TM revenues up 11%, profits up 53.5%

• Internet & Multimedia revenue growth of 24.3%
• Broadband customers increased 11.4% YoY to 1.97 million

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) announced that Group revenue for the first quarter ended March 31 2012 rose 11% YoY (year-on-year) to RM2.384 billion (US$752 million) from RM2.148 billion (US$667.9 million) in the corresponding period last year.

The growth was attributed to positive growth across all key products – Internet and multimedia, data, voice and other telecommunications related services.

Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 7.1% YoY from RM730.9 million in Q1 2011 to RM782.6 million in Q1 2012, attributable to higher operating revenue, TM said in a statement.

Normalized EBITDA was also higher by 7.6% YoY, at RM784.6 million (US$247.6 million). EBITDA margin was at 32.5% whilst the Normalized EBITDA margin stood at 32.6%.

Group Profit After Tax And Minority Interest (PATAMI) rose 53.5% to RM250.6 million (US$79.1 million) YoY as compared to RM163.3 million (US$51.5 million) in the corresponding quarter in 2011 due to higher revenue and higher unrealized forex gain on US Dollar (USD) debt.

“In the first quarter, we saw our Internet revenue grow to RM563.4 million, representing a 24.3% YoY growth, on the back of an 11.4% increase in customers for both Streamyx and UniFi,” said Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, TM group chief executive officer.

“Collectively, our broadband customer base grew to 1.97 million in the first quarter of 2012 from 1.77 million in the same period last year. In fact, I’m also pleased to note that we have just crossed the two-million broadband customers threshold as of last week, solidifying TM’s position as Malaysia’s broadband champion,” he said.

“UniFi continued to perform above our expectations in the first quarter of 2012. In terms of coverage, we rolled out to 1.2 million premises covering 78 exchange areas. In terms of take-up, we had activated 315,745 customers, which represents a net addition of 33.5% or 79,244 customers QoQ or more than 250,000 customers YoY,” he added.

TM said it has activated 365,000 customers on the back of 1.22 million premises passed over 81 exchange areas. This translates into a take-up rate of 30% against premises passed.

“Our HyppTV service which is available as part of UniFi’s triple play service now offers 88 channels with 12 High Definition (HD) channels consisting of 19 free channels, 34 premium channels, 17 Video-On-Demand (VOD) genres and 18 interactive channels,” Zamzamzairani said.

TM said its business segments continue to record strong growth in revenue and business generation especially in its Retail and Global Lines of Business.

“We will remain focused on expanding our UniFi coverage and capitalize on the strong take-up we are still experiencing to date,” Zamzamzairani said.

“The KPIs (key performance indicators) that we have set for this financial period appear attainable based on our current achievement, although the external environment continues to pose a challenge due to the volatility in the global markets and increased competition in the broadband space,” he added.