CelcomDigi announced its 3Q results for 2023, reporting a revenue decline of 0.6% to RM3.1 billion against Q2FY23 and a profit of RM455.7 million, the group added 123,000 subscribers during the quarter, expanding the base to 20.6 million, where Service revenue rose by 0.2% in Q3 2023 to RM2.7 billion.
The group said the increase in Service revenue was contributed by higher solutions revenue and improved contribution from wholesale business. Prepaid and Home and Fibre revenues continued to grow on the back of solid subscriber additions and healthy data adoption, as well as the introduction of new high-speed fibre plans and adds-on offerings, respectively during the quarter.
The telco said the uplifts cushioned the decline in Postpaid revenue impacted by lower usage and further regulatory curbs on bulk messaging traffic in early July with restrictions on messages containing URLs, requests for personal information and phone numbers.
EBITDA improved by 5.9% (RM87 million) to RM1,567 million reflecting an EBITDA margin of 50.5%. The improved EBITDA, together with higher share of profits of an associate and a joint venture, lower depreciation and taxation, led to higher PBT and PAT for Q3 2023 at RM572 million and RM459 million respectively.
Against the previous year’s quarter, the group’s service revenue for Q3 2023 grew by RM4 million driven by subscriber base expansion of 636,000. Blended ARPU was lower at RM40 impacted by lower interconnect rate. Prepaid revenue increased from higher internet subscription as well as solid growth in subscriber base while Home Fibre segment’s growth momentum continued with strong take-up of new high-speed fibre plans and add-on offerings in Q3 2023, softening the impact of lower revenue from Postpaid segment with slower traction for on-demand data. Total revenue grew 1.0% or RM32 million to RM3,104 million with higher devices sales
Total cost for Q3 2023 declined 4.5% or RM72 million from lower regulatory, staff and network-related costs, as well as sales and marketing spend. Accordingly, EBITDA improved by RM105 million to RM1,567 million while the PBT and PAT were lower by 17.0% and 3.8% respectively, impacted by accelerated depreciation commencing from Q4 2022 following the revision in assets useful life and sites rationalisation under the network integration plan.
YTD, the group recorded a total revenue of RM9.4 billion for YTD 2023, a 2.2% or RM202 million increase against the corresponding period in 2022 from higher device sales and service revenue. Service revenue grew 0.3% or RM21 million to RM87.1 billion driven by steady growths in the Prepaid and Home Fibre segments.
Accordingly, EBITDA for YTD 2023 increased by 3.6% or RM157 million. PBT and PAT for YTD 2023 decreased by 29.0%
and 22.6% respectively, impacted by the accelerated depreciation commencing from Q4 2022 with the revision in assets useful life and sites rationalisation.
