Malaysia’s Maxis Communications has published its financial results for the three months ended 30 June 2015, with the company saying it had ‘continued to strengthen its operating and financial performance’ in the period under review, ‘underpinned by strong customer propositions and high performing network’.
Services revenues in the second quarter of 2015 totalled MYR2.094 billion (USD572 million), and while this represented a 1.6% decline against the previous three-month period, it was 2.2% higher against the MYR2.049 billion recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2014. The recent quarterly decline, the operator said, was due to pre-paid growth momentum being impacted by a new Goods and Services Tax (GST) on such services. Total turnover, meanwhile, stood at MYR2.110 billion in Q2 2015, down from MYR2.119 billion a year earlier.
Earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the quarter under review totalled MYR1.101 billion, up from MYR1.086 billion, with an EBITDA margin of 52.2%, unchanged year-on-year. Profit after tax was MYR485 million in 2Q15, representing a 6.6% increase against the previous quarter, though only marginally higher than the MYR480 million recorded in 2Q14.
With Maxis having invested around MYR260 million in the quarter to support its network modernisation, the expansion of LTE coverage and upgrades to its capacity, the operator has said it expects CAPEX to total MYR1.1 billion for the whole of 2015. On the back of such spending Maxis claims to now have the largest 4G population coverage of any Malaysian operator, with 41% of the nation said to be within its network footprint, while it covers ‘key market centres and state capitals’. By end-2015 the operator aims to have boosted coverage to include more than 50% of Malaysians.
As at end-June 2015 Maxis had a total of 11.864 million mobile subscribers, up from 10.684 million a year earlier. Notably the operator confirmed it now has 1.9 million customers accessing its LTE network.
Commenting on the quarterly performance, Maxis chief executive officer Morten Lundal said: ‘Operationally and financially, it was a good quarter for Maxis, taking into account the early GST hiccups and the general impact of GST on pre-paid.’