Telekom Malaysia (TM) announced its fourth quarter 2019 (4Q19) financial results mid last month. The major Telecommunication company in Malaysia revealed that it added 25k new mobile and broadband customers between October, November and December 2019.
As of December 2019, Telekom Malaysia said it has 2.18 million broadband customers, up from 2.16 million it had as of September 2019 (3Q19). There are 1.44 million Unifi broadband (fibre) and mobile customers. It added 71k new Unifi fibre and mobile customers in 4Q19.
The Telco did not break down the numbers specifically for Unifi Mobile customers. At the time of writing, Telekom Malaysia has yet to announce that it surpassed 1 million Unifi Mobile customers to date.
It lost 45k Streamyx fixed broadband customers during the 3-months period in 4Q19. There are now 741k Streamyx customers as of December 2019 (4Q19) compared to 786k customers at the end of September 2019 (3Q19).
APRU for Unifi is now lower (-RM14) at RM153 in 4Q19 compared to RM167 in 3Q19. Similarly, ARPU for Streamyx dropped by RM15 to RM96 in 4Q19 (vs RM111 in 3Q19). TM said the drop in Streamyx ARPU was “due to Streamyx Price Adjustment and Year End Promotion”. However, the Telco did not explain the drop of Unifi ARPU in its financial briefing presentation.
Financial and Operational Highlights FY2019 vs FY2018 (according to TM):
- Group Revenue of RM11.43 billion, 3.3% lower against FY18 – in line with guidance- mainly due to lower contribution from all lines of products except data.
- Group Reported Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) for 2019 increased to RM1.57 billion, from RM64.6 million last year on the back of lower operating cost, from the Group’s various cost optimisation initiatives. During the FY2018, the Group had recognised a provision of RM982.5 million for impairment of fixed and wireless network assets which had driven down the EBIT to RM64.6 million.
- Group Reported Profit After Tax and Non-controlling Interests (PATAMI) improved multifold to RM632.7 million for FY2019, from RM153.2 million in FY2018. Stripping off nonoperational items, Normalised PATAMI stood at RM1.0 billion, higher by 58.3% against the same period last year.
- The total capital expenditure (CAPEX) was lower than 2019 guidance at 11.9% of revenue or RM1.36 billion. Out of the amount spent, 22% was made for Core Network, 53% for Access and the balance 25% was made for Support System.
- Declares the maximum payout that the Company policy allows which is 60% of its PATAMI translating to a final interim single-tier cash dividend of 10.0 sen per share or RM376.6 million for FY2019; with expected pay out date on 3 April 2020.
- 2020 Guidance: Revenue growth of low to medium single digit decline, EBIT level to be more than RM1.0 billion and CAPEX guidance to be low to mid 20s.
Dato’ Noor Kamarul Anuar Nuruddin, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM said, “As per our guidance, our Group revenue saw a minor contraction of 3.3% to RM11.43 billion, from RM11.82 billion over the same period a year ago. Data revenue, being our key driver grew by 16.9% due to encouraging demand in the last 12 months from RM2.44 billion in 2018 to RM2.86 billion in 2019. In addition, our cost optimisation effort saw 13.1 percentage point total cost to revenue improvement against last year. This has delivered better profitability with recorded EBIT growth of more than 100.0% at RM1.57 billion, from EBIT of RM64.6 million over the corresponding period last year. I am pleased to highlight that this is the highest EBIT recorded since 2007. In terms of our broadband customer base, we recorded higher net subscribers for total fixed broadband base quarter-on–quarter basis to 2.18 million subscribers, which is in line with our Year End Promotion to increase and retain customers,”
“In 2020, we are going back to basics in strengthening our foundation, which includes improving network and IT; enhancing processes and market distribution; moving beyond connectivity services into new value-added digital services and expanding sales generation. Towards this end, we will focus on 4 strategic pillars – relentless drive towards Customer Excellence, continued Revenue Generation, Manpower Optimisation with workforce remobilisation and providing a Superior Network through modernisation, to remain stable in the course for long term growth,”
Telekom Malaysia (TM) declared a first interim dividend of 10 sen per share for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019 (FY19) to be paid on April 3.
