Singapore mobile network operator (MNO) M1 Limited (M1) has published its three-month and nine-month results for the period ending 30 September 2017, with third-quarter service revenue increasing 4.9% year-on-year to SGD206.7 million (USD151.9 million) – driven by higher post-paid and fixed services revenues, which grew 5.5% and 19.9% y-o-y respectively – as EBITDA increased 1.3% y-o-y to SGD75.5 million from SGD74.6 million in 3Q16 and pre-tax profits slipped 2.0% to SGD40.0 million. Net income, meanwhile, declined by 4.8% on an annualised basis to SGD32.7 million from SGD34.4 million, mainly due to higher depreciation and interest expenses it said.
For the nine-month period under review, M1 booked service of SGD612.9 million, up 1.4% y-o-y, fuelled by strong growth in fixed services revenue which rose 21.4% to SGD93.6 million and accounted for 15.3% of overall service revenue in 9M17. Profit before tax for January-September slipped 11.9% to SGD125.1 million and EBITDA declined to SGD228.0 million from SGD20.0 million previously. Moreover, net profit after tax declined 13.9% to SGD101.5 million from SGD117.9 million in 9M16.
Operationally, M1 closed out September 2017 with a total fibre-optic broadband base of 182,000, up by 6,000 net additions from the end of June 2017, and 30,000 higher than at end-September 2016, with M1 noting that its corporate segment now makes up 10% of the total customer base, but generates some 47% of fixed service revenue.
The operator conducted a review of the entire mobile customer base following the 2G network shutdown in the second quarter of 2017, which it reported ‘led to the termination of inactive and dormant customers, as well as migration of customers to its machine-to-machine (M2M) platform which are not included in the reported customer base. This accounted for a reduction of 14,000 post-paid and 47,000 pre-paid customers. As a result, post-paid customer base increased 5,000 and pre-paid customer base decreased 41,000 in the third quarter of 2017. Total mobile customer base was 2.008 million at end-September 2017.’
Commenting on the results, Karen Kooi, Chief Executive Officer, M1, said: ‘With the shift in consumer preferences from traditional telecommunications to data centric services, we are addressing their changing needs through proactive customer service management, network optimisation and upgrades, as well as innovative and competitively priced service propositions.’ CAPEX in 3Q17 and 9M17 stood at SGD28 million (3.3% y-o-y) and SGD104 million (5.2%), respectively. Full-year capital expenditure is set at SGD150 million.