Profit XL Axiata jump

PT XL Axiata Tbk reported its full year 2010 results with a net profit increase 69% (year on year) to IDR2.9 trillion.

Revenues increased by 27% YoY to IDR17.6 trillion and EBITDA reached 50% to IDR9.3 trillion while EBITDA margin increased to 53% by end of 2010.

In addition, the total number of subscribers increased by 28% YoY from 31.4 million in 2009 to 40.4 million in 2010.
President Director of XL, Hasnul Suhaimi said the company have grown and become the second operator in Indonesia. During 2010 XL has launched various and innovative products and services.

In order to stimulate voice usage, XL launched in December a new package of IDR0 in which XL offered free call for the first 30 seconds at certain time band during the day.

Furthermore, as an appreciation to XL’s subscribers, XL offered free international data roaming service and tariff discount up to 90% for voice service and up to 50% for SMS in 7 destination countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Japan).

In 2010, XL has increased its focus on data services and allocated around 30% of 2010 capex for data services. XL has deployed 2,842 BTS (2G/3G) in 2010, hence the total number of BTS by end of 2010 was 22,191 (2G/3G).

For 2011, XL will spend around Rp 5 trillion for capex of which around 1/3 will be allocated for data services/3G. During 2010, XL has made debt repayments hence the debt balance was reduced from IDR13.5 trillion to IDR10.2 trillion with net debt/EBITDA of 1.1x.

Given the strong and healthy balance sheet, XL management has revised upwards its dividend policy to be at minimum payout of 30% of normalized net income. XL management will propose to the AGMS a dividend to be paid in 2011 of 30% of 2010 normalized net income.

XL Axiata is one of the major cellular providers in Indonesia. The company is 66.7% owned by Axiata Group Berhad through Axiata Investments (Indonesia) Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Indocel Holding Sdn Bhd) and Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) through Etisalat International Indonesia Ltd (13.3%), and public (20%), and is part of Axiata Group with Robi (Bangladesh), HELLO (Cambodia), Idea (India), MTCE (Iran), Celcom (Malaysia), Multinet (Pakistan), M1 (Singapore), Samart (Thailand) and Dialog (Sri Lanka), to advancing Asia.