Digi third quarter net profit down 18.5%

PETALING JAYA: Digi.Com Bhd’s third quarter net profit fell 18.5% to RM396.62 million from RM486.92 million a year ago due to higher progressive depreciation from network expansion and accelerated depreciation of RM26 million relating to migration of data centre.
In a stock exchange filing yesterday, Digi said revenue for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (Q3’FY15) declined 5.11% to RM1.67 billion from RM1.76 billion previously.
Despite the weaker earnings, Digi declared a third interim dividend of 5.1 sen totalling RM397 million for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 (FY15), payable on Dec 4, 2015. This brings its total dividend to 17.1 sen per share for the year.
For the nine-month period, Digi’s net profit was 8.84% lower at RM1.34 billion while revenue for the period fell marginally by 0.57% to RM5.19 billion.
Digi CEO Albern Murty said while the prospects for the industry remain bright due to growing uptake of the internet and opportunities to monetise data, volatile consumer sentiment resulting from the Goods and Services Tax, shrinking wallet size from a weaker ringgit and fierce competition have brought about a lacklustre Q3’FY15.
“Our focus now is to fuel data momentum to drive future growth,” he said, adding the group will continue to make access to high-speed internet easy through its wide service touchpoints in stores and online, with competitive smart device bundles and plans in the coming months.
“We will do this while driving deeper focus on customer experience. Demand for quality internet access will be the key driver, and we are hopeful of increasing revenues from our growing number of internet users going forward,” said Murty.
During the quarter, he said Digi has invested another RM223 million, with year-to-date cumulative investment of RM616 million in capital expenditure (capex), primarily on 4G-LTE (long-term evolution) network deployment nationwide.
He added the group remained committed to its RM900 million investment to drive robust data network for consistent high-speed internet services on-the-go and aims to add 1,500 more 4G-LTE sites by the end of the year.
“This will provide a good platform and head start leading into financial year 2016 to capture internet growth and data monetisation opportunity,” he added.