Thursday, 24 August 2006

Maxis Q2 Up 14% on India Gains

Maxis Communications Barhad has posted second-quarter net profit of 450 million ringgit (USD122.5 million), a 14 percent rise from 395 million a year earlier. But the results fell short of market expectations of 20 percent rise due to higher costs and fewer new local customers. Sales for the quarter rose to 1.89 billion ringgit from 1.52 billion a year ago.

The rise in the three months to June results was mainly helped by its India Unit Aircel’s inroads in the Indian market.

Maxis said it increased its Malaysia subscriber base by 3 percent to 8.47 million users. In India, its users grew by 23 percent to 3.2 million. Overall, it put its end-June subscriber numbers at 11.68 million, up 8 percent on the first quarter.

The company is faced with saturated home market and stiff competition from rivals Telekom Malaysia and DiGi.Com. The company fears further tough price competition at home but expects positive outlook for its India unit, Aircel, where it holds 74 percent of the stock.

In India, the revenue for the January-March quarter jumped to 205 million ringgit from 29 million in the first quarter, but domestic revenue slid 1 percent to 1.68 billion ringgit.

"The Indonesian operations will continue to incur start-up losses, and efforts are directed at network rollout to expedite the launch of its mobile telecommunications services," Maxis said in a statement.