Digi.com Berhad (Digi) reported its third quarter 2021 (3Q21) financial results recently. The Telco now has 10.37 million subscribers as of September 2021 compared to 10.22 million at the end of June 2021 (2Q21).
The Malaysia service provider added 148k new mobile subscriptions during the month of July, August and September 2021.
Prepaid subscribers make up the most of its mobile customers. There are 7.12 million prepaid subscriptions at the end of September 2021 (vs 7.03 million in 2Q21). It added 86k new prepaid subscriptions in the latest quarter.
Meanwhile, Digi now has 3.25 million postpaid subscriptions on the network (vs 3.19 million in 2Q21). It signed up 62k new postpaid subscriptions in 3Q21.
Prepaid ARPU is now at RM34 (unchanged since 2Q21) while Postpaid ARPU is at RM63 (-RM1, vs RM64 in 2Q21).
| Operational Statistics | 1Q2021 | 2Q2021 | 3Q2021 | Q-Q % | Y-Y % |
| Postpaid (‘000) | 3,090 | 3,185 | 3,247 | 1.9% | 7.4% |
| Prepaid (‘000) | 7,160 | 7,032 | 7,118 | 1.2% | -7.1% |
| Total subscribers (‘000) | 10,250 | 10,217 | 10,365 | 1.4% | -2.9% |
| Postpaid ARPU (RM) | 65 | 64 | 63 | -1.3% | -5.8% |
| Prepaid ARPU (RM) | 33 | 34 | 34 | -0.3% | 2.8% |
| Blended ARPU (RM) | 43 | 43 | 43 | -0.2% | 0.9% |
| Monthly active users for MyDigi (‘mil) | 4.5 | 4.9 | 4.7 | -3.5% | 10.1% |
| Monthly average data per user (GB) | 19.7 | 21.4 | 22.4 | 4.7% | 28.7% |
| Internet subscribers | 85.9% | 86.4% | 86.7% | 0.3% | 5.5% |
| Smartphone penetration rate | 89.2% | 90.1% | 90.9% | 0.9% | 6.2% |
| Population Coverage (%) 4G (LTE) | 91.7% | 91.8% | 92.2% | ||
| 4G Plus (LTE-A) | 75.0% | 75.1% | 75.4% | ||
| Fibre Network (km) | 10,052 | 10,084 | 10,131 |
About 86.7% of Digi’s mobile subscriber base are Internet users, or approximately 9 million, consuming an average 22.4GB of Internet a month in 3Q21. Digi said 90.9% of its mobile customers are smartphone users.
Digi’s 4G LTE network now covers 92.2% (91.8% in 2Q21) of the human population in Malaysia while LTE-A coverage is now at 75.4% (vs 75.1% in 2Q21).
With the sunset of Malaysia 3G networks expected by the end of 2021, Digi said the process to gradually shut down its 3G network is progressing well and it has less than 300k 3G-only subscribers.
Key Financial Highlights, according to Digi:
| In RM’m | 3Q2020 | 2Q2021 | 3Q2021 | Q-Q % | Y-Y % |
| Service revenue | 1,374 | 1,340 | 1,343 | 0.2% | -2.3% |
| Total revenue | 1,579 | 1,618 | 1,584 | -2.1% | 0.3% |
| EBITDA | 786 | 743 | 788 | 6.1% | 0.3% |
| EBITDA (boi) margin | 49.8% | 45.9% | 49.7% | 3.8% | -0.1% |
| Profit after tax (PAT) | 321 | 280 | 313 | 11.8% | -2.5% |
| PAT margin | 20.3% | 17.3% | 19.8% | 2.5% | -0.5% |
| Capex-to-Revenue % | 8.5% | 12.1% | 10.7% | -1.4% | 2.2% |
- Service revenue stable at 0.2% Q-Q on higher contribution from postpaid and prepaid segments
- Marginal drop of -2.1% Q-Q in total revenue to RM1,584 million, due to lower device and other revenues
- Postpaid revenue grew to RM633 million, up 1.6% Q-Q, driven by demand for device bundles and entry-level plans; subscriber base at 3.25 million
- Prepaid revenue sustained Q-Q performance of 0.3% to RM645 million, largely from data revenue to offset weaker voice and non-internet usages; subscriber base at 7.12 million
- Total subscriber base of 10.37 million (+148k Q-Q), of which 86.4% are internet subscribers
- B2B subscribers grew 1.6% Q-Q from digital bundles push and increased adoption across the board
- COGS reduced -15.3% Q-Q resulted from lower device and digital sales
- OPEX of RM386 million declined -3.5% Q-Q as a result of savings in sales and marketing, offsetting the increase in staff and personnel, operations and maintenance costs as well as higher license fees
- Sequential EBITDA and PAT increase of 6.1% and 11.8% from service revenue recovery and lower total costs
- Third interim dividend of 4.0 sen per share was declared, representing 100% dividend payout ratio
Digi’s Chief Executive Officer, Albern Murty said, “We continue to invest and deliver on our network experience to better serve our customers, while sustaining efforts to drive societal recovery. On this front, we are pleased to report that 100% of our retail frontliners at Digi Stores are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, thus enabling us to serve customers safely while keeping our employees protected.”
