Celcom is now the No.1 Telco with 13.1 million subscribers, made RM2.4 billion in 2013

At the Quarter 4 2013 financial results media briefing on Tuesday, Celcom Axiata announced that it now has a subscriber base of 13.1 million, making it the No.1 Telco in the industry.

[Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad (second from left), 

Christopher Tiffin, Chief Financial Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad (right) 

and Jennifer Chui Fen Wong,  Deputy Chief Financial Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad (left) 

giving a thumbs up to Celcom’s Q4 2013 financial results.]

Celcom currently has about 10.2 million prepaid subscribers and 2.9 million postpaid users. There are 48% smartphone users in the network. Celcom also has the highest wireless broadband subscribers in the industry at 1.2 million users.

In Q4, the Average Revenue Per User(ARPU) for postpaid is RM88 while prepaid is RM35, blended is at RM46. The ARPU of broadband service is at RM54.

As for the network, Celcom said that it has about 700 sites that are LTE-ready nationwide(some sites are pending approval from SKMM). The mobile operator targets to have 1,200 active sites nationwide by mid-2014 and up to 2,014 sites by year end. Celcom 4G LTE will be made available in East Malaysia this year.

The mobile operator wants to focus more on customer experience this year. It intends to increase the total number of Blue Cube stores to 62 this year. There are also plans to open 26 new Celcom service centres nationwide.

Moving forward, Celcom said it will continue to invest in new core technologies to support its expanding infrastructure. In line with Celcom’s commitment to nation-building projects, the company is also steadily increasing data speed nationwide and coverage in rural areas while partnering closely with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to introduce more Community Broadband Centres at areas identified by the national regulator. Celcom is also selected by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) as one of the anchor companies for its Vendor Development Programme (DVP).

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Celcom’s fourth quarter PATAMI (profits after tax, amortisation and minority interests) increased by 17.2% to RM665.8 million from RM567.8 million in the previous quarter which resulted in a record-breaking Y-o-Y PATAMI growth of 7.0% to RM2.4 billion, the highest in the industry due to effective cost management efforts under Celcom’s Smart Spend initiatives.

Despite a slight drop of 1.8% to RM881.8 million from RM897.5 million in Celcom’s quarterly EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), its Y-o-Y results grew 3% to RM3.6 billion from RM3.4 billion

The mobile operator said that it continued its success streak by achieving its 31st quarter of consecutive revenue growth at RM2.02 billion which led to the year-on-year (Y-o-Y) total revenue to RM8.0 billion, an increase of 3.7% from RM7.7 billion achieved in 2012.

Commenting on Celcom’s impressive entry into 2014, Dato’ Sri Shazalli, the CEO of Celcom said, “We closed the year with remarkable milestones that came as a result of our transformation initiatives, specifically in our IT transformation and LTE advancements, and carved our way into every aspect of our strategic and operational plans. On the back of industry-leading results, Celcom will trudge on our on-going agenda of improving customer experience through network modernisation and operational improvements.”

“Celcom will kickstart 2014 with improvements in every area that underscores our commitment to the utmost satisfaction of our customers, not only for those in Klang Valley, but ploughing back into communities demonstrating our unwavering commitment to sustain the widest, fastest, and most stable network in Malaysia represented in Celcom’s Fastest Territory. We will continue to invest significantly in network upgrades and enhancements throughout Malaysia, with East Malaysia as one of our priorities with a focus on our rapid LTE network rollout,” Dato’ Sri Shazalli added.