Axiata to inject over $1.6b capex to drive growth in Bangladesh, Indonesia

One of Asia's leading telcos, Axiata Group Berhad, has allocated over $1.6 billion capital expenditure (capex) for FY22 as it plans to accelerate expansion in Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Datuk Izzaddin Idris, president and CEO of the telecommunication company, said the bulk of the allocation was to improve Axiata's mobile network quality of services and there was growth opportunity in markets like Bangladesh and Indonesia due to low penetration rate of mobile users.

"Our capex is substantially financed from our operations and free-cash-flow. Looking at the current cash-flow level, there is no need to raise debt to finance our capex," he said at a virtual media conference after announcing Axiata's group FY21 performance on Tuesday, reports Malaysian media.

Axiata outpaced its headline key performance indicator guidance of low single-digit earnings growth for the year ended 31 December 2021.

The group saw its net profit surging 124.3% year-on-year (YoY) to $195 million from more than $87 million in FY20, while revenue rose 7.02% to some $6.1 billion from $5.7 billion.

It previously targeted earnings before depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) and revenue growths of 8.5% and 8.3% respectively.

Izzaddin expects Axiata to achieve a middle single-digit revenue growth and high single-digit Ebitda growth in 2022 in view of prevailing tough external conditions.

For the fourth quarter, Axiata returned to the black with a net profit of around $27 million, reversing its net loss of $61 million a year ago.

Its revenue increased 10.2% to $1.6 billion from $1.49 billion, added recent reports published by Malaysian media.