Singaporean fixed and mobile operator M1 has published its third quarter results for the three months ending 30 September 2016, noting that revenue fell 10.3% year-on-year to SGD249 million (USD179.6 million), impacted by a 28% dip in handset sales. Service revenue of SGD197 million was 4.4% lower on an annualised basis and net profit slumped 23.4% to SGD41 million. 3Q16 EBITDA stood at SGD75 million, down 9.2% quarter-on-quarter and 13.9% below the figure of SGD87 million booked in 3Q15; capital expenditure in the period was SGD26.7 million (+1.2% y-o-y).
M1, the smallest mobile operator behind Singtel and StarHub, reported a 6.6% y-o-y decline in mobile service revenue in the period under review, closing out September with a total of 1.994 million mobile subscribers – compared to 1.891 million a year before. Of the total, 1.232 million are post-paid (a net increase of 10,000 q-o-q), while the pre-paid base edged up 4,000, it said. Average revenue per user (ARPU) dropped sharply, however, as post-paid ARPU declined 7.7% y-o-y to SGD56.5 per month and PAYG ARPU plummeted 17.8% to SGD12. More encouragingly, M1 managed to keep a rein on post-paid churn which was reported at 0.9% for July-September, down from 1.0% in the prior year.
Elsewhere, the carrier’s fixed services business segment saw a 22.7% y-o-y improvement in revenue, it said, helped along by a net increase of 32,000 fibre-broadband users to 152,000. ARPU, though, fell by 3.4% on an annualised basis to SGD45.7 a month. International call services revenue continued to tumble, falling 11% in the third quarter to SGD15 million.