Maxis has posted service revenue of RM2155 million (+2 percent), EBITDA of RM1201 million (+5 percent), profit of RM562 million (+8 percent) and Capex of RM273 million in the third quarter of 2017.
The main highlight of the Maxis earnings for Q3 2017 was the telecom operator’s performance with the highest EBITDA, EBITDA margin on service revenue and profit in five years.
Morten Lundal, chief executive officer of Maxis, said: “Q3 2017 was a very strong quarter for Maxis, delivering the highest quarterly profits in five years. Record high demand for data and our high quality network created an all-time high customer satisfaction score.”
Maxis said its service revenue grew 2 percent to RM2,155 million, supported by strong growth in postpaid.
Postpaid revenue was RM1,055 million (+9.3 percent) — driven by almost two million MaxisONE plan customers who contributed ARPU of RM117 per month.
Hotlink FAST subscriptions grew to more than 2 million to ensure leadership in 4G prepaid market with Hotlink FAST ARPU of RM43 per month.
Prepaid revenue declined 6.0 percent to RM955 million.
Maxis said the average usage of 4G LTE users rose to 7.4GB from 4.4GB per month. The number of LTE users increased to 6 million in Q3 2017 from 4.1 million last year.
Maxis has invested RM647 million up to Q3 this year. Its 4G LTE network now covers 89 percent of the population. Capex increase of RM24 million was mainly due to higher spend on IT transformation program.
EBITDA grew 9 percent quarter-on-quarter to RM1201 million with 55.8 percent margin on service revenue, against RM1104 million and 52 percent respectively in the previous quarter — driven by higher total revenue and cost optimization initiatives in Q3 2017.
Capex for the period was RM647 million, a decrease of 12 percent compared to the preceding year of RM737 million due to lower spend on network modernization and LTE rollout as it reached a high 4G LTE network coverage of 89 percent.
