25 May 2022
TM records steady performance in 1Q2022 with revenue & PATAMI up 2.9% & 4.4%; maintains focus on its growth strategies execution
In the second year of its Transformation, the Group is on track to achieve its 2022 market guidance, focusing on strengthening its core businesses and investing in new growth areas
Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) continued its growth trajectory and long-term business sustainability, recording a steady performance in its First Quarter ended 31 March 2022 as compared to the same period last year (YoY).
The Group's operating revenue increased by 2.9% to RM2.89 billion, compared to RM2.81 billion in the same quarter last year, driven primarily by increased demand for voice, Internet and multimedia. Despite rising competition to offer converged solutions among telco and other technology players, TM continued to deliver strong customer growth across its operations.
Capitalising on its core businesses and investing into new growth areas, TM further ramped up its transformation initiatives, delivering profit after tax and non-controlling interests (PATAMI) for the quarter at RM339.9 million or 4.4% higher than the RM325.5 million recorded in 1Q2021. The Group also recorded lower financial costs subsequent to the early redemption of its RM2.0 billion sukuk in March 2021, as well as lower foreign exchange translation losses on borrowings. The Group has applied the Cukai Makmur statutory tax rate accordingly for the current quarter.
Accelerating into the second year of its Transformation, TM brought forward its manpower optimisation to enable earlier realisation of expected benefits to the Group. This, along with foreign exchange impact on trade settlement has led to a 5.0% decrease in EBIT at RM560.4 million for 1Q2022 compared to RM589.7 million in the same quarter last year. Excluding these costs, the Group's underlying EBIT is 14.0% higher at RM650.2 million compared to RM570.5 million in 1Q 2021. Free Cash Flow is lower by 15.1% at RM658.8 million compared to RM775.7 million due to higher CAPEX as the Group continues to invest in business expansion and meeting customers' demands through technology refresh and network delivery, ensuring steady growth.
unifi: Double-digit revenue and subscriber growth
unifi continued its growth performance, recording revenue increase of 10.6% from RM1.25 billion to RM1.38 billion in the current quarter. Sustained by increasing demand from Internet, voice and sales of devices, with cumulative fixed Internet subscribers increasing by 17.5% against the corresponding quarter last year. unifi remains the largest growth contributor for the Group.
unifi will continue to maintain its leadership in fixed broadband and enhance its Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC), enriched with TV and streaming content. This reflects its commitment to improve its FMC customer experience with better and seamless service. unifi will also grow its SME digital platform as a one-stop service centre for solutions catering especially to SMEs nationwide.
TM Wholesale (TMW): Higher revenue from increased demand for data services
TM Wholesale (TMW) also recorded a growth performance for 1Q2022, with revenue increasing by 1.2% from RM631.9 million in 1Q2021 to RM639.5 million, mainly contributed by higher revenue from voice and data services. This was underpinned by increasing demand from High-speed Broadband Access (HSBA) and higher International Voice and Data.
To date, TMW continues to enable industry broadband and 4G network via its fibre infrastructure, with the ongoing 5G rollout further strengthening that role. On the international front, it will continue to serve other OTTs and hyperscalers with connectivity and data centres, while regionally, TM Wholesale aspires to establish Malaysia as a digital hub for ASEAN via new submarine cables, enhanced data centre solutions and edge computing.
TM One: Renewed focus on growing B2B digital solutions market
TM One, the Group's enterprise and public sector arm, recorded a 7.4% decrease in revenue from RM925.2 million to RM856.8 million in 1Q2022 due to decline in data services revenue.
Strengthening and growing its B2B digital solutions, TM One has focused its efforts on high potential industry verticals, namely healthcare, manufacturing, education, oil & gas, banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI) and public sector. It has entered a partnership with Tune Protect and Huawei Malaysia that saw Tune Protect becoming the first organisation in Malaysia to host an insurance core system on public cloud (Cloud αEdge).
Commentary and Outlook from Imri Mokhtar, TM Group Chief Executive Officer
"With our economy and borders reopening, TM is powering Malaysia's journey on its road towards recovery, by ensuring the vision of an inclusive and extensive Digital Malaysia becomes a reality.
"Into the second year of our Transformation, we are focused on strengthening our core business while investing into new growth areas to meet customers' demands. In ensuring sustainability in the long run, we continue to grow our profitability to invest and seize opportunities arising from digital acceleration.
"One of these opportunities is in the exciting space of digital solutions and services for enterprises. Building on TM One's existing capability and relationships with enterprises and the public sector, we will deliver speed and agility through our new digital arm Credence: a corporate start-up led by technology leaders.
"unifi continues to better its fixed broadband and Fixed-Mobile Convergence value proposition to improve customer experience, while expanding our offerings to provide quality entertainment to customers at home or on-the-go.
"We have also achieved some key milestones in our sustainability efforts. TM One has successfully secured the Green Electricity Tariff from Tenaga Nasional Berhad for its data centres in Kuala Lumpur, Cyberjaya and Johor Bahru, contributing to a lower carbon footprint as the demand for cloud storage inevitably increases. This is in addition to the existing Green Building Index (GBI) certification earlier obtained for its core data centres. TM's broader ESG commitment also remains consistent with Malaysia's initiatives towards achieving net-zero Greenhouse Gas emission for the country by 2050.
"Meanwhile, TM Wholesale continues to establish Malaysia as a regional digital hub via new submarine cables, edge computing, data centres and supporting international connectivity. On the domestic front, TM Wholesale continues performing its role as the enabler for industry broadband, 4G and 5G network via fibre infrastructure that will transform the nation's connectivity capabilities."
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Thank you Malaysia! unifi hits 2 Million customers mark!
unifi celebrates the momentous milestone with exclusive offerings for its customers. unifi as the nation's leading convergence and digital connectivity enabler today announced an exciting milestone of surpassing the 2 million customers mark, attained through the continued support and confidence from its beloved customers nationwide. In celebration of reaching these momentous record, unifi is offering FREE content viewing and connectivity solution as rewards to show their utmost gratitude to all of the customers for choosing and trusting the brand over the years. Anand Vijayan, Chief Commercial Officer, Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) said: "We are celebrating this key milestone because of you, our dear customers. Thank you for your continued support, confidence and trust in unifi. You are the motivation that keeps us striving to constantly deliver the best experience for our customers. As a token of appreciation, we are bringing Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 broadcast on unifi TV to all our customers for FREE. On the other hand, we understand that in this period of time, more people are at home and seamless connectivity experience is critical. Hence, we would like to offer free Wi-Fi optimisation consultancy services from our unifi Elite team to further enhance their internet experience at home. Not to forget, all our existing customers can enjoy the unlimited unifi Mobile postpaid plan at RM59/month with no contract. This is our way of saying thank you for choosing unifi as your digital lifestyle enabler." unifi maintains its convergence leadership with strong and consistent growth in its customer base. Its compelling #unifiyourworld total convergence proposition provides the best customer value for access (Home Broadband solutions and Mobile), unifi TV and lifestyle needs (unifi Plus Box, Mesh Wi-Fi, etc.) – for an improved overall internal experience at home and beyond under a single subscription. WiFi optimisation via the use of Mesh WiFi offered by the convergence package helps to enhance customer experience. unifi also accelerated its Streamyx migration programme to enable more customers enjoy higher speed broadband. "Our mission has always been to fuel the best experience and best value for both consumers and business customers. In this unprecedented time, when uninterrupted connectivity is needed more than ever, unifi has proactively met the target set by the Government under Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA). TM via unifi is going all out to expand the connectivity and reach to sub-urban and rural areas supported by the higher number of ports deployed and wider fiber network roll-out as well as via fit-for-purpose technologies under the JENDELA programme to ensure no one is left behind. We have also surpassed our 1Q2021 JENDELA target when we achieved 141% of our commitment, befitting our role as the nation's connectivity and digital infrastructure provider," he added. In celebrating its 2 million customer's milestone, unifi is offering: 1) FREE viewing of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 to all existing customers, which will be aired from 23 July to 8 August 2021. Existing unifi customers can enjoy the 33 sports and 339 events on 13 HD channels on unifi TV via set-top-box or unifi Plus Box. Customers without unifi TV subscription can view the games through unifi PlayTV app. 2) FREE home Wi-Fi consultation by unifi Elite team, a team of Internet experts that provide professional assessment and consultation to optimise wireless coverage at customers' premises. This limited-time offer worth RM120 per visit is open for the first 100 customers while customers on the unifi 500Mbps and unifi 800Mbps plans can receive free Wi-Fi consultation until the end of the year. Interested unifi Home customers can book the slot by completing the online form at unifi.com.my/bookunifielite. 3) The unlimited unifi Mobile 99 plan is now offered at RM59 only, which includes unlimited calls, data, and texts, and a FREE 10GB LTE hotspot pass. The no-contract plan is exclusively for Home Broadband customers, while those without any Home Broadband plan with us can subscribe to the plan at the same price with a 12-months contract. As Malaysia's pioneer nationwide broadband provider, unifi has been playing an active role in every moment of their consumers' lives and is committed to continuing this journey. With the trust and support from customers across all walks of life, unifi strives to be the best broadband service provider to all Malaysians. To enjoy these exclusive offerings, visit unifi.com.my/thankyou2million.
TM R&D inks MoU with ZTE to collaborate on optical network research, bringing the first 50gbps bandwidth experience to Malaysia
Telekom Research & Development Sdn Bhd (TM R&D), the innovation arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ZTE (Malaysia) Corporation Sdn Bhd (ZTE), a global leading provider of information and communication technology solutions, to collaborate on optical network research, bringing the first 50Gbps bandwidth experience to Malaysia. The MoU was signed by Dr Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer, TM R&D and Steven Ge, Chief Executive Officer, ZTE Malaysia. Under this agreement, TM R&D and ZTE will jointly explore the capabilities of next-generation Passive Optical Network (PON) access technology, 50GPON, to support various application scenarios. In addition, both entities will look into use cases that can deliver ultra-broadband access to the government, enterprise and consumers, as well as support the requirements of innovative services such as 5G, Cloud Virtual Reality (VR), industrial intelligent manufacturing for high bandwidth, low latency & jitter, and clock synchronisation, all of which will enhance the user experience in Malaysia. Commenting on the MoU, Dr. Sharlene Thiagarajah, Chief Executive Officer, TM R&D said, “TM R&D is committed to conducting research on future technologies and innovating new value-added smarter eco-systems that will improve the quality of user experience, and ultimately bring a positive impact on their lives. This fits well into the TM Group’s transformation towards becoming a human-centred TechCo. We are very excited to partner with a renowned global player such as ZTE to innovate on future generation PON technology in line with the global trend and technology roadmap.” Meanwhile, Steven Ge, Chief Executive Officer, ZTE Malaysia shared, “With Gigabit home broadband services widely used in Malaysia at present, and the basic fixed network is in the time window of evolution from GPON to 10G PON, this partnership could not have come at a better time.” “ZTE is pleased with the opportunity to collaborate with TM R&D on future research in next-generation PON technology supporting Digital Malaysia,” he added.
TM's addresses data breach of Unifi mobile customers contact information
Telekom Malaysia (“TM” or “the Group”) has been made aware of a data breach (specific to contact information only) on 28 December involving a limited amount of Unifi Mobile customers’ information. After investigations, TM has found 250,248 Unifi Mobile customers to be affected in this data breach, constituting both individual customers as well as SMEs. The type of data that was breached involved customer names, phone numbers and emails. No other information was breached. TM confirms that the breach has been contained and have taken steps to minimise the potential impact to these 250,248 customers. The specific customers affected have been notified. Customers who have not received any notification are not impacted. TM has also reported this matter to the relevant authorities (National Cyber Coordination & Command Centre (NC4); Department of Privacy & Data Protection (JPDP); and the Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC)). While additional security measures have been put in place to isolate the risk and protect our customers, we wish to inform that our customers did not experience any service disruptions in this incident. TM is closely monitoring the situation and is conducting additional assessments. We advise customers to take extra precautions when receiving communications from unknown parties, as well as to secure their online information at all times. The privacy and security of TM’s customers remain our highest priority and we take such matters seriously. We will continue to strengthen and ensure our data security framework, policies, systems and processes are continuously benchmarked against Bank Negara Malaysia's Risk Management in Technology (RMiT) standard and ISO27001, as well as other global standards to prevent such occurrences.
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