DiGi Q3 net profit up 8.52%

PETALING JAYA: DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd's net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2014 (Q3) rose 8.52% to RM486.92 million from RM448.71 million a year ago, driven by growth in service revenue and efficient cost structure.
Revenue for the period rose 3.32% to RM1.76 billion from RM1.70 billion a year ago, driven by continued growth on internet revenue, which improved 40.3% compared with the same quarter last year.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation stood at RM789 million at a margin of 45%.
In Q3, DiGi's mobile internet customers (with internet usage of at least 150Kb for the last three months) surged to 6 million, up 26.5% compared with the same period last year, on the back of a significant increase in smartphone penetration on its network to 47% (Q3 2013: 34%) and an enlarged customer base of 11.3 million (Q3 2013: 10.8 million).
"We continued to expand our 3G coverage to 84% of populated areas during the quarter, and increased the number of LTE sites to bring quality internet connectivity to more users in more areas across the country. Our persistent quality focus has resulted in a more consistent internet experience and this further encouraged data traffic growth by 90% compared with the same period last year," its CEO Lars Norling (pix) said in a statement yesterday.
"Growth during the quarter was also driven by higher subscription of a wide variety of affordable smartphones and service bundles across all customer groups. Initiatives to lower barrier of entry with targeted smartphones bundles including flexible bite-sized internet plans helped drive stronger internet adoption," he said.
DiGi recorded higher capital expenditure (capex) in Q3 primarily to deliver on its planned billing migration, expansion of 3G coverage to 84% and acceleration of LTE sites to support growth demand for internet services.
It is on track to invest up to RM900 million capex allocated for the year to secure competitive infrastructure capabilities, including expansion of high speed data coverage footprint to 86%.
For the nine months ended Sept 30, 2014 (9M 2014), net profit grew 27.10% to RM1.47 billion from RM1.16 billion a year ago while revenue rose 4.40% to RM5.22 billion from RM5.0 billion a year ago.
DiGi also announced that it will pay a third interim tax exempt dividend of 6.2 sen per ordinary share, equivalent to RM482 million or 99.0% payout ratio compared with the same quarter last year, payable to shareholders on Dec 5, 2014.