KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) is banking on its performance improvement plan (2019-2021) set under the “New TM” initiative to put its finances on a stronger footing in the medium to long term.
Acting group chief executive officer Imri Mokhtar said 2018 has been a year of reflection for TM in transforming its strategy by strengthening its position in all business areas by reinforcing customer-centric efforts towards digital Malaysia.
He said hence, TM has provided all its three key segments with guidance which entailed focusing on bringing convergence digital to all aspects of lifestyle via TM UniFi, enabling enterprises and the public sector to realise their digital potential with TM One, and connecting Malaysia to the world through TM Global.
He said the UniFi segment has contributed 45 per cent to TM’s revenue, followed by TM One (35 per cent) and TM Global (16 per cent).
“As the industry, our customers, businesses and the government become more digital, TM will be on a much stronger footprint. It’s going to be a journey for us to turnaround the financial health of the company.
“For TM to continue to play our role, we will continuously invest in technology towards the country’s economic development,” he told the media during a panel interview.
Imri said TM aims to have products across voice, broadband and content under UniFi, which is currently servicing 2.5 million homes and 400,000 small and medium enterprises nationwide.
‘‘Fifty-three per cent of the (TM serviced) households today have multiple products, and that has been holding steady not just broadband but also from content and mobile.
“I’m also excited about the growth that we can expect to come from TM One as more and more enterprises and corporates in Malaysia are embracing digital, while our government is moving towards digital government solution. I think that would be an exciting landscape for us to eye on,” he added.
Currently, about 700,000 enterprises and 4,000 public sector customers are utilising TM One’s business digital solutions, while about 500 domestic and international carriers are riding on the TM Global network to connect to the world.
Operation-wise, he said TM would continuously adopt a cost-optimising programme across all the key operation segments to drive Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) growth.
Hence, he said TM is looking to collaborate with other telcos for infrastructure sharing to enable it to optimise capital investment.
“We are very clear that we need to shift from the previous mindset of reinvesting everything in every platform and infrastructure, as I believe telcos and also others in this digital ecosystem need to collaborate because we are now living in an environment of the fourth industrial revolution.
“The industry very volatile and a lot of changes are happening, where we need to response in a much more robust and agile manner,’’ he added.
He said TM is also keen to be part of the 5G network pioneer trial project, which is expected to kick off in April, led by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
“We have 14 infra sharing common mobile infrastructure (Smart C-RAN) available for sharing in Putrajaya and we look forward to be part of the pilot test,” he said.
For 2019, he said TM is allocating 18-20 per cent of its revenue for capital expenditure to drive connectivity and digital expansion.
The year is also set to be another challenging year for TM, with revenue projected to decline to low— to mid-single digit after declining 2.2 per cent to RM11.82 billion in the financial year 2018 from RM12.08 billion previously.
The company’s net profit for the year also fell sharply to RM153.15 million from RM929.75 million in 2017, while EBIT grew within guidance at RM1.07 billion. — Bernama
