January 30, 2017 – dtac reports consolidated revenues and net profit for the fiscal year 2016 of THB82.5 billion and THB2.1 billion,
respectively.
FY16
was another year of massive investment in network, to quickly expand
nationwide 4G-coverage and enhance customers’ mobile Internet experience
on dtac’s ‘Super 4G Network’, the widest 4G-1800MHz
bandwidth in the market. Throughout the year, additional 20k base
stations were rolled out, bringing the nationwide network coverage to
94% of total population, and covering every district in Thailand with 4G
services. Consequently, customers’ satisfaction
on our network quality has been gradually improving, as indicated by
several third-party surveys conducted regularly throughout the year. At
the end of 2016, number of 4G subscribers reached 5.0 million, up from
2.2 million a year ago. The total subscriber
base stood at 24.5 million, more than 95% of which had already been
registered under DTN.
On
the back of network improvement, best offers in the market, attractive
handset campaigns, expansion of dtac retail shops, and enhanced dtac
rewards loyalty program, postpaid subscriber base
and revenues for FY16 continue to grow strongly, with 701k net
additional subscribers and 10% growth of service revenues. However, it
was an unusual year for the prepaid segment, with unsustainable level of
handset subsidies in the market in addition to an
ongoing trend of prepaid-to-postpaid subscriber conversion. We were
cautious in spending huge amount of money on prepaid handset subsidies.
In addition, we’ve put a plan in place to stabilize and turn around the
prepaid segment, including network perception
campaign, channel efficiency improvement and expansion, personalized
offers, and enhanced dtac rewards loyalty program.
Notwithstanding
strong growth in the postpaid segment, total service revenues excluding
IC for FY16 declined 2.3% from the same period last year. Revenues from
data services continue to grow
strongly, reaching 55% of service revenues excluding IC, a
9-percentage-point increase from last year. dtac, with a strong spectrum
portfolio of 50MHz bandwidth and the largest contiguous bandwidth in
the 1800MHz frequency band, is well positioned to capture
the growth of data demand and provide best wireless services to its
customer base on 2G/3G/4G technologies.
Despite
a decline in revenues and higher level of handset subsidies, EBITDA
held up well at THB27.9 billion, indicating the success in containing
operating expenses through various operation
excellence initiatives. EBITDA margin improved 200bps from last year to
reach 33.8% of total revenues. Depreciation and amortization expenses
continued to go up due to continuous investment in the network.
Consequently, net profit for FY16 declined 65% from
the same period last year.
In
Q416, dtac made a provision for the impairment of assets in the amount
of THB5,185 million, resulting in a negative retained earnings of
THB1,189 million on the stand-alone financial statements.
The impairment was resulted from the investment in concession network,
while cash flow had continuously been moving from dtac to DTN, a
subsidiary holding the 2.1GHz license from NBTC. The impairment is a
non-cash item and has no impact on overall business
operation and the consolidated financial statements. Furthermore, the
negative retained earnings will be offset against statutory reserve and
share premium upon getting an approval from the shareholders.
The
outlook for 2017 comprises (1) service revenue excluding IC at the same
level as last year, (2) EBITDA at least at the same level as last year,
and (3) CAPEX in the range of THB17-20 billion.
