Capex up to RM 750 mil for 2012
KUALA LUMPUR: DiGi.Com Bhd expects revenue contribution from its mobile data segment to reach 35% this year from 30% last year even as this segment continues to enjoy growth as opposed to the relatively saturated voice segment.
Its chief executive officer Henrik Clausen said the country's third largest telco aimed to grow its revenue from mid to high single digit this year.
“Our industry is a matured industry which explains the single-digit growth target,” he said after the company's 15th AGM here yesterday.
Still, DiGi expected to deliver a growth “much more” than the overall industry's projection of 5% helped by a growth in subscribers and an uptake in its data services, Clausen said.
Top officials: (left to right) Clausen, chairman Sigve Brekke and chief financial officer Terje Borge.
He said the company should have more than 10 million customers by the end of the second quarter of this year. It currently has about 9.9 million customers.
“There will be challenges ahead, and one of them will be keeping the momentum of executing our business every day, while delivering a company-wide transformation programme that will enable us to stay ahead of the industry in an environment where almost all growth will come from data,” he said in the company's 2011 Annual Report.
Earlier during the shareholder meeting, Clausen said DiGi expected to turn in an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin similar to last year's, which stood at 46.4%.
The company is estimating accelerated deprecation for this year to reach up to RM550mil from about RM450mil last year under DiGi's network modernisation programme, Clausen said.
Its network modernisation programme, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year will see it replacing existing equipment in its network and as a result, the group is accelerating depreciation related to these existing equipment. The accelerated depreciation commenced in the second quarter of last year and has had some impact on the group's earnings.
DiGi posted a 3.25% drop in net profit to RM320.64mil for the first quarter ended March 31 compared with the corresponding period a year ago.
However, the company recorded a 9.6% increase in revenue to RM1.569bil in the quarter from RM1.431bil previously, driven mainly by its data business.
As for capital expenditure for 2012, Clausen said DiGi had set aside up to RM750mil for this purpose. The StarBiz
