DIGI.COM Bhd reported a net profit of RM288 mil for the second quarter of 2020 (2Q20), down 26.8% year-on-year (yoy) attributed in part to taxation worth RM89 mil.
Revenue for the quarter came in at RM1.45 bil, 6.3% lower than 2Q19’s RM1.55 bil, attributed to limited acquisition opportunities and weaker roaming revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the movement control order (MCO).
“2Q20 was a period of adaptation to a shifting landscape as the MCO period of over 85 days impacted socio-economic and market developments. Non-essential business premises were closed alongside the general restriction of mass movements, which led to cautious consumer sentiment, employment insecurity and slower domestic economic activities,” said Digi.
It also reported a lower subscriber base of 10.6 mil, though the active subscriber base remained steady, and total data usage also grew 50.7% y-o-y, due to the higher data quota utilisation from remote working.
“In the quarter, Digi continued to operate effectively with a largely remote workforce organised around a strong business continuity management focus to meet operational and customer needs. The company focused efforts on securing network availability in critical and high demand locations, transforming channels to provide customers more digital touchpoints to transact, and calibrating offerings to suit customers’ connectivity needs,” said Digi in a statement.
Still the telco saw operational expenditures improving 7% y-o-y to RM369 mil, with the telco attributing this to optimisation of sales and marketing cost levers, network expenditure and staff cost, along with prioritised investments on network coverage expansions to support higher data consumption.
The telco also invested RM225 mil as capital expenditure, which in turn moderated operational cash flow to RM545 mil.
A second interim dividend of 3.7 sen per share was also announced, which will be payable to shareholders on Sept 25.
Moving forward, Digi sees business activity returning to pre-MCO levels, and looks to stay on track for its 2020 commitments despite the macroeconomic challenges.
“This was a well-fought quarter with a solid focus on operational efficiency driving business resilience, and on network excellence to support growing customer demand amid impact from Covid-19. As we see run rates gradually return in June, we believe these proactive and well-coordinated business continuity efforts position us well to drive continued operational resilience in the second half of 2020,” said Digi chief executive officer Albern Murty.
At 3.17pm, Digi’s shares were last done at RM4.31, down 5 sen, with 1.32 million shares traded. – July 14, 2020
