Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) announced its Second Quarter (2Q18) financial results late last month. The fixed line and Internet Service Provider (ISP) has 1.22 million Unifi subscribers as of June 2018 (vs 1.18 million in 1Q18).
The ISP signed up 40k new Unifi fixed broadband subscribers between April, May and June 2018.
As for Streamyx, its decade old broadband service, there are now 1.09 million subscribers. It lost 44k subscribers in the quarter from 1.13 million it had in 1Q18.
In terms of APRU, Unifi subscribers spent an average RM191 (vs RM194 in 1Q18) and Streamyx users at RM88 (vs RM90) in the quarter.
Comparison: Quarter-on-Quarter (2Q18 vs 1Q18 Results), according to Telekom Malaysia:
For the current quarter under review, TM’s Group Revenue stood at RM2.94 billion, higher by 3.1% QoQ mainly attributed to an increase in data, internet and other telecommunication related services.
Group EBITDA rose 10.3% QoQ to RM845.9 million from RM766.7 million the previous quarter. Stripping off non-operational items, such as unrealised forex loss on trade settlement, Group Normalised EBITDA was 5.9% higher, at RM823.4 million.
Group EBIT grew by 27.2% QoQ to RM248.9 million from RM195.6 million in 1Q2018. On a normalised basis, EBIT improved by 9.6% QoQ to RM226.4 million from RM206.6 million in 1Q2018.
Group PATAMI was at RM102.0 million, lower by 35.1% QoQ from RM157.1 million in the preceding quarter, whilst Group Normalised PATAMI was RM155.8 million QoQ, higher by 48.0% QoQ, after setting aside non-operational items such as unrealised foreign exchange impact on borrowings and international trade settlements.
Comparison: Year-on-Year (2Q2018 vs 2Q2017 Results), according to Telekom Malaysia:
For the current quarter under review, Group Revenue stood at RM2.94 billion, lower by 1.5% YoY mainly due to voice and data services.
Group EBIT stood at RM248.9 million, lower by 3.2% YoY from RM257.1 million in 2Q2017. On a normalised basis, EBIT was lower by 25.6% YoY to RM226.4 million from RM304.5 million in 2Q2017.
Group PATAMI stood at RM102.0 million, less 51.5% as compared to 2Q2017; whilst Normalised PATAMI also decreased 25.1% YoY to RM155.8 million from RM208.0 million in 2Q2017.
In a media statement posted to Bursa Malaysia, Datuk Bazlan Osman, Acting Group Chief Executive Officer, TM said: “The first six months of 2018 has been very challenging for us, from rapid developments in the market to increasing regulatory pressures. Given the current landscape, these events further add challenges to our financial performance. Being cognizant of the potential impact to TM, we had revised our 2018 Headline KPIs as well as Capex guidance in early July 2018. Alongside this revision, we also launched our Performance Improvement Programme (PIP 2018) as a broad initiative to overcome the headwinds. The PIP 2018 is guided by four (4) main pillars – Revenue Uplift, Sustained Profitability, Improved Cash Flow and Increased Productivity. We expect the regulatory and sector challenges to persist in the near-to-midterm and undertaking these PIP 2018 initiatives are necessary measures to ensure the sustainability of our business for the long term.”
The total capital expenditure (CAPEX) for 1H2018 amounted to RM710 million or equivalent to 12.3% of revenue. Of the total capex investment, 18% was allocated for Core Network, 59% was for Access, and the balance 23% for Support Systems.
“Delivering convergence and going digital remains our priority. We will continue to focus on growth, yet be more prudent in our spending and sweat our existing assets. As such, we are also revising our capex guidance for the full year to 19 – 20% of revenue.”
“We currently have 2.30 million broadband customers and in terms of convergence, we saw more customers moving up the value chain with having triple-play services and above, evidenced by our convergence penetration now at 47% compared to just 37% in 2Q 2017,” he added.
Moving forward, Telekom Malaysia said the recent regulatory challenges and market environment will have major impact to the overall revenue estimates and earnings of TM Group in the current quarter.
