KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 21 — Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) is projecting a low- to mid-single digit decline in revenue for financial year 2020 (FY2020) on expectations of a challenging year.
For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019 (FY2019), the company’s revenue dropped by 3.3 per cent to RM11.43 billion.
Group chief executive officer Datuk Noor Kamarul Anuar Nuruddin said price pressure is expected to continue to affect the telco’s performance for FY2020.
“But we will try our best to make it flat and not to have a negative (growth),” he told reporters in a briefing on TM’s FY2019 financial results here today.
He said earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for FY2020 are estimated at more than RM1 billion while capital expenditure (CAPEX) guidance for this financial year is expected to be between the low- to mid-20 per cent.
In FY19, EBIT jumped more than 100 per cent to RM1.57 billion from RM64.6 million in 2018 while the total CAPEX was lower than guidance at 11.9 per cent of revenue or RM1.36 billion.
Noor Kamarul said although some of TM’s clients have shifted to other mobile operators, the introduction of Unifi Air and the increased demand for Unifi Mobile service has helped to mitigate churn rate.
“That is why we are asking the government for the 700MHz frequency, the lower the frequency, the bigger the coverage.
“And once we have the 5G, for example, we will be able to introduce fixed mobile convergence,” he said.
He said TM is keen to capture the market in the underserved sub-urban and rural areas under its 5G implementation.
He added that the 5G spectrum licence is expected to be awarded in the third quarter of this year with TM’s 5G rollout set to kick off a few months later.
Meanwhile, on Covid-19, he said the disease has a minor impact on the company’s 5G preparation.
He said other than its partner from China, TM is also partnering with other companies to source hardware from Scandinavian countries, South Korea and the United States.
“So far, it’s a minor issue. We are also buying fibre from Wuhan but the thing is we have other suppliers as well and we are not solely depending on Chinese companies,” he said. — Bernama
