Celcom Axiata Berhad (Celcom) continues its growth momentum into the first quarter of FY21 with positive performance across core revenue segments evidenced by 317,000 QoQ increase in its subscriber base. Amid the impacts of Covid-19 and the Movement Control Order (MCO), Celcom mitigates business impacts by drawing on extensive learnings from 2020 to drive ‘Operational & Service Excellence’ across the organisaiton.
Strong revenue performance amid challenging market: In 1st quarter of FY2021, Celcom recorded an improved operational profitability together with growing revenue and a strong market momentum, adding more than 1 million subscribers over the last 12 months. Celcom has demonstrated business agility and adopted to New Normal in its trade and distribution operations, resulting growth in new customer acquisitions.
Celcom recorded an improved YoY profitability combined with revenue growth of RM84mil (+5.4%), EBITDA improved YoY with RM142mil (+27.6%). Excluding one-off impact from accelerated depreciation of 3G assets, PATAMI rose 13.2% on the back of improved performance together with lower net finance costs. (headline PATAMI -22.9%)
Prepaid customer base saw 893k (+17.7% YoY) subscriber growth primarily from Celcom Xpax Truly Unlimited Plan with a resilient ARPU of RM30. Postpaid customer base increased with 120k (4.1% YoY) new subscribers, supported by Celcom MEGA™ and Celcom XP Lite™ plan enhancements.
Commenting on Celcom’s 1st quarter performance for 2021, Idham Nawawi, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad said “Celcom got off to an encouraging start in 2021 with multiple initiatives across core revenue segments to mitigate impacts from a challenging operating and business environment. The pandemic in 2020 made life difficult for all Malaysians, and we have put great efforts to adapt to the new normal, making it easier for customers to buy and use our services through digitisation.
Supporting more Malaysians on the widest network: The pandemic and MCO had also accelerated digitalisation amongst Malaysians. In Q1 2021, Celcom recorded almost 70% data traffic growth with 474million GB, compared to 1Q20. Data usage per month per user also increased by 46.1% YoY with 21.8GB per month per user as compared to 14.9GB per month per user a year earlier.
Addressing the rapid data traffic growth accelerated by the MCO, Celcom strives to ensure high network resiliency and availability. To date, through accelerated network investments, Celcom has upgraded and optimised over 7000 sites, resulting in enhanced capacity and coverage, within both rural and urban areas, and a 93% 4G pop coverage nationwide.
In addition, Celcom’s accelerated network investments also focuses on preparing the network for cessation of 3G services by end 2021. To ensure Malaysians are digitally enabled with 4G network services on the nation’s widest network, Celcom has launched attractive device bundling and product offers to make it easier for customers to switch from 3G devices to 4G smartphones through multiple channels.
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