Turnaround Signs

Nov 11, 2009 (LBO) - Dialog Telekom, a unit of Malaysia's Axiata, said it lost 439 million rupees in the September quarter, a higher loss than a year ago, but that its performance was improving. The group, the island's top celco, said in a statement sales fell 4.6 percent to 8.9 billion rupees in the September 2009 quarter from a year ago but were higher than the previous quarter.

Company revenue grew by two percent over the previous quarter and five percent compared with the March quarter.

Operating costs (corrected for non-recurring charges in the first and second quarters) fell by five and eight percent over the previous periods, the statement said.

September 2009 quarter net profit after tax excluding one-off network modernisation costs and other non-recurring charges was 313 million rupees, up from a loss of five million in the previous quarter, it said.

"Performance enhancements were achieved through robust revenue growth in tandem with an aggressive approach to de-scaling of the company’s operating cost structure."

Dialog Telekom reported a 7.6 billion rupee loss in the June 2009 quarter on a 6.0 billion rupee one-off write-down of older network equipment.