Telekom Malaysia has reported total revenues of MYR5.55 billion (USD1.3 billion) for the first six months of 2019, representing an annualised decline of 4.1%. While the operator said the lower revenue figure was in line with market guidance, it noted that the fall was ‘mainly due to lower contribution from all lines of products except data services’. Indeed, voice revenues for the first half of this year were 8.5% lower than in the corresponding period of 2018, at MYR1.33 billion, while turnover from internet services fell by 7.0% year-on-year, to MYR1.95 billion. By comparison, data revenues were up 14% against H1 2018, at MYR1.34 billion.
Meanwhile, group reported EBIT for H1 2019 increased by 75% y-o-y to MYR778 million, on the back of lower operating costs, attributed to the company’s ‘various cost optimisation initiatives’. Telekom Malaysia’s net profit for the six-month period under review totalled MYR423 million, up from MYR259 million in January-June 2018, while capital expenditures totalled MYR450 million.
In terms of operating statistics, Telekom Malaysia had a total of 2.162 fixed broadband subscribers on its books at end-June 2019, down from 2.302 million a year earlier, of which 1.339 million were signed up to its fibre-based ‘unfi’ branded service (Jun-18: 1.217 million), and the remaining 823,000 were xDSL subscribers (Jun-18: 1.085 million).
Commenting on the telco’s performance, Dato’ Noor Kamarul Anuar Nuruddin, Telekom Malaysia’s CEO, said: ‘We continued to face challenges in H1 2019. However, our cost optimisation efforts continue to show results and we will keep the momentum on profitability going. We shall navigate the challenges on revenue through stronger focus on customers.’