KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 16): CelcomDigi Bhd (KL:CDB), Malaysia’s largest mobile network operator by subscribers, said on Friday its net profit rose 18% in the second quarter from a year earlier, thanks to lower depreciation charges and tax incentive.

Net profit for the three months ended June 30, 2024 (2QFY2024) was RM406.02 million, compared to RM343.52 million over the same quarter a year ago, CelcomDigi said in an exchange filing.

Revenue for the quarter slipped 0.5% year-on-year to RM3.11 billion from RM3.12 billion due to lower revenue from its services segment and prepaid and postpaid enterprise segment.

“We are maintaining our guidance on service revenue growth of low single digit increase” for 2024, CelcomDigi said. However, earnings before interest and tax is expected to decline single digit this year due to ‘organisation adjustment’ that resulted in a one-time cost of RM140 million.

The company previously guided for earnings before interest and tax to stay at a similar level to 2023.

For the first half of FY2024, the group's cumulative net profit rose 18.3% to RM782.48 million from RM661.44 million in the previous January-June period. Six-month revenue fell to RM6.28 billion from RM6.30 billion.

CelcomDigi declared a second interim dividend of 3.5 sen per share, amounting to RM411 million, payable on September 30, bringing the year-to-date dividend payout to seven sen per share as compared to 6.4 sen in the same period last year.

CelcomDigi CEO Datuk Idham Nawawi said that the group continued to drive its transformation and integration efforts in 2QFY2024.

"We have gone to market with a refreshed product portfolio and new retail stores, giving our customers an entirely new experience and connectivity solutions for work, play and home. We also introduced a new distribution model to provide better efficiency and effectiveness in the channels to serve our customers and leverage our new and modern widest network,” he said in a statement.

Shares of CelcomDigi closed down four sen or 1.05% to RM3.76 on Friday, valuing the group at RM44.1 billion.