KUALA LUMPUR (May 17): Wireless carrier Maxis Bhd (KL:MAXIS) said on Friday its net profit rose 10% year-on-year (y-o-y) in the first quarter, thanks to higher service revenue and cost control, sending its shares to their highest in nearly three months.
Net profit for the three months ended March 31, 2024 was RM353 million, or 4.5 sen per share, compared to RM320 million or 3.1 sen per share over the same period last year, Maxis said in an exchange filing. Revenue for the quarter rose 3% y-o-y to RM2.6 billion from RM2.5 billion.
Maxis also declared a first interim dividend of four sen per share, to be paid on June 24.
“Our healthy first quarter performance validates our integrated telco growth strategy,” said Maxis chief executive officer Goh Seow Eng. “With our focused investments in our network and digitalisation, we are confident that we will continue to meet the connectivity needs of our customers.”
Shares in Maxis extended their early gains and rose more than 4% to an intraday high of RM3.77, the highest since Feb 28, after the results were announced. The stock settled at RM3.72 at market close, still up 10 sen or 2.76%, after 4.2 million shares changed hands.
At RM3.72, the group’s market capitalisation stood at RM29.14 billion.
Service revenue, which excludes sales of devices, grew 3.7% y-o-y to RM2.19 billion in the first quarter. Service revenue at its consumer business was up 3.3% while that of its enterprise business rose 6.0%.
The blended monthly average revenue per user was RM54.10, down from RM55.60 over the same quarter last year. The company now has about 10.76 million subscribers, up 4.2% from a year earlier, across the prepaid, postpaid, and wireless broadband segments.
The company reported an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) of RM1.04 billion while Ebitda margin was up 1.6 percentage points to 47.6%. The company spent RM106 million as capital expenditure during the first quarter.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, net profit jumped more than six times from RM56 million as the final quarter of 2023 was affected by accelerated depreciation and asset write-offs. Revenue, meanwhile, fell 5.1% from RM2.7 billion due to lower device revenue.
Maxis also reiterated its full-year guidance for a “low” single-digit increase in service revenue, Ebitda to remain relatively unchanged before any potential financial impact for 5G, and capital expenditure to remain under RM1 billion.