Wednesday, August 25, 2010

#Updated* Axiata 2Q net profit up 9.5% at RM576.82m

KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd registered net profit attributable to ordinary equity holders of the parent of RM576.82 million, up 9.5% from RM526.84 million a year ago following improvements in all major operating companies and it also announced a dividend policy of at least 30% of its earnings.

It announced on Wednesday, Aug 25 that net profit was up 18.1%'' at RM675.51 million versus RM571.91 million a year ago. Revenue was RM3.85 billion compared with RM3.21 billion. Earnings per share were seven sen.

It said strong growth trends were seen across all major operating companies, again in almost all financial metrics. Revenue was up an impressive 20% year-on-year'' to RM3.9 billion from continuous overall performance from most operating companies (OpCos), particularly, Celcom, XL, Dialog'' and Robi.

'More substantially, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by an impressive 38% in the same period to RM1.8 billion, outpacing revenue, partly due to strategic cost initiative programmes implemented early last year,' it said.

Axiata said EBITDA margin improved 6.3 percentage points to 47% on-year. Profit after tax and minority interest was up by 9% on-year to RM577 million.

Regional mobile subscribers for the group saw strong growth up 39% on-year to 138 million.

Axiata also announced its dividend policy where it 'intends to pay dividends of at least 30% of its consolidated profits after taxation attributable to shareholders'.

It added that it would endeavour to progressively increase the payout ratio over a period of time, subject to a number of factors including business prospects, capital requirements and surplus, growth/expansion strategy, considerations for non-recurring items and other factors considered relevant by the board.


No comments:

Post a Comment