Business

Saturday November 21, 2009

TM swings to profit on forex gain


KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) reported a profit after tax and minority interest (patami) of RM179.1mil for the three months ended Sept 30 against a net loss of RM165.8mil posted a year ago.

“This was mainly attributed to unrealised exchange gain on translation of foreign currency borrowings of RM45.5mil compared with a loss of RM195.7mil in the same quarter in 2008. The higher patami is also explained by the one-off loss on disposal of an equity investment,” TM said in the notes accompanying its results announcement.

Its revenue for the period was higher at RM2.1bil from RM2.06bil previously, mainly due to higher revenue from data services, Internet and multimedia, other telecommunication related services and non-telecommunication related services net of declining voice revenue.

Earnings per share climbed to 5.1 sen from loss per share of 4.8 sen in the previous corresponding period.

“Data services revenue increased by 14.3% RM353.9mil from RM309.7mil posted a year ago following demand for higher bandwith services,” TM said.

It added that Internet and multimedia revenue registered a 7% growth to RM417.9mil for the quarter due to growth in broadband customers (excluding Hotspot customers) to 1.4 million from 1.23 million in the previous corresponding period.

TM said its operating profit before finance cost of RM212.3mil increased by 186.1% from RM74.2mil recorded a year ago, primarily due to increased revenue, lower depreciation charge in the third quarter and loss on disposal of an equity investment experienced in 2008.

For the nine months ended Sept 30, TM’s pre-tax profit surged to RM668mil from RM100mil on a 2.6% rise in turnover to RM6.33bil.

Its patami increased by 646.9% to RM472.8mil compared with RM63.3mil (excluding the results of the demerged Axiata Group Bhd) recorded in the corresponding period last year primarily due to higher revenue, lower operating costs, lower unrealised exchange loss on translation of foreign currency borrowings, absence of loss on disposal of equity investment net of higher taxation charge.

TM said the corresponding period included “reversal of higher excess prior year tax provision of RM82mil compared with RM9.4mil in period under review.”

Going forward, TM is expected to face strong competition from Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (PI), Celcom (M) Bhd, Maxis Bhd and DiGi.Com Bhd which continue to aggressively promote their mobile broadband HSDPA offerings.

OSK Research said TM was expected to to see defections in October and November following P1’s launch of the controversial “Cut Already” campaign which was targeted at TM’s fixed broadband customers.

The research house said TM’s broadband additions slipped to a new low of 37,000 and 53,000 in the second and third quarter respectively.


TM : [Stock Watch] [News]

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