Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), the country's largest fixed-line phone company, yesterday said its latest quarter's net profit fell by 31 per cent to RM302 million, mainly due to unrealised foreign exchange loss on borrowings.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the quarter ended September 30 rose 7 per cent to RM812 million, against RM759.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue rose by 5.8 per cent to RM2.3 billion during the quarter.
Ebitda margin improved by 0.7 percentage point to 33.7 per cent, ahead of the full-year headline target of 32 per cent.
"It has been satisfying to see that the hard work put in by the TM team in executing plans, is paying off with some sterling results and accelerated growth.
"The results have to be placed in context of us having to operate in a highly competitive market, where voice revenues are maturing rapidly and Internet competition is fierce, besides the fact that globally the overall economic environment remains uncertain," TM chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zamzamzairani Isa said in a statement.
Zamzamzairani noted that TM's total return to shareholders (TRS) continues to be above industry peer average at 31 per cent for the nine-month period.
"I am proud to say that we are among the best performing telcos in the region," he added.
TM has been focusing on growing its non-voice business, particularly the broadband and high-speed broadband businesses, to help address the trend of declining voice calls.
For the past few years, TM's voice call revenue had been on the dec-line, mainly driven by the migration of fixed-line voice to mobile voice calls. Simply said, customers prefer to talk via mobile phone than house phone.
The company - which rolled out its high-speed broadband services for home users last year - had more than 164,000 Unifi customers during the quarter, up from 109,000 Unifi customers in the second quarter of this year.
In total, TM has 1.87 million broadband customers, an increase of 16 per cent against the same period last year.
Voice revenue contributed 42 per cent of the group's nine-month re-venue. A year ago, voice revenue contributed 45 per cent.
Internet and data business, which contributed 38 per cent of group re-venue for the first nine months last year, contributed 42 per cent this year.
The company's retail business - which comprises voice and non-voice services to home consumers, small and medium-sized companies, government agencies - contributed the lion share of revenue, with a 79 per cent revenue contribution.
While most of its other businesses registered growth during the quarter, its global business suffered 7.8 per cent decline at RM589 million, partly due to lower bandwidth sales.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for the quarter ended September 30 rose 7 per cent to RM812 million, against RM759.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue rose by 5.8 per cent to RM2.3 billion during the quarter.
Ebitda margin improved by 0.7 percentage point to 33.7 per cent, ahead of the full-year headline target of 32 per cent.
"It has been satisfying to see that the hard work put in by the TM team in executing plans, is paying off with some sterling results and accelerated growth.
"The results have to be placed in context of us having to operate in a highly competitive market, where voice revenues are maturing rapidly and Internet competition is fierce, besides the fact that globally the overall economic environment remains uncertain," TM chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zamzamzairani Isa said in a statement.
Zamzamzairani noted that TM's total return to shareholders (TRS) continues to be above industry peer average at 31 per cent for the nine-month period.
"I am proud to say that we are among the best performing telcos in the region," he added.
TM has been focusing on growing its non-voice business, particularly the broadband and high-speed broadband businesses, to help address the trend of declining voice calls.
For the past few years, TM's voice call revenue had been on the dec-line, mainly driven by the migration of fixed-line voice to mobile voice calls. Simply said, customers prefer to talk via mobile phone than house phone.
The company - which rolled out its high-speed broadband services for home users last year - had more than 164,000 Unifi customers during the quarter, up from 109,000 Unifi customers in the second quarter of this year.
In total, TM has 1.87 million broadband customers, an increase of 16 per cent against the same period last year.
Voice revenue contributed 42 per cent of the group's nine-month re-venue. A year ago, voice revenue contributed 45 per cent.
Internet and data business, which contributed 38 per cent of group re-venue for the first nine months last year, contributed 42 per cent this year.
The company's retail business - which comprises voice and non-voice services to home consumers, small and medium-sized companies, government agencies - contributed the lion share of revenue, with a 79 per cent revenue contribution.
While most of its other businesses registered growth during the quarter, its global business suffered 7.8 per cent decline at RM589 million, partly due to lower bandwidth sales.
