Telekom Malaysia Berhad reported a 7% year-over-year increase in underlying profit after tax and minority interests for the first half of 2026, reaching RM842.6 million. The group’s revenue rose 4.8% to RM5.895 billion, driven by growth across its business segments despite a RM127.3 million one-off write-down tied to unutilized 5G capacity and foreign exchange losses.
Underlying earnings before interest and tax declined 3.7% to RM1.188 billion, though the metric showed a modest 0.3% sequential improvement in the second quarter. Reported profit after tax and minority interests fell 14.6% to RM687 million, while EBIT dropped 18% to RM976.1 million. The group declared a second interim dividend of 7.0 sen per share, bringing the first-half payout to 13.5 sen, equivalent to 75% of reported PATAMI.
The Unifi B2C segment, which includes fixed broadband and pay-TV services, generated RM2.907 billion in revenue for the period, up 5.2% year-over-year. Fixed broadband subscribers remained stable at 3.23 million, with average revenue per user increasing 4.8% to RM132 in the second quarter. The segment secured broadcast rights for all 104 matches of the FIFA World Cup 2026 and recorded nearly 400,000 downloads of its Unifi TV app.
TM One, the group’s business-to-business segment, reported revenue of RM1.365 billion, up 1.9% year-over-year, while the carrier and wholesale segment, TM C2C, saw revenue rise 6.8% to RM1.555 billion. Data services revenue grew 4.7% to RM1.745 billion, while the “others” category—encompassing digital offerings—surged 22.3% to RM976.5 million. Voice services revenue was broadly flat at RM937.4 million.
Total costs rose 11.6% to RM5.002 billion, pushing the cost-to-revenue ratio to 84.6%, up 4.0 percentage points year-over-year. Direct costs increased 20.2% to RM1.24 billion, while manpower and infrastructure costs climbed 4.2% and 23.5%, respectively. Capital expenditure totaled RM555.6 million, or 9.4% of revenue, below the 14.6% recorded in the prior-year period. The group maintained its full-year CAPEX guidance of 18-20% of revenue, with access infrastructure accounting for 54% of first-half spending.
Telekom Malaysia’s balance sheet metrics improved, with gross debt-to-EBITDA easing to 1.04x from 1.24x and net debt-to-EBITDA declining to 0.55x from 0.66x. Free cash flow rose 19.6% to RM955.4 million, while operating cash flow reached RM710.1 million. The group’s return on invested capital stood at 10.53%, exceeding its weighted average cost of capital of 8.94%. Net assets per share increased to 269.02 sen from 265.33 sen.
Management reaffirmed full-year 2026 targets, including low single-digit revenue growth, EBIT broadly in line with 2025 levels, and a CAPEX-to-revenue ratio of 18-20%. The group also highlighted progress on its AI-ready data center initiative, with the first phase of TM Nxera expected to deliver 64 MW of capacity, of which nearly 70% is already contracted.
