Maxis posts higher 4Q profit on postpaid growth, declares five sen dividend

KUALA LUMPUR: Maxis Bhd’s net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 (4QFY19) jumped 33% year-on-year to RM355 million from RM266 million, driven by strong postpaid growth as well as growth in both consumer and enterprise fibre subscriptions.

In a bourse filing yesterday, Maxis said revenue for the quarter rose 6% to RM2.59 billion from RM2.45 billion previously. Earnings per share increased to 4.5 sen from 3.4 sen.

Maxis declared a fourth interim dividend of five sen per share, payable on April 16, bringing its annual dividend for FY19 to 20 sen, the same as FY18.

In a statement, Maxis highlighted that its 4QFY19 service revenue, excluding wholesale, rose 2.5% to RM1.98 billion from RM1.93 billion, backed by a resilient core performance.

It also enjoys continued leadership in the postpaid segment, with a monthly average revenue per user or Arpu of RM90, with postpaid subscribers rising 140,000 during 4QFY19 — an addition of 432,000 for the entire FY19 — to a total of 3.4 million.

“The Hotlink Postpaid Flex and MaxisONE Share offerings continued to attract entry level postpaid as well as prepaid subscribers. With a larger base, strong customer engagement and high data usage, postpaid revenue excluding wholesale grew 4.2% to RM974 million from RM935 million,” it noted.

Demand for data has also continued to grow exponentially, it said. “Our customers consumed an average of 15GB of data per month on a blended basis for 4QFY19, which is 37.3% higher than 4QFY18,” it said.

For the financial year ended Dec 31 (FY19), Maxis said its net profit came in at RM1.52 billion versus RM1.78 billion a year ago, while revenue grew to RM9.31 billion from RM9.19 billion.

“We are happy to close 2019 on a high note. We delivered a strong fourth quarter, with continued leadership in our core mobile business whilst making strong progress towards our convergence ambition,” said Maxis chief executive officer Gokhan Ogut.

“The year saw us expanding our enterprise team and building solid partnerships with the best in the industry to deliver more value to businesses in Malaysia. In line with the government’s National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan ambitions, we have also been aggressively expanding our fixed services footprint and building a strong home fibre customer base.

“Our keen focus on delivering unmatched personalised experiences has resulted in high customer satisfaction levels for the year. Always at the forefront of technology, we are accelerating 5G and ready to deploy as soon as spectrum is made available,” he added.

Maxis shares closed three sen higher at RM5.40 yesterday, valuing the group at RM42.23 billion.