KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — Axiata Group Bhd’s pre-tax profit for the financial year ended December 31, 2013 fell to RM3.53 billion from RM3.76 billion in the 2012 financial year.

Revenue, however, rose to RM18.37 billion from RM17.65 billion.

For the fourth quarter, Axiata’s pre-tax profit was lower at RM726.57 million from RM872.66 million in the same period last year, while revenue improved to RM4.51 billion from RM4.45 billion.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, the company attributed the lower profit to weaker contribution from its Indonesia operation and higher foreign exchange loss while stronger revenue was due to higher contribution from all key operating companies, except Indonesia.             

“Malaysia’s gross revenue grew 4.2 per cent, driven by higher revenue from broadband and sales of devices, which rose 18.3 per cent and 61.9 per cent, respectively.              

“Gross revenue from Indonesia decreased by 6.9 per cent to RM6.44 billion from RM6.92 billion last year. Bangladesh gross revenue improved 24 per cent mainly from prepaid, interconnect and postpaid revenue,” it said.

Contribution from its Sri Lanka operation also grew 13 per cent led by growth across all segments, in particular from mobile and international segments.

Axiata declared a dividend of 14 sen a share for the quarter under review, bringing full-year dividend payout at 22 sen per share.         

Moving forward, the group will remain focused on its long-term transformation strategy which includes new approaches to current business and continuing to invest aggressively in data and related services.

“We will also review and improve our cost structure and foreign exchange mitigation strategy in order to optimise our financial performance,” it added. — Bernama