Malaysian fixed line incumbent Telekom Malaysia™ has published its financial results for the first quarter of 2013, revealing a decline in reported net profit on the back of forex losses related to borrowing. In the three months ended 31 March 2013 TM posted a net profit of MYR213.2 million (USD221.4 million), down by almost 15% year-on-year, with the company reporting an MYR18.6 million unrealised foreign exchange loss on long term loans in the quarter, compared to a MYR67.9 million gain in 1Q12. Turnover in the period under review, meanwhile, stood at MYR2.42 billion, representing a 1.7% year-on-year increase, with EBITDA in 1Q13 totalling MYR806.7 million, up from MYR782.6 million in 1Q12.
In operational terms, at the end of March 2013 TM’s total broadband subscriber base had increased to 2.109 million, up from 1.974 million a year earlier, with 532,000 of those now taking services over the company’s High Speed Broadband (HSBB) network. Indeed, TM’s fibre services, which are offered under the ‘UniFi’ banner have gone from strength to strength, with the number of customers signed up having increased by 68.4% year-on-year from 316,000 at end-March 2012. In terms of the company’s copper broadband services, the bulk of accesses were residential – 1.292 million at the end of the quarter, down from 1.356 million – with the decline thought to be the result of migration of existing subscribers to TM’s fibre plans; residential UniFi subscribers numbered 448,000 at the end of the period, up from 269,000 at end-March 2012. With the UniFi tariff bundling broadband, IPTV and fixed voice, its introduction has also stabilised subscriber numbers for the latter service. To that end, TM reported a 0.3% y-o-y increase in fixed voice accesses, which totalled 4.370 million such connections at end-March 2013.