25 Nov 2021

As nation shows encouraging signs of recovery, TM posts strong results for first nine months of 2021 revenue up 6.8%, net profit increases 7.7%

As nation shows encouraging signs of recovery, TM posts strong results for first nine months of 2021 revenue up 6.8%, net profit increases 7.7% Article Header
TM

Group Operating Revenue in Jan - Sept 2021 (YTD Sept) grew 6.8% to RM8.38 billion compared to the same period last year

Continued focus in supporting the nation's sustainability and recovery has resulted in Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) posting a strong financial result in the first nine months of 2021. Fuelled by high demand for digital connectivity and solutions, TM continues its positive trajectory for the year with a solid performance in the third quarter (3Q2021).

YTD Sept 2021 Financial Highlights (vs YTD Sept 2020)

  • Solid revenue growth, with a 6.8% increase to RM8.38 billion, from RM7.84 billion in the same period last year. This achievement is driven by revenue increase from all lines of products, particularly Internet services which saw a 6.8% increase on the back of steady growth in fixed broadband customer base.
  • Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) grew by 17.1% to RM1,414.8 million, from RM1,208.6 million as a result of revenue growth and continuous cost optimisation initiatives.
  • PATAMI increased by 7.7% to RM815.3 million compared to RM756.7 million, following sound operating profits.

Imri Mokhtar, Group Chief Executive Officer of TM commented:

"Throughout 2021, we've focused our efforts to deliver digital connectivity and solutions in supporting the sustainability and recovery of our country. As a result, we are able to deliver another solid quarter of revenue and net profit growth.

Our next focus will be on delivering enhanced customer experience and strengthening our digital offerings across all customer segments in unifi, TM ONE and TM WHOLESALE.

With movement control restrictions in Malaysia continue to be eased and the economy gains momentum, we remain committed to serve the nation. We will continue to play our leading role in Malaysia's digitalisation drive outlined by the Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA) action plan, 2022 Budget and the 12th Malaysian Plan, including MyDIGITAL blueprint.

As we continue our shift towards becoming a human-centred technology company, we will develop innovative solutions and drive digital adoption across our broad customer base of home, SME, corporate and Government customers – anchored on enhanced customer experience.

Supporting this evolution, will be our new way of working at TM – focusing on increased productivity through digitalisation and process automation, upskilling of our existing workforce and welcoming new digital talents."

Driving digital adoption and a new way of working in the post-pandemic era

TM recorded the highest increase in unifi subscribers for three consecutive quarters. In the quarter under review, TM registered an additional 210,000 new unifi subscribers in both the consumer and micro, small and medium sized enterprise (MSMEs) segments.

This record-breaking growth is fuelled by high demand for connectivity and digitalisation tools which have become an important necessity. To deliver this demand, TM has been adding higher number of broadband ports and delivering a wider fibre network coverage. This expansion has exceeded TM's committed targets in JENDELA action plan. The fast network rollout together with strong frontline support, a steady marketing push and speedy installation had cemented customer's confidence and trust.

Beyond connectivity, unifi has steadily strengthened its entertainment proposition with the addition of 19 new content offerings comprising 7 content streaming services and 12 new channels.

Supporting the Government's push to digitalise MSMEs, unifi registered encouraging increase of productivity and digital tools utilisation amongst its 375,000 MSME customers, leveraging the Government's Digitalisation Grant.

Focusing on enhanced customer experience

Customer experience remains our key focus across all segments and we continue to introduce new experience features and improvements in this area.

For unifi customers, we continue to innovate and improve in the management of user experience. We now provide customers with a proactive early detection and intervention support for broadband connectivity and ensuring fast resolution of service. As a market leader, TM commits to a continued focus on customer experience, with progressive releases of more new experience leveraging on analytics.

TM WHOLESALE was recently awarded the Best Asia Pacific Zero Outage Supplier by T-Systems amidst intense competition from other established telcos in the region. This recognition signifies TM's commitment and focus to provide the best quality service to our telco and hyperscaler customers.

Enabling digital solutions in the Enterprise and Public sectors

TM ONE remains steadfast in its commitment to realise the nation's MyDIGITAL blueprint and support efforts to rebuild the economy in both the Enterprise and Public sectors.

New sales and contract renewal across the Enterprise and Public sectors are encouraging in the post pandemic recovery period with TM ONE providing digital connectivity and solutions for the Digital Community Centre in rural areas, regional cloud services and major financial institutions.

TM ONE maintains its role as a trusted business partner driving digital transformation for Enterprise and Public sectors especially in business process automation via partnerships with global digitalisation partners such as SAP.

Delivering network for the Industry

TM WHOLESALE continues its "telco for telcos" role by providing wholesale services and solutions to all Malaysian licensed service providers. In line with the overall growth of broadband, TM WHOLESALE recorded high demand for its wholesale broadband service. As the primary mobile backhaul provider for the industry, TM WHOLESALE registered an increase in bandwidth utilisation of its Next Generation Backhaul service by major mobile telcos. This also positions TM as a capable enabler for Malaysia's 5G network deployment.

Internationally, TM WHOLESALE continues to strengthen its partnership ecosystem with global telcos and hyperscalers, and has recorded significant growth of international bandwidth traffic. This is further complemented by the coverage increase of the global content delivery network (CDN) with more than 80 CDN nodes worldwide. 

TM WHOLESALE has also established a collaboration with a Tier 1 Internet Protocol (IP) transit provider – Tata Communications – to offer high-speed and reliable connectivity in the ASEAN region and open access to global enterprises. At the same time, we have successfully on boarded more than 15 major international hyperscalers and digital service providers in TM's core data centres.

All of the above positions Malaysia positively as a digital and technology hub in ASEAN.

A socially responsible Corporate Citizen

TM played its part in supporting the fight against COVID-19 via various programmes. Overall, TM has contributed over RM9.5 million for humanitarian and community initiatives this year including to Tabung CERDIK and COVID-19 GLC/GLIC (GDRN) fund.

TM also provided digital connectivity services to more than 400 PPVs nationwide, in addition to converting three of its premises into PPVs at its Multimedia University (MMU) campuses in Cyberjaya and Melaka, plus Kompleks TM Taiping.

TM had also spent over RM16.0 million on several safety protocols and preventive measures across its customer operations to ensure the wellbeing of our frontliners and customers. These measures include providing personal protective equipment (PPE), weekly COVID-19 screening, UV air treatment and other workplace measures.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

TM and OYO Malaysia collaborate to provide guests with an enhanced connected staying experience

TM customers can also enjoy great promos at OYO Hotels and Homes as part of loyalty programme With the aim of elevating customer experience, OYO Malaysia and Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today formalised a commercial and marketing arrangement, extending the companies' existing working relationship to benefit more local as well as foreign travelers. Under the partnership, TM will be providing its full suite of unifi services including high-speed broadband access, unifi TV and unifi Mobile to enable patrons of OYO Hotels and Homes to experience a seamless broadband and entertainment experience powered by unifi. TM will also provide dedicated customer support and technical teams for round-the-clock support at OYO Hotels and Homes to ensure business and service continuity. Meanwhile, OYO Malaysia will be offering special promos for TM customers for their stay at OYO establishments through TM's loyalty programme, TM Rewards. Besides that, both companies will work together in marketing initiatives including promoting OYO Hotels and Homes to 24,000 TM staff nationwide.     The partnership was officially announced by Vimal Balachandran, Head, OYO Homes, Malaysia and Izlyn Ramli, Vice President, Group Brand and Communication, TM. Commenting on the partnership, Izlyn said: "I am very excited with this collaboration and would like to thank OYO Malaysia for choosing us as your communications and ICT solutions partner. With the provisioning of our comprehensive converged solution by TM, OYO Malaysia is set to elevate its guests' digitally connected staying experience at its properties nationwide. Our dedicated support service team will also help to ensure that OYO guests enjoy our seamless broadband and entertainment experience. This will certainly ease OYO management's concerns on continuous operational efficiency so they can focus on their core business, which is providing the best hospitality services to their patrons. TM, as the National Telecommunications Infrastructure Provider has a higher purpose to provide Malaysians with better connectivity via our solid network infrastructure, and power Malaysia as a Digital Nation – enabling Society, Businesses and Government. Today's collaboration reflects our continued support for the Malaysian hospitality and tourism industry. We hope this will spur more Malaysians to explore our beautiful country, while they continue to enjoy internet and entertainment access on unifi!" Welcoming TM to the extended OYO family, Vimal said that technology is at the core of hospitality at OYO. "OYO is constantly looking at ways to help asset partners transform their properties and enhance the guest experience at every step, thereby significantly increasing occupancy and profitability. The collaboration between two leaders in their respective categories continues to build on OYO's model of combining design, hospitality, and technological expertise and operational capabilities to enable our asset partners to offer good quality customer service and a seamless broadband experience to guests," he said. "TM has been an invaluable and supportive partner to OYO from the time when we first set foot in Malaysia in 2017. We look forward to a continued working relationship as we scale and extend our leadership position in Malaysia," added Vimal. OYO has revolutionised the fragmented and legacy-driven budget hospitality space by empowering small and independent asset owners with the operational capabilities and technology that enables them to compete with big hotel chains and achieve high occupancies and, therefore, yields. OYO Hotels and Homes currently operates over 16,000 rooms in more than 450 properties that it franchises and manages in 50 cities across Malaysia. Globally, OYO is present in over 800 cities across 80 countries. OYO Hotels and Homes has over 2,500 hotels and more than 75,000 exclusive rooms under management in Southeast Asia. ​ Besides that, in conjunction with the holiday season, TM is also promoting OYO Malaysia at its School Holiday Carnival which is currently taking place until 7 December 2019 at KL Tower, a TM wholly-owned subsidiary and among the main tourism spots in Malaysia. The carnival lines up various activities for visitors to participate including quizzes, crossword puzzles, maze challenge, recycle initiative as well as Visit Malaysia Year 2020 campaign promo by Tourism Malaysia.

MIDA as the lead agency of MITI in implementing strategies for Industry4WRD; collaborates with TM ONE for the deployment of high-speed internet connection for the nationwide programme

MIDA as the lead agency of MITI in implementing strategies for Industry4WRD; collaborates with TM One for the deployment of high-speed internet connection for the nationwide programme TM One, the enterprise and public sector business solutions arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) had successfully deployed high speed broadband (HSBB) accessibility services to 33 industrial areas within the Northern, Southern and Eastern regions; including Sabah and Sarawak, in February 2021. The implementation is in support of Industry4WRD, a National Policy on Industry 4.0, that was launched by Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), designed to transform the Malaysian manufacturing industry and its related services to be smarter, more systematic and resilient.​ The deployments followed the signing of a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) in July 2020 with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) - as the implementation agency for the Industry4WRD funds - for the installation of new high-speed internet network infrastructure to boost and secure data connectivity; accelerating Industry4WRD adoption among industry players and businesses. The deployments were completed ahead of schedule, initially aimed to be completed by June 2021, and are focused on systematically addressing and removing key connectivity bottlenecks in the priority locations. Dato' Azman Mahmud, Chief Executive Officer of MIDA commended, "We are pleased to establish this proactive engagement and collaboration with TM, through TM One; reflecting our shared commitment to ensure seamless and stable connectivity of Industry4WRD undertakings by our investors. This HSBB commitment is crucial to advance the level of digital compatibility, in strengthening Malaysia's economy amidst the pandemic and beyond." "The profound importance of high-speed internet connection to support the adoption of IR4.0 by businesses in Malaysia has led the MITI to propose for MIDA to obtain specific funding under the Industry4WRD agenda, towards the implementation of HSBB in the identified industrial areas across Malaysia. The Government has made the allocation under the Development Fund to MIDA, amounting up to RM19 million," added Dato' Azman. Meanwhile, Mohd Roslan Mohd Rashidi, Vice President Sales, TM One informed, "We are happy to announce that we had successfully completed the HSBB deployments ahead of target in these areas despite the Covid-19 situation. This collaboration with MIDA has enabled us to increase our momentum towards delivering efficient, widespread and affordable HSBB access across the country. Amidst the pandemic, industries and businesses have to leverage and keep up with the latest digital transformation trends to remain relevant in this digital age. They now rely heavily on Internet connectivity and the latest technologies to be more productive, efficient and competitive; enabling greater automation and richer insights through big data analytics. We are also seeing a shift in the way information technology is utilised through cloud computing, system integration and Internet of Things (IoT). Industries are also enhancing human capacity through artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous robots." "A robust national digital infrastructure is the key enabler to build a high-income digital economy. In serving the digital economy, TM hopes to further enable the transformation of core processes across all priority sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, oil and gas, besides promoting the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. This collaboration fits well in TM's unique role as the enabler of Digital Malaysia," he added. As Malaysia's national telecommunications provider, TM is a trusted institution, committed to enabling a Digital Malaysia future as an advance-tech nation with its digital and socio-economic aspirations through reliable network infrastructure and connectivity excellence. TM is ready to provide the best customer experience with innovative and reliable solutions towards fulfilling the objectives of the MyDIGITAL Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint, and in supporting widespread quality connectivity for Malaysians nationwide. 

YTM and Istana Negara equips higher risk communities with disaster preparedness

Facilitates the development of localised Emergency Response Plans Over the years, Yayasan TM (YTM) has been actively involved in disaster emergency response efforts and lent its helping hand to affected communities in various ways. With many tragic losses of life and property due to natural disasters, it is imperative to help the public better understand the importance of preparedness, the risks involved and build capacities for pre-emptive and early action, including identifying vulnerabilities and potential impact on people and assets.   Through its latest initiative, the YTM-Istana Negara Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Programme (CBDRRM), organised in collaboration with Istana Negara, the programme is aimed at empowering communities especially women and children as well as building community resilience during disasters with the necessary knowledge and skills in disaster preparedness - in alignment to the Government's aspiration to nurture a disaster preparedness culture among Malaysians.   For the inaugural edition of the programme, YTM identified three (3) high risk areas in Kuantan, Maran and Bentong districts in Pahang. This is also a continuation from the support to the local communities post-flood early this year where YTM, together with Istana Negara provided basic necessities, workforce and monetary assistance to citizens in Karak, Ulu Tembeling and Kuantan districts.   “This CBDRRM programme is both important and timely, in view of frequent heavy rain and storms of late. We hope that the local communities will fully utilise the skills and knowledge obtained from the initiative, to be better prepared for in the event of any flood incidents in their respective areas, minimising the impact and ultimately, saving lives,” said Izlyn Ramli, Director of YTM.    “We were delighted to find that these modules were very helpful for them based on their feedback. Meanwhile, we remain on the ready to deploy response and humanitarian aid should the need arise,” she added.   The first one was held in August 2022 for the community in Perumahan Awam Kos Rendah (PAKR) Sungai Pandan, Kuantan, which saw a total of 120 participants attending, while the second was held in Maran in September.   With the support of the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) as well as the TM Reaching Out Volunteers (TMROVers), the programme was conducted by 12 humanitarian experts with vast disaster response experience, including risk and reduction management from Red A Humanitarian Global. The modules highlighted the importance of disaster preparedness, hands-on session to develop localised Emergency Response Plans, water safety and practical swimming, as well as simulation exercises. The participants were also briefed on mental health management and creating children-friendly spaces (CFS) as an added element.   For any emergency response plan to work, active participation from the community becomes crucial. During the programme, the communities were also connected to their local government agencies such as the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (BOMBA), Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), Malaysia Civil Defence Force (APM), Jabatan Pengairan & Saliran (JPS) Negeri Pahang for better disaster response in the future.   The third and final session was organised recently in Bentong in collaboration with Istana Negara and attended by 125 participants. Via the three (3) series of CBDRRM in Pahang, YTM have reached a total of 458 community members and local government agencies; inclusively, empowering 123 female participants and 167 children and teenagers.   This initiative is aligned with our aspiration to build capacity in disaster preparedness among community members, especially women and children, who are considered first responders’ priority when a disaster occurs. YTM will continuously support the community for better disaster preparedness and response through community leadership and self-empowerment.

NEWSLETTER

Just drop your details and stay updated with the world of Telekom Malaysia. We promise – no spam!​