Axiata Group’s net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 rose 13.65% to RM6.20 billion from RM5.46 billion a year ago on the back of strong growth from the group’s OpCos namely Malaysia and Indonesia.
Axiata has controlling interests in six mobile operators - Celcom in Malaysia, XL in Indonesia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, Robi in Bangladesh, Smart in Cambodia and Ncell in Nepal, with strategic interests in Idea in India and M1 in Singapore.
Revenue growth for the group was mainly driven by data segment with data revenue contributing 44.0 per cent of service revenue as compared to 33 per cent in YTD 2016.
However, Axiata's net profit slipped 7% to RM238 million from RM256.56 million a year ago, as a results of higher losses of its Indian unit, Idea due to stiff competition from the new entrant Reliance Jio.
The Group’s ongoing cost optimisation programme and improved performance by OpCos contributed to a 14.5% increase in EBITDA to RM6.9 billion from RM6.0 billion for the same period in 2016. The Group-wide programme achieved a RM960 million in savings and avoidance YTD, exceeding the target of the RM800 million for full year 2017.
Jamaludin Ibrahim, President and Group CEO, Axiata
As we continue to be impacted by the challenges in India, we remain focused on driving improvements at Celcom and XL, and continue with our successes in strong execution in all our other markets. We are also very focused on our Group-wide cost optimisation initiatives. In terms of growth opportunities, we are growing in all our frontier markets as well as in edotco and our digital businesses.
