M1 wins big in data monetisation game with Q3 profit up 12.7% to $45m

Its postpaid customer base grew 22,000 year-on-year.

It has been a good quarter for M1 and its shareholders. The telco’s net profit jumped to $44.5m in Q3, on the back of increased smartphone data usage and rising postpaid revenues.

Its Q3 net profit shows 12.8% year-on-year jump and a 1.4% quarter-on-quarter increase. Its revenue inched up 3.5% year-on-year to $250.2m.

According to Maybank Kim Eng, average data usage increased from 2.4GB a month in 3Q13 to 2.9GB in 3Q14.

“We believe this strength is sustainable, governed by: 1) higher smartphone penetration for both postpaid (86%) and prepaid (35%); 2) rising postpaid users on tiered plans, at 61% in 3Q14 from 32% a year ago; and 3) higher smartphone and data usage among prepaid users, at 35% from negligible a year ago,” stated Maybank Kim Eng’s report.

For the first nine months of FY2014, service revenue grew 1.1% year-on-year to S$619.8 million, driven by higher revenue from mobile data and growth in fixed customer base.

Mobile data revenue grew 6.3 percentage points to 34.5% of service revenue. Net profit after tax increased 9.7% year-on-year to S$131.2 million. For the third quarter, net profit rose 12.7% year-on-year to S$44.5 million.