Telekom Malaysia has reported a 15.8% decline in net profit for the 2015 financial year, as forex losses negated stable revenue growth.
The operator reported a profit after tax of 700.3 million ringgit. Excluding the impact of a weaker Malaysian ringgit and other one-off factors, normalized net profit reached 894.9 million.
Revenue grew 4.2% to 11.72 billion ringgit on the back of growth across all the operator's services categories.
TM's total broadband customer base grew by 4.9% to 2.34 million customers, driven by adoption of its UniFi service.
Combined with the rollout status of the high speed broadband (HSBB) project being conducted on behalf the government, TM ended 2015 with a high speed broadband footprint of 1.89 million ports, and an overall takeup rate of 44%.
TM group CEO Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said the company had fared well amid a challenging operating environment.
“We maintained our position as the nation's broadband champion; on track to become Malaysia's true convergence champion,” he said.
“"Although 2015 was indeed a challenging year, TM was in active preparation for 2016, being the year of convergence for the TM Group, moving towards our entry into the mobility space. We will also be busy with further investments for growth, with the addition of our other projects, such as HSBB 2 and the suburban broadband project (SUBB).”
Total capex spend for the year was 2.51 billion ringgit, or 21.4% of revenue. Around 48% of this was spent on access network expansion, 31% for the core network and 21% for support systems.