KUALA LUMPUR: CelcomDigi Bhd says it is pushing ahead with network integration and modernisation initiatives as it announced a positive set of results for the second quarter of its financial year.
"Our customers remain the centre of focus – by efficiently harmonising backend operations and processes, we are able to better serve customers, deliver more value and converged products to customers, improve customer service, and modernise retail touchpoints and channels.
"Network integration and modernisation initiatives are progressing in full speed as we continue to provide elevated network experience to our customers on the nation’s fastest, widest and most modern 4G network," said CelcomDigi CEO Datuk Idham Nawawi in a statement.
In the second quarter ended June 30, 2023, the telco posted a net profit of RM343.52mil, up from RM220.04mil in the same quarter in 2022.
This brought the group's earnings per share to 2.93 sen from 2.83 sen in the comparative quarter, it said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.
Revenue meanwhile more than doubled to RM3.12bil from RM1.54bil in 2QFY22.
The board of directors declared a second interim dividend of 3.2 sen per share, amounting to RM375mil in line with its progressive dividend commitment to shareholders.
On a six months basis, CelcomDigi's cumulative net profit was RM661.44mil as compared to RM456.19mil previously while revenue was RM6.3bil compared to RM3.06bil.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) rose 1.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) in 1H23 to RM2.99bil as cost optimisation mitigated increased traffic growth and integration costs.
The telco said it ramped up integration activities during the quarter under review, and continued investments in network capacity upgrades and IT initiatives to improve customer experience.
"The company invested RM252mil in capex or 8.1% of total revenue in Q2 FY23, catering for network capacity upgrades and integration initiatives.
"As key projects have commenced in June 2023 onwards, the company expects capex to ramp up for the remaining two quarters of FY23," it said.
On a segmental basis, CelcomDigi's 1H23 postpaid revenue was up 0.3% to RM2.55bil on subscriber growth while prepaid revenue grew 0.8% to RM2.28bil, driven by subscriber additions and strong data traction.
Y-o-y, the postpaid segment added 159,000 subscribers while postpaid subscribers grew 418,000.
Blended average revenue per user (Arpu) was RM41 as postpaid was impacted by an interconnect rate reduction and curbed messaging traffic.
The group's home fibre revenue rose 26.6% to RM81mil in 1H23 with the subscriber base growing 22,000 y-o-y to 113,000.
