KUALA LUMPUR – Digi.com Bhd registered a lower net profit of RM312.82 million in the third quarter (Q3) ended Sept 30, 2021, compared with RM320.76 million a year earlier mainly due to higher depreciation and amortisation costs as well as foreign exchange and fair value losses.
Revenue, however, edged up 0.3% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM1.58 billion as postpaid revenue strengthened 1.1% to RM633 million, the highest in five quarters, the mobile service provider said.
“(The higher postpaid revenue reflected) our strategic efforts to drive data monetisation as well as delivering sustainable subscriber and revenue mix. As such, Internet and digital revenue mix strengthened to 77.5% service revenue,” it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.
Prepaid revenue fell 3.4% y-o-y to RM645 million.
Digi said favourable take-ups for mobile bundles further lifted y-o-y device sales growth by 17.6% as devices sold rose to 353,000 units.
In a press statement, the company said it invested RM170 million in network capacity enhancements and digitalisation of operations during the quarter under review as part of the company’s priority to deliver a quality Internet experience to its customers in meeting the rising data consumption.
“Monthly average data usage now stands at 22.4 gigabytes per user,” it said.
Digi has declared a third interim dividend of four sen per share (Q3 2020: 4.1 sen), which will be paid on December 17, while the entitlement date is on November 18.
The telecommunication company said it delivered 100% of its targets for new 4G sites rollout and site upgrades under the National Digital Network initiative (Jendela) plan in the quarter to further strengthen its network.
“The process to gradually shut down the 3G network is progressing well with less than 300,000 3G-subscribers, against a growing Internet subscribers base of nine million,” it said.
On prospects, Digi said that it would continue to execute its strategy focusing on strengthening mobile offerings and digital services for subscribers to benefit from growing digital opportunities, as well as to expand the widest network coverage in rural areas.
“As the operating and retail environment is gradually returning to normal conditions, Digi is revising the financial year 2021 guidance to low single-digit decline for service revenue, low-to-mid single-digit decline for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) and capex-to-total revenue ratio of 13.0% to 14.0%,” it said.
It also noted that the proposed transaction relating to the prior-announced proposed merger between Celcom Axiata Bhd and Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd is progressing as planned.
“Expected dates for approval and completion of the transaction within the second quarter of 2022 remain unchanged,” it said.
At 2.49 pm yesterday, Digi was six sen lower at RM4.34 with 240,500 shares transacted. – Bernama, October 22, 2021
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