Telekom Malaysia has reported what it claims is ‘industry-leading growth’ for the first quarter of 2017, with company revenues up 3.8% year-on-year to MYR2.96 billion (USD689 million), driven by revenues from internet services and ‘customer projects’. Group reported EBITDA for 1Q17 was also improved, having increased by 2.9% y-o-y to MYR950 million, though normalised EBITDA was broadly flat (+0.3% y-o-y) at MYR958 million. Operating profit in the quarter under review totalled MYR304 million, representing an annual increase of 8.5%, mainly due to increased turnover, while reported profit after tax and non-controlling interest – ‘after setting aside items such as unrealised foreign exchange impact on borrowings and international trade settlements’ – was MYR230 million, up 13.2% y-o-y.
Telekom Malaysia’s fixed broadband subscriber base was flat quarter-on-quarter at 2.37 million, and up only marginally from the 2.36 million it reported at end-March 2016. The company is, however, continuing to boost the percentage of customers taking a service over its fibre-based High Speed Broadband (HSBB) network. According to the most recent data, at 31 March 2017 a total of 979,000 accesses were signed up to a ‘UniFi’ service, up from 877,000 a year earlier, while Telekom Malaysia noted that 81% of UniFi customers are now on a tariff offering a downlink speed of 10Mbps or greater.
Telekom Malaysia’s new CEO, Dato’ Sri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly, who took up his post in March 2017, said of the performance and the company’s future: ‘This positive quarter results is testament of the strong foundation and momentum TM has built under Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa. What [TM deputy CEO] Datuk Bazlan and I, together with our new management team, will bring to the table is a renewed zest to deliver on our business plan – to lead in going digital and be a champion of convergence.’