Maxis' Q1 2014 Net Profit Rises To RM488 Million

Data increases significantly as Voice and SMS decline
Better than expected margin trend; 50.6% EBITDA Margin
Delivering on dividend commitment; declared a first interim dividend of RM600 million or eight sen per share

Maxis Berhad (Maxis) recorded a Profit After Tax (PAT) of RM488 million for the first quarter ended 31 March 2014, a 2.5% increase from RM476 million delivered in the same period last year.

The Company registered a revenue of RM2,119 million for the quarter. Mobile Internet remained as key contributor and contributed 27% of mobile revenue. During the quarter, mobile revenue was impacted by intentional elimination and significant reduction of non-sustainable revenue from pay per use charges related to data roaming and prepaid data. This clean-up was necessary to ensure customers have worry-free experience whenever they are with Maxis.

For the quarter under review, Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) Margin improved by 2.4 percentage points to 50.6% compared to the same period last year while the overall EBITDA stood at RM1,073 million.

Maxis continued to invest in its network with RM118 million capital expenditure in this first quarter for network modernisation, capacity and quality improvements as well as focused 4G coverage expansion. These initiatives throughout 2014 will ensure that Maxis has IT platforms and network that are built to continuously provide the best customer experience. Already, Maxis leads the market in providing the widest high speed network footprint in the country - central to helping customers stay well connected in more locations across Malaysia.

As a whole, Maxis transformation initiatives are anchored on delivering an unmatched customer experience, giving customers the freedom to communicate and connect wherever, whenever. Underpinning this ambition are giving customers the best Internet experience, competitive prices, great retail experience and customer service as well as the most innovative and latest solutions. During the quarter, as part of the efforts to enable worry-free Internet access and give customers the opportunities to use data just the way they want it, Maxis introduced Hotlink 4G, family data supplementary lines, hot ticket extra and Active10 in #Hotlink, among others.

Morten Lundal, Maxis CEO, said, “Q1 was as expected a quarter with full operational focus on our transformation initiatives that will keep us busy throughout 2014. We have set the bar really high and we are diligently going through the list of things to improve. We are satisfied that we have improved profitability further in Q1, but what we really are focused on is to improve our capabilities further, so we can provide what we and our customers define as a truly ‘great experience’.“

Maxis announced a first interim single-tier tax-exempt dividend of RM600 million or eight sen per share.

Strong Shareholders Support at Maxis’ Fifth Annual General Meeting and Extraordinary General Meeting

Maxis’ shareholders approved all the resolutions proposed at the Company’s fifth Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held earlier in the day. On the dividend pay-out in respect of the financial year ended 31 December 2013, the shareholders approved a single-tier tax-exempt final dividend of eight sen per ordinary share. The four interim dividends paid and the approved final dividend will bring the total dividend for 2013 to 40 sen per share and total dividend pay-out to shareholders to RM3 billion.