Fixed line incumbent Telekom Malaysia™ has released its financial results for the three months ended 31 March 2012, revealing a more than 53% year-on-year increase in net profit on the back of higher revenues and an unrealised foreign exchange gain on its US dollar debt. For the three-month period TM posted a profit after tax and minority interest (PATAMI) of MYR250.6 million (USD81.7 million), up from MYR163.3 million in the corresponding quarter a year earlier. Total turnover for the quarter rose to MYR2.38 billion, representing an 11% y-o-y increase compared to 1Q11. Of that total, fixed voice services continued to account for the bulk of revenue – MYR948 million, or 40% – although its share of total sales had fallen from 43% in the first quarter of 2011. Internet services, meanwhile, generated MYR563 million in the period under review, up more than 24% compared with MYR453 million a year earlier, with turnover from such services now accounting for 24% of the telco’s total revenues (up from 21% in 1Q11). Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the quarter stood at MYR782.6 million, compared with MYR730.9 million in the corresponding period of 2011.
In operational terms, at the end of March 2012 TM’s broadband subscriber base had risen to 1.974 million, up from 1.772 million a year earlier. The telco’s fibre-based services, which are offered under the ‘UniFi’ banner over its in-deployment High Speed Broadband Network (HSBB), continue to grow, with 316,000 fibre broadband customers on the operator’s books at the end of the quarter, compared to just 64,000 at end-March 2011. Customer numbers for TM’s ADSL services fell slightly, with subscribers to its ‘Streamyx’ products numbering 1.658 million at the end of the quarter, down from 1.708 million a year earlier. Fixed voice subscribers at end-March 2012 totalled 4.366 million which, while down compared to 4.381 million a year earlier, was up slightly from the 4.349 million recorded at the end of 2011.
Highlighting the importance of its new fibre services, TM CEO Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, noted: ‘UniFi continued to perform above our expectations in the first quarter of 2012. In terms of coverage, we rolled out to 1.2 million premises covering 78 exchange areas. In terms of take-up, we had activated 315,745 customers, which represents a net addition of 33.5% or 79,244 customers q-o-q or more than 250,000 customers y-o-y.’