KUALA LUMPUR: Maxis Bhd’s profit after tax (PAT) rose 14% to RM544 million in the fourth quarter ended on Dec 31, 2016 from RM477 million a year ago as it continued to grow its revenue, profits and market share while for the financial year, PAT rose to nearly RM2 billion.
Delivering a solid Q4, this was underpinned by a strong operational and financial performance, with high traction for its leading data services amidst challenging market conditions, which was also reflected in the financial year 2016.
Maxis said its Q4 earnings rose 7.7% to RM504mil from RM468mil a year ago while revenue increased by 1.7% to RM2.214bil from RM2.176bil. Earnings per share were higher at 6.7 sen compared with 6.2 sen a year ago.
It declared a fourth interim dividend of five sen net a share, bringing the total dividend for 2016 to 20 sen.
Elaborating on the results, Maxis said service revenue grew 0.5% to RM2.165bil with stable postpaid and prepaid performance.
Prepaid revenue sustained at RM1,024 million with Mobile Internet driving the momentum. Postpaid posted revenue of RM1,004 million with strong acquisition momentum driven by MaxisONE Plan and Zerolution
Maxis said its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 5.5% to RM1.183billion.
For FY16, earnings crossed the crucial RM2bil as the stronger financial performance was supported by higher average revenue per user (ARPU), strong 4G adoption, robust data usage and an industry-leading 4G LTE network.
Its earnings increased by 15.7% to RM2.013bil from RM1.739bil. Profit after tax rose 0.2% to RM1.963bil. Its revenue increased to RM8.61bil from RM8.60bil in FY15.
Commenting on the FY16 results, it said that in the last 12 months, MaxisONE subscription base doubled to 1.7 million with an average monthly ARPU of RM138, significantly higher than the average postpaid ARPU of RM102 per month last year.
Maxis CEO Morten Lundal said 2016 was a challenging yet good year for the group.
“Despite the intense price competition in the market, we performed well by focusing on offering our customers uniquely attractive value propositions.
“All in all, 2016 was a year of good progress with positive momentum heading into 2017,” he said.
