SUBANG JAYA (June 2): As its expansion requires funding, Time dotCom Bhd is still assessing whether it will give out special dividends from proceeds from the remaining DiGi.Com Bhd shares that it owned.

Speaking briefly to reporters after Time dotCom's annual general meeting, chief executive officer Afzal Abdul Rahim said the fixed-line telecommunications company is still in a growing stage, thus the need to be conservative with its cash.

"We will try to look at some (dividends), as we have been distributing special dividends very frequently. Now, we have to look at (our capital requirements) for the next 12-to-18 months," he said.

"We always keep an optimal amount of cash in our balance sheet. As you know, we have expanded into Asean — and we are still a growing company. So, we are quite conservative in that sense, because we need cash."

Time dotCom said on May 20 that it was selling the last 68.73 million DiGi shares it owned, which amounted to 0.9% of the latter's share base, to institutional investors for RM4.47 a share or RM307.22 million.

Analysts covering the fixed-line provider said these proceeds will amount to 53 sen per share. At the last traded price of RM7.20, this could yield 7.36% if all of proceeds were to be distributed to shareholders. Time dotCom did so with the DiGi.Com share sale in its financial year ended Dec 31, 2015 (FY15).

Afzal's aforesaid point of growing the company’s presence in Asean was also highlighted in the latest annual report, where Time dotCom has a target to increase its submarine cable market share in the region to 20% by 2019, from 11.5%.

HLIB Research, in a May 23 note, said even if Time dotCom is going to need new submarine cables, funding them should not be a concern as they are secured before entering into consortia, while "payments are progressive".

"Aggressive pre-sale of capacity from those new cables should further ease their funding," said analyst Tan J Young.

Telenor ASA gave Time dotCom 27.5 million of its subsidiary DiGi.Com shares in 2008 in exchange for the 3G spectrum. Time dotCom sold some to pay off its debts in 2009.

The DiGi.Com shares were then subdivided into ten each in 2011, and Time dotCom had been selling them in stages since, with the proceeds mainly given out as special dividends.

As at the end of March 2016, Time dotCom is in a net cash position of RM27.91 million, or about 4.8 sen a share.

Time dotCom, which is 42.75%-owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, has grown its market capitalisation by over 26% in one year alone, to RM4.14 billion.