAT stable at RM510 million on the back of solid EBITDA.
- Normalised EBITDA continued to be stable at RM1,020 million slightly lower from RM1,024 million a year ago. EBITDA margin (on service revenue) was high at 51.5% against 49.3% last year, reflecting positive results from cost optimisation initiatives.
- Service revenue was marginally lower at RM1,980 million from RM2,076 million a year ago due to intense competition, particularly in the prepaid market.
- Postpaid revenue grew 5.2% yoy to RM985 million from RM936 million last year, registering the highest shared line acquisition and increased average revenue per account (ARPA) through mobile and fixed offerings. This was supported by high monthly postpaid ARPU of RM92 and our flagship MaxisONE Plan (MOP) which continued to attract high-value subscribers. MOP registered 283k new additions yoy, bringing the total base to 2.0 million customers.
- Prepaid revenue softened to RM849 million from RM1,006 million last year due to lower subscription base. This was driven by aggressive price competition, continued SIM consolidation and migration to postpaid. We continued to sustain high Mobile Internet (MI) penetration of 73%, which supported our high prepaid ARPU of RM41 per month.
- Blended data consumption almost doubled to 7.7GB from 4.3GB per month a year ago. This was supported by the increase in smartphone penetration which stood at 82% from 78% a year ago.
- To ensure our customers continue to enjoy the best mobile streaming experience, we invested RM107 million for capex in Q1.
- Declared a first interim dividend of five sen per share.
“We delivered a steady quarter with solid EBITDA and high EBITDA margin in a highly competitive market. Our focus remains on providing attractive products, great connectivity and worry-free experience to our customers. This will only get better as we progress with our ambition to be fully digital.” said Robert Nason, “interim Chief Executive Officer”, Maxis Berhad in a media statement posted to Bursa Malaysia.
