Digi.com Berhad (Digi) reported its fourth quarter 2021 (4Q21) financial results late last month. The Telco had 10.32 million mobile subscribers at the end of December 2021, a slight decline from the 10.37 million subscribers at the end of September 2021 (3Q21).
It lost 47k mobile subscribers between October, November and December 2021. The Telco recorded 50k new postpaid subscriptions, but lost 97k “low quality” prepaid subscribers at the same time.
There are now 7.02 million prepaid subscribers as of 4Q21, down from the from the 7.12 million it had as of 3Q21 (September 2021). Postpaid subscriber base stood at 3.3 million, up from the 3.25 million it had in 3Q21.
In its analysis report, Digi said that that Prepaid base declined by -97K Q-Q following continued churn from low-quality subs. “The Prepaid decline was partially due to weaker market momentum following the conclusion of the government stimulus programs and the temporary impact from the migration of a new module in customer billing platform,”
Commenting on its planned system migration for its customer billing platform in 4Q 2021, it said, “Arising from this was a regrettable but temporary service interruption in the last week of October 2021 as customers faced intermittent data access and errors in quota management, all of which were resolved in due course.”
In terms of customer spending in 4Q21, the APRU for prepaid was RM33 (-RM1) while Postpaid was RM62 (-RM1).
Digi says that there are 4.7 million monthly active users of the MyDigi self service app.
There are some 9 million mobile Internet subscribers, representing 87.3% of the mobile subscriber base, using an average Internet of 20.7GB in 4Q21 (22.4GB in 3Q21). About 1.3 million Digi customers don’t use any Mobile Internet services.
92% or approximately 9.49 million of its mobile subscribers are smartphone users.
The 4G LTE network now covers 93.1% of the human population areas in the country. 75.9% of the Digi network has LTE-Advanced capabilities.
“The gradual 3G network shutdown under Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA)’s initiative has now been successfully completed by January 2022, following the recent floods in December 2021. Our 3G customers were able to smoothly transit from 3G to 4G through a range of affordable mobile plans and 4G voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) device offers,”
Digi also revealed for the first time the number of its fibre broadband subscribers. As of December 2021, there are 12,600 fibre broadband customers with an average ARPU of RM111.
As for the merger with Celcom Axiata Berhad, the Telco said, “The proposed transaction is progressing as planned and its completion is subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, approval by all shareholders, and other customary terms and conditions. Expected dates for approval and completion of the transaction within the second quarter of 2022 remain unchanged.”
Key Financial Highlights, according to Digi:
- Total revenue of RM1,584 million grew 1.5% Y-Y supported by positive momentum in core segments and healthy device revenue growth
- Postpaid revenue rose 1.6% Y-Y following the fifth consecutive quarter of solid subscriber growth
- Prepaid revenue decreased -2.6% Y-Y due to churn from low quality segments and impact from billing platform migration, while supported by continued growth in Malaysian base
- B2B revenue rose 2.2% Y-Y underlining efforts to meet digitalisation needs of SME and large enterprise segments
- Opex increased 6.1% Y-Y mainly from higher investments in sales and marketing, as well as network operations and maintenance to drive growth and modernisation. Excluding one-offs, the normalised Y-Y increase was 2.1%
- EBITDA was down -3.4% Y-Y to RM740 million due to flowthrough from higher costs and one-off impacts
- Profit After Tax was up 8.6% Y-Y through operational efficiencies and positive outcomes of long-standing tax claims
- Fourth interim dividend of 3.9 sen declared to sum 2021 total dividend to 14.9 sen, or near 100% of payout ratio
Digi’s Chief Executive Officer, Albern Murty said, “We delivered our 2021 priorities amid the current business environment, by emphasising on improved network and digital experiences for our customers and driving efficiencies across the operations. We also remain committed in supporting pandemic and flood relief efforts through various community-focused initiatives and relief aid, and in keeping our customers connected.”
