Axiata Group June qtr profit up 15%

Malaysia's telecom giant Axiata Group today reported a 15% rise in its profit to 663 million Malaysian ringgit during the April-June quarter, mainly on account of higher contribution from its operating unit, including India's Idea Cellular.

However, the company said it expected to face challenging market conditions ahead due to strengthening of Malaysian ringgit against the currencies of other countries.

The Malaysian entity, which has nearly 20% stake in Idea, had posted a net profit of 576.81 million Malaysian ringgit in the year-ago period, Axiata said in a statement.

Axiata said its revenue increased by 5.2% from the year-ago period to 4.05 billion Malaysian ringgit in the second quarter ended June 30, 2011.

The mobile phone firm attributed rise in quarterly profit to increased demand for data services and improved contributions from regional operations.

"...Performance from most operating companies has held firm. XL and Dialog, in particular, have performed well against market. We have also seen good data performance from Celcom and XL which has mitigated the slower growth... Axiata Group President and CEO Jamaludin Ibrahim said.

The company witnessed improved performances from most of its operating units, mainly of Idea, Celcom Axiata in Malaysia, XL Axiata in Indonesia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, and Robi in Bangladesh.

Idea continued its strong performance posting double digit growth in both revenue and EBITDA, up 24% and 35% year-on-year, respectively.

Axiata said its regional mobile subscribers jumped 27% from a year earlier to 176 million as of June 30.

Looking ahead Ibrahim said, "Challenging market conditions look set to continue. Despite this performance has remained steady. We will continue to focus on our long term goal of ensuring strong profit and cash, whilst looking at more revenue growth opportunities."