Riding on the strength of its non-voice business particularly in mobile internet, coupled with some prudent cost management, Maxis Berhad (“Maxis”) has announced a net profit of RM530 million in Q2 2013, up from RM476 million registered in the previous quarter. The second quarter performance is an 11.3% improvement over Q1 2013.
Strong growth in data reflects the growing trend across the telecommunications industry as smartphone adoption continues to grow at the expense of voice and SMS usage, which is on a decline. Maxis made RM1,023 million in non-voice revenue, accounting for 47.6% of mobile revenue. Service revenue was RM2,206 million, up 0.1% from RM2,205 million in Q1 2013.
YN Raja Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Arshad Raja Tun Uda, Chairman of Maxis revealed that the penetration of smartphones amongst Maxis’ 12.4 million subscriber base is a high 52%, fuelling the increase of mobile data usage (excluding broadband dongle subscribers).
To serve the demands of data usage further, Maxis launched the Opera Mini data plan for customers to enjoy unlimited internet browsing in the first quarter.
Total revenue took a slight dip to RM2,294 million, however, from RM2,327 million quarter-on-quarter, attributed to lower sales of low-margin terminal devices. This didn’t stop the telco giant in announcing a second interim dividend of 8.0 sen per share to its shareholders, amounting to RM600 million.
Maxis registered a profit before tax (PAT) of RM1,006 million, down from RM1,039 in the year-before-quarter. This is on top of a revenue of RM4,621 million. PAT was impacted by acceleration of depreciation of network equipment as Maxis continues to modernise its network to be 4G LTE-ready. Maxis spent RM407 million capital expenditure to maintain and improve its network in Q1 2013. The investment has seen 4G LTE coverage expanding beyond Klang Valley to Penang and Johor Bahru, and being the first provider to deploy 4G LTE services in East Malaysia – Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.
Adoption of 4G LTE services has been encouraging, and as at end of June 2013, Maxis has close to 250,000 subscribers of its 4G LTE services. Maxis targets 4G LTE coverage to reach 18% of the population by end of the year.
