KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd has returned to the black in the fourth quarter (Q4) ended December 31, 2021 with a net profit of RM116.02 million, reversing its net loss of RM255.96 million a year ago.
Axiata attributed this to lower depreciation and amortisation as there was accelerated depreciation of 3G assets amounting to RM1.06 billion.
This, however, was partially offset by higher foreign exchange losses, higher finance costs, higher taxes and one-off impairment of goodwill of mobile operations in Nepal.
Axiata's Q4 revenue increased 10.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to RM6.90 billion from RM6.26 billion, mainly supported by higher top lines and lower depreciation and amortisation offset by impairment of Ncell Axiata Ltd's goodwill.
For the full year, Axiata's net profit surged 124.3 per cent YoY to RM818.90 million from RM365.15 million, while revenue rose 7.02 per cent YoY to RM25.90 billion from RM24.20 billion.
This was primarily on the back of growth across the group's operating companies (OpCos) except Ncell.
The group also achieved cost excellence through operational expenditure and capital expenditure savings of RM696 million and RM1.3 billion, respectively, totalling RM2.0 billion.
Axiata declared a second interim dividend of 5.5 sen per share, bringing the total dividend to 9.5 sen or equivalent to a RM871.5 million payout.
Chairman Tan Sri Shahril Ridza Ridzuan said Axiata's growth in 2021 reflected well on its move to expand from a pure play mobile focus to include digital and infrastructure businesses.
"We continue to embrace digitisation and analytics at the core of this transformation to effectively identify shifting consumption patterns," he said in a statement today.
Shahril Ridza said the board continued to challenge the team to enhance operational resilience and strengthen fundamentals for 2022 as the group scaled up across the region.
President and group chief executive officer Datuk Izzaddin Idris said having navigated cautiously into 2021, it was heartening to deliver better than expected results.
This surpassed its headline key performance indicator (KPI) guidance of low single digits to record revenue and earnings before depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) growth of 8.3 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively.
"The strong organic growth in revenue and Ebitda, and increased profits as a result, stem from deliberate steps taken to adjust and strengthen our foundations to position for the digitally accelerated environment we have experienced," he added.
Izzaddin said the group's operating companies had played their parts in the rigorous execution of the Axiata 5.0 Vision, focusing on positioning for new norms, OpCo transformation and driving structural changes to future-proof the company.
"Celcom also demonstrated strong recovery in key metrics on the back of over 900,000 subscriber acquisitions thanks to improved go-to-market strategy covering products, network and distribution."
He added that Axiata Digital and Analytics Sdn Bhd (ADA) was well-placed to support digital marketing transformation for enterprises and Boost is prepared to meet rising demand for financial technology (fintech) services.
"For Ncell, while revenue continues to be dragged by lockdown and competitive pressures, we are encouraged by growth in Ebitda on the back of cost controls and its healthy ebitda margin."
He said the group would focus on sustaining the current growth momentum for 2022 and expected to achieve a middle single-digit for revenue growth and high single-digit for Ebit growth in view of prevailing tough external conditions.
"We will be closely monitoring macroeconomic, regulatory and industry risks in addition to developments in Myanmar. Business wise, we are positive about upsides in Indonesia, revenue uplift from demand for data, digital content and enterprise digital transformation as well as the integration of completed acquisitions in 2021. We are also looking at potential inorganic opportunities for 2022," he added.
