M1 reports flat profit for 1Q18

Singapore’s M1 has reported flat profit for the first quarter despite a 3% year-on-year increase in service revenue.

The operator’s net profit stayed stable year-on-year at S$34.8 million ($26.5 million), but this represented an 8.3% increase compared to the previous quarter.

Service revenue meanwhile grew 3% year-on-year to S$184.7 million, driven by higher fixed and postpaid mobile revenue. But overall operating revenue grew just 0.5% year-on-year and fell 15.8% sequentially to S$254.1 million.

Fixed service revenue was up a strong 13.9% compared to the same quarter a year ago to S$31.9 million, with M1 adding 5,000 fiber customers to take its total base to 194,000.

By contrast, mobile revenue increased just 2.6% over the same period, and total mobile subscribers decreased by 2.6% to 1.99 million.

Mobile data grew to account for 61.3% of mobile service revenue, up from 54% a year ago, with average postpaid smartphone data usage reaching 4.5GB per month.

Despite the lackluster results, M1 CEO Karen Kooi said the operator is in a position to pursue new growth opportunities looking ahead.

“We will continue to strengthen our telco core with enhanced value propositions and customer experience,” she said.

“With our scaled up ICT and digital capabilities, we are well placed to capture the growth opportunities in the Corporate and Government segment driven by corporate digital transformation and Smart Nation initiatives.”