This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 10, 2026 - August 16, 2026

INSTEAD of the 20 sen dividend per share (DPS) by 2028 promised by his predecessors, Axiata Group Bhd’s (KL:AXIATA) new group CEO and managing director Nik Rizal Kamil Nik Ibrahim Kamil appears to be targeting a DPS of 13 sen by 2028, up from 12 sen in 2027 and 11 sen in 2026. That is based on his commitment to pay at least RM3 billion in total dividends between 2026 and 2028, or about RM1 billion a year.

Under its Axiata28 plan (2026 to 2028), the group aims to deliver at least 10% year-on-year growth in DPS, which was 10 sen in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Axiata — which listed as TM International Bhd on April 28, 2008, when the local and regional operations were demerged from Telekom Malaysia Bhd (KL:TM) — saw its share price peak in January 2015, the year it last paid a dividend of at least 20 sen per share.

Nik Rizal says Axiata can meet its dividend promise even without “monetising” or selling any assets — a piece of news that may well disappoint investors hoping for a special dividend if Axiata manages to divest a substantial stake in its 63%-owned tower infrastructure company EDOTCO Group Sdn Bhd. Khazanah Nasional Bhd owns 32% of EDOTCO while the Retirement Fund (Inc) (KWAP) owns 5%.

Axiata’s 33.1% stake in CelcomDigi Bhd (KL:CDB) works out to RM11.26 billion, based on the latter’s market capitalisation of RM34.02 billion as at Aug 7. That implies a RM6.1 billion valuation for the rest of Axiata’s assets, including the 63% stake in EDOTCO.

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd had in a recent note estimated that Axiata’s stake in EDOTCO could raise RM3.1 billion to RM5.6 billion, based on 6.5 times to nine times enterprise value over earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EV/Ebitda). If that happens, Axiata’s net debt-to-Ebitda levels will fall from around 2½ times to even below 1 time net debt-to-Ebitda, if a disposal happens at the higher end of the valuation band.

In FY2025, EDOTCO’s Ebitda was RM1.77 billion on the back of RM2.38 billion in revenue, with net profit of RM379 million.

At RM1.90, Axiata’s share price has yet to price in an EDOTCO deal. While the projected FY2026-to-FY2028 dividend yield of 5.8% to 6.8% provides downside support, “there may be a lack of a near-term re-rating catalyst if the [EDOTCO monetisation] deal does not materialise”, CIMB Securities Research analyst Choong Chen Foong wrote in an Aug 7 note, reiterating a “buy” recommendation and RM2.55 target price.

Axiata also owns a 34.8% stake in PT XLSmart Telecom Sejahtera Tbk (XLSmart) in Indonesia, jointly controlling it with Sinar Mas group, which also has a 34.8% stake.

Axiata controls 82.5% of Smart Axiata Co Ltd, with Mitsui & Co paying US$66 million (RM285.54 million back then) for a 10% stake in May 2017.

Axiata also controls 73.75% in Dialog Axiata PLC (down from 82.27% prior to the merger with Airtel Lanka, which resulted in Bharti Airtel Ltd owning a 10.36% stake in the enlarged Dialog Axiata in June 2024).

Axiata also has a 61.82% stake in Robi Axiata PLC, the second-largest operator in Bangladesh after Telenor’s Grameenphone. Bharti Airtel Singapore owns 28.18% of Robi.

Axiata, which currently has most of its value in its telecom assets, hopes to make its digital business a bigger pillar of growth.

“Technology is the second growth engine of Axiata28 and will become an increasingly important contributor to the group’s future growth. Our aim is to increase the tech portfolio’s value from below 10% equity value sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) now to 20% by 2028, focusing on areas where we have a clear right to win — data and AI, fintech and cybersecurity — growing these businesses to unicorn status,” Nik Rizal tells The Edge.

For Axiata, AI and cybersecurity are not just technology initiatives. “They strengthen our operating companies, improve resilience and capital efficiency, and create new avenues for long-term value creation. Importantly, our AI journey began well before the recent wave of interest. We started embedding AI across our businesses in 2022 because we believed early on that it would become a fundamental driver of productivity, operational performance and business transformation,” he says.

“Cybersecurity is a good example of the kind of value creation we want to unlock under Axiata28: Advancing Asia. We started to build cybersecurity capabilities to protect our own operating companies across multiple markets. Over time, it evolved into what is now Axiata Cyber Fusion Center, a recognised regional cybersecurity platform with its own talent, expertise and intellectual property, and a proprietary patented platform. We believe cybersecurity represents both a strategic capability and a significant growth opportunity.”

Of Axiata’s three key digital assets, Nik Rizal speaks highly of ADA Data AI Solutions Sdn Bhd (formerly Axiata Digital & Analytics Sdn Bhd).

“I have really high hopes for ADA. It has already been profitable for seven years. I can IPO it today; it has the IPO track record [minimum profit of RM20 million], but I’m being a bit greedy on this one because it is not quite ready yet in the grand scheme of things — because a lot of our efforts are still on our operating companies, the telcos,” he says.

“The technology portfolio is something we’ve allowed to stall because they were also trying to find their footing but I think they’ve now got a firm landing.”

According to him, ADA is “positioning itself as an AI experience company focusing on data and AI, but also building on customer engagement and personalised authentication, which is becoming very big”. He lets on that ADA’s market reach extends to India and the US.

“So, that is opening up markets for us as well, and we work with ADA in terms of identification, evaluating, talking to the promoters, seeing how it can be integrated. So, again, playing that smart asset manager role.

“We need to do a bit more [work] because our aspiration is to IPO this at some point as a unicorn. So, there needs to be some market education,” he says, without providing a timeline on ADA’s potential listing.

Axiata owns an effective 50.78% of ADA, through its 80%-owned Axiata Digital Services Sdn Bhd (ADS), which holds a 63.47% stake in ADA.

Japan’s Mitsui & Co Ltd, which owns 20% of ADS, has an effective 12.69% stake in ADA. In November 2023, Mitsui paid US$58 million (RM275.6 million) to raise its stake in ADS from 3.29% to 20%, giving it the 12.69% stake in ADA, which it describes as an AI-oriented digital marketing services company. The initial 3.29% stake in ADS was purchased in 2019, following Mitsui’s investment in Axiata’s Cambodian unit Smart Axiata in 2017.

SoftBank Corp holds a 23.07% stake in ADA and Sumitomo Corp owns the remaining 13.46%, which it acquired for US$20 million in July 2018. SoftBank purchased the stake in ADA for US$60 million in May 2021, following which Daichi Nozaki, SoftBank vice-president and head of the enterprise business unit’s global business division, joined the ADA board.

At the time, SoftBank highlighted ADA’s strength as being “led by its proprietary technology IP consisting of 375 million unique customer profiles across the region”, adding that it would leverage ADA’s sales and customer support network, as well as its data and AI expertise, to accelerate its digital marketing business across Asia.

Nik Rizal concludes: “By investing in technology, talent and innovation developed in and for our region, we are strengthening digital trust while creating new avenues for growth.

“As a smart asset manager, our role is to recognise these opportunities early, nurture them and scale them into businesses that create long-term value.”

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Cover Story: Morphing Axiata into a smart asset manager