CelcomDigi Berhad saw its fourth quarter results make a significant jump while its full year results for the Financial Year 2023 (FY2023) also delivering strong growth performance in line with its 2023 guidance.
The group saw its full year 3023 Service revenue grow 0.4% Y-Y to RM10,859 million while 4Q FY2023 Service revenue rose 0.9% Q-Q to RM2,737 million from growth across all core segments, particularly in Postpaid, Wholesale and Home Fibre it said.
Full year PAT rose to RM1.56 billion as compared to RM848 million registered in 2022.
The group saw it Postpaid revenue for2023 declined 0.8% Y-Y to RM5,076 million resulting from softer interconnect revenue while 4Q FY2023 grew 0.9% Q-Q to RM1,268 million fuelled by higher roaming activities. Prepaid revenue grew 0.8% Y-Y to RM4,573 million for FY2023, while 4Q FY2023 rose 0.1% Q-Q contributed by continued strong data traction. Meanwhile Home Fibre revenue grew 27.2% Y-Y to RM173 million and 4.4% Q-Q to RM47 million for FY2023 and 4Q FY2023 respectively, benefiting from expanded product offerings and affordable fibre plans, attracting more customers with net additions of 30,000 subscribers.
The group recorded Service Revenue of RM2.73 billion in 4Q FY2023, and continued growing its quality subscriber base with additions of over 466K subscribers Y-Y, bringing its total subscribers to 20.6 million. Efficient cost management efforts strengthened EBITDA by 2.6% Y-Y to RM1,597 million, delivering an EBITDA margin of 48.8%, while normalised Profit After Tax stood at RM507 million.
For the quarter, CelcomDigi invested RM1,010 million in capital expenditure (CAPEX), bringing total CAPEX to RM1.75 billion, translating into a capex intensity of 13.8% in FY2023. The company managed to optimise CAPEX efficiencies while pushing ahead on prioritised network and IT integration initiatives.
In 2023, CelcomDigi successfully achieved all first-year integration milestones enabling the company to realise gross synergy of over RM300 million in FY2023.
CelcomDigi completed 35% of its network integration and modernisation target, ahead of its initial plan of 30% by end 2023. The company modernised over 5,600 sites as of December 2023, enabling customers in post-consolidation areas to now enjoy improved download speeds by between 20% and 26%, and better signal strength by between 13% and 16%. The company’s 4G LTE and 4G LTE+ network coverage grew to 97% and 91% of populated areas nationwide respectively, in line with its commitment to deliver the widest and fastest 4G network in the country.
The company declared a fourth interim dividend of 3.5 sen per share or a FY2023 total dividend of 13.2 sen per share, in line with its progressive dividend commitment to shareholders.
