Malaysia’s Maxis Communications posted a net profit of MYR503 million (USD147.6 million) for the three months ended 31 December 2009, representing a year-on-year decline of 18.2%. However, the company noted that excluding initial public offering (IPO) related expenses of MYR24 million and discount for shares issued to IPO retail investors of MYR53 million, profit after tax (PAT) was MYR580 million, down 5.7% y-o-y. Likewise net profit for the twelve-month period was MYR2.23 billion, down 7% against full-year 2008, with Maxis also providing a figure taking the IPO-related costs out, bringing the decline down to just 2.7%, with comparable PAT at MYR2.34 billion. Maxis also noted that the decline in net profit could in part be attributed to significant levels of investment in 2009, with Sandip Das, the company’s CEO, noting: ‘These results have been heartening considering that it has been a ‘year of investment’ for Maxis where a total of MYR1.2 billion was spent on CAPEX as we build up a platform towards meeting the next generation of customer demand.’ The company invested a total of MYR1.243 billion in 2009, up from the MYR792 million it spent a year earlier, noting that the bulk of the funds had been used for network modernsisation and a substantial increase in 3G footprint.
At end-December 2009 Maxis reported a total mobile subscriber base of 12.29 million, up 9.4% against the same date a year earlier, while mobile broadband subscriptions nearly doubled, rising 88.5% in the twelve-month period to 264,000.