JAKARTA (IndoTelko) – PT XL Axiata Tbk. (XL) recorded a positive momentum with a 5% increase QoQ that led to a Year to Date 9 months 2013 Revenue of Rp15.9 trillion. This was driven by strong Data traction with Data revenue growth of 15% YoY. As of 9M 13, non-voice revenue contributed 54% of total usage revenue.
President Director of XL, Hasnul Suhaimi said, “The continuous positive momentum in two consecutive quarters since 1Q 13 is the result of steady execution of our strategy. Our revenue grew 5% with Data remained as the fastest growing segment.”
Hasnul added, “XL continues to focus on Data and we remain optimisic with the huge opportunity in Data in the future. As of 9M 13, Data revenue contributed 23% compared to 19% previous year. In addition, Data traffic grew 125% year on year with Data subscribers reached 33.7 million subscribers or about 58% of the total base.”
XL continues to increase its penetration in Data market by its products such as HotRod 3G+, Super Ngebut, Paket begadang and XL-Bebas by providing customers with affordable and innovativeproducts. In addition, XL also strengthened its position in social networking community especially in Data by collaborating with several social media applications such as KakaoTalk and WeChat to provide a promo packages for any usage in the application.
Smartphone or Data featured phones growth is one of the key to drive number of XL Data subscribers. Therefore, XL continued to collaborate with several handset dealers and banks to offer affordable bundling handsets for several smartphones such as Blackberry, iPhone, Samsung - Androids and others. As of 3Q 13, Smartphone devices grew significantly by 55% compared to last year, reached 9.2 million users or 16% of the total base.
As of 9M 13, XL had installed 14,722 Nodes Bs with a 38% increase from a year ago. This brings total number of 2G and 3G BTS to 42,796 BTS. Investments are still being prioritized to enhance service experience in Data potential areas.
Network Modernization is one of the important approaches to continuously enhance network quality and capacity as well as customer experience. Therefore, XL continued to have Network Modernization in 3Q 13 in several areas. As of 9M 13, XL has completed 2G & 3G modernization for majority sites across Indonesia.
Hasnul said, “In order to continue support growing business, XL products such as XL-KU, Paket Serbu and XL-Bebas have been introduced this year and have been popular in market. As a result of positive respond from customers, XL subscribers grew 7% QoQ to 58.1 million subscribers”.
Digital Services, through several lines of business such as Digital Entertainment, M-Ads, M-Payment, etc continues to grow its appeal to customers through creative and innovative Data related offerings providing further reason to use Data. XL-Tunai has expanded its services by associating with several merchants such as restaurants and supermarkets for customers’ convenience to make transactions.
As of 9M 13, Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) was at Rp6.4 trillion with EBITDA margin at 40% and net profit at Rp917 billion in 9M 13.
XL invested Rp5.8 trillion in capex as of 9M 13 which was funded through a combination of internally generated funds and debt. During 3Q 13, XL signed new USD loan agreements with BTMU and SCB with each loan amounted to USD 100 million and new IDR loan agreements with Sumitomo Bank amounted to Rp1 trillion.
As of 9M 13, XL’s total debt increased to Rp17.6 trillion from Rp14.6 trillion a year ago and Net Debt/EBITDA increased from 1.3x to 1.8x.(es)