Business

Thursday November 1, 2012

XL Axiata posts RM717mil 9-month profit


PETALING JAYA: Axiata Group Bhd’s Indonesian 66%-owned unit PT XL Axiata Tbk posted a net profit of 2.2 trillion rupiah (RM717mil) for the nine-month period of the financial year ending Dec 31, 2012.

Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the period grew 6% year-on-year to 7.4 trillion rupiah, with margins at 47%.

Revenue for the period also grew 14% year-on-year to 16 trillion rupiah, with data as the highest growth contributor of 60%, followed by short message service (SMS) at 21% and voice at 7% year-on-year.

XL Axiata president director Hasnul Suhaimi said: “Data traction remained strong, as evident in the continuous increase in data revenue, traffic as well as data subscribers which reached 25 million or 60% of our total base. Data revenue contribution has also increased from 14% last year to 19% this year. XL remains focused delivering improved data access and experience.”

In a statement issued, Axiata Group said XL Axiata’s key offering for data remained the pay-per-use or volume-based packages and Hot Rod 3G+. To align its focus on using the 3G network for data, XL Axiata had started to offer additional quota for its data volume packages, if used on the 3G network.

Additionally, in hopes of raising awareness in data, the company opened a data experience centre to showcase both device and data experience using its service.

XL Axiata had also collaborated with handset dealers such as Samsung and HTC to bundle its XmartPlan product with the devices. The product is a bundle package of data, voice and SMS, catered for smartphone users.

It had also launched a nano simcard to suit new devices such as the iPhone5.

Voice revenue grew 7% year-on-year as outgoing minutes increased by 37% year-on-year. On the other hand, SMS grew by 8% from a year ago.

“For better data user experience, it is necessary to build good end-to-end data network. On top of enhancing capacity, XL also focused on further expansion of 3G coverage,” Hasnul said.

For the period, XL Axiata had spent 7.2 trillion rupiah for investments, which was mainly funded internally.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story
  • Bookmark and Share