KUALA LUMPUR: Digi Malaysia reported first-quarter revenue growth of 12.1 percent year-on-year. Service revenue went down 5.6 percent to MYR 1.4 billion. EBITDA grew to 45 percent margin or MYR 711 million, up by 1 percent year-on-year. Digi ended the quarter with 11.8 million subscribers where 8 million are active internet subscribers. Profit after tax reached MYR 373 million or 24 percent margin.
Internet revenue grew 15.2 percent year-on-year to MYR 621 million contributing 42.2 percent to service revenue as smartphone adoption rose to 68 percent. The company declared a first interim dividend of 4.7 sen per share or MYR 365 million. Capex reached MYR 197 million or 13 percent of service revenue to complete the spectrum refarming exercise and deployment of LTE 900Mhz network sites.
Digi says its LTE-A network currently covers 42 percent of the population nationwide, and its 4G LTE network 85 percent, supported by 7,700km of fiber network. This accessibility has seen a 63.1 percent growth in 4G LTE subscribers to 4.7 million, using 1.3 times more data on the operator’s network from a year ago.