Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Clare Chin, Head of Investor Relations at Axiata Group Berhad. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Axiata's second quarter 2023 results briefing. Today, we have present with us, Vivek Sood, Group CEO, Dr. Hans, on my left, Group ED and CEO of Telecom. Lila Azmin, across the table here, is acting Group CFO, as well as Group Chief Development Officer, and we also have representatives from our operating companies. There'll be a short presentation, followed by a Q&A session. So without further ado, I'll hand over the conference to Vivek.
Thank you, Clare. Very good afternoon to all of you. Good morning to those who are back maybe in the, in Europe, wherever. My pleasure to announce the results for Q2 2023. With me, as Clare said, Dr. Hans and Lila are present. So I'll go through the summary, and then Lila will take over the financial numbers later on. The quick summary, reported results for Axiata was impacted with one-off non-cash impairment coming from Ncell.
Subsequent to the BIT order, which was passed in June, as you recall, we did announce a write-off of receivable of around MYR 390 million, and also subsequent impairment of around MYR 298 million, which has been taken due to the fact that 2029 is renewable, renewal of the license, and at this point in time, there's lack of clarity on what's going to be the basis of that. So we've taken a conservative view in the cash flow on renewal of the license in 2029. In addition to that, of course, CelcomDigi, after merger, the share of the profit, 33%, which we own, is around maybe MYR 320 million lower than what we were getting in the first half.
We got in the first half last year as 100% wholly owned subsidiary of Axiata. Having said that, I think, we did benefit of the final closing settlement with Digi on the final closing adjustment, which did give us cash inflow of around MYR 402 million. With this, the transaction related to the disposal of Celcom, which was completed last year, has been finally closed, with all agreements being settled. In addition to that, we've had seen lower losses.
Having said that, I think the operational performance of the company during the first half, even quarter-on-quarter, has been fairly strong, with 11.7% growth coming in revenue and around close to 12% growth coming in the EBITDA margins. But flow down to the profit has been impacted with these one-offs, which I talked about earlier. If I look at the underlying performance, the revenue growth and EBITDA growth remains fairly strong on the underlying basis, with revenue growing at 17.8%, contributed by all opcos, excepting ADA and Ncell, and I'll cover that in detail, the details around why, why is that the case. EBIT growth was 5.7%, supported by an 18% growth in EBITDA.
The impact on the profits coming from the higher block of assets consequent to the acquisition of Link Net, as well as the addition of towers in Philippines and Indonesia by edotco, the amortization effect of that is impacting the D&A, as well as the increased interest costs, both on account of the increasing interest rates and higher leverage, consequent to the acquisitions made last year, impacting the overall profitability. However, the cash flows remain strong. Around MYR 601 million of adjusted operating cash flow was generated during the first half. As I said, the balance sheet looks better than what it was in quarter two, with net debt to EBITDA down to 3.06.
If I factor in the share of the profits from CelcomDigi , the net debt to EBITDA would be sub-3x at around 2.93x. 2.92x. Cash balance remains strong at MYR 6.3 billion. XL, as I go OpCo by OpCo, I think XL sequential growth extremely strong, and coming out of the improvement in ARPU. I think the market structure has seen some improvement over the last one and a half years, with the ARPU getting lifted to around IDR 41,000, which is around 5,000 improvement, and that's resulted in revenue growth of 12%.
But also, in addition to that, the enterprise business has given nearly 93% growth over last year, as well as the home broadband, though still small, related to the overall size of the company, has seen a 50% improvement year-on-year. Which is in line with our strategy of continuing sustainable mobile operations, extending the fixed broadband proposition with the help of Link Net as the fiber core, and also fixed mobile convergence offering to our consumers in Indonesia. However, while PATAMI growth is 5.9%, but we did see a higher finance cost in taxes and losses from associate, where in this case is Link Net.
Robi, a very strong performance, I must say, with a double-digit growth in revenue, EBITDA, and also translating that down to the profit of BDT 664 million, which is more than 100% improvement over last year. Again, like XL, we have seen a market structure improvement in Bangladesh. The ARPUs have grown by nearly 15% from around BDT 127 to BDT 141 . Dialog, I think it may not be the right comparison on year-to-date basis. As you recall, Dialog was impacted by the economic crisis back in April last year, and when you compare this for this half with last year's first half, it may not be real reflective.
However, on a sequential basis, we are seeing improvement in EBITDA, EBIT coming out of growth in revenue, as well as cost rescaling initiative, but still remains challenging, and I think Hans will come and cover that in little more details later on. Ncell, I think that's one asset which we've struggled, not just from the fact that we've had the impairment of the carrying value, but also from the fact that the voice remains weak, and also we are not able to substitute with the adequate growth on the data side. However, the international business, which was reversing, has seen a growth over last year by around 5.6%. And also the company continues to maintain its EBIT margins as stable with focus around cost containment.
Smart, as usual, remains a steady business with strong profit generation, as well as continuing cash accretion for the group on a steady basis. Link Net, I think, we did talk about the concerns over Link Net in the last quarter. But this quarter we've seen improvement coming in in the sense improved ARPU, lower churn, as well as cost optimization with some bad debt recovery, which has happened, which has seen an improvement in EBIT and the profit line for that business. Having said that, the impact still remains because the business has now started building home passes for XL, 1 million home passes, and they're on the path of getting further contracts to extend that, you know, beyond the 1 million.
As you recall, we did mention back in May, intention of building around 8 million home passes over the next five years. Boost, our digital fintech business, I think, we've seen some recovery of MDRs from the merchants and also growing loan business. The business has seen a significant growth in revenue. However, there have been early start-up losses booked in the business for the digital bank, which is planned to be launched by end of this year. The overall loan book, as it stands, is around MYR 230 billion- MYR 230 million , out of which around MYR 140 million is in Malaysia, and the remaining is in Indonesia. The total loan reimbursement so far would have been around MYR 1 billion .
Having said that, I think despite the high loan, the NPL remains fairly stable. ADA, which I talked about earlier, impacted by two factors. One is renegotiation of their contract with the largest customer, which is XL, and also a lower customer marketing spend by consumer product companies, where they were providing the digital marketing capabilities to these businesses, and that has an impact. edotco, in addition to the inorganic contribution through addition of towers from Indonesia and Philippines, the company remains fairly strong on new co-locations coming in. New tenancies during the last quarter was around 1,300, and the tenancy ratio remains stable at 1.65, even though we've been adding towers from Philippines, which are typically coming at one tenancy.
So the overall development in Malaysia as well as Bangladesh has been significant. The decline in EBIT comes from the higher D&A. Interesting fact that the assets purchased, while they've been valued on the basis of acquiring a company, but they have been shown as fixed assets, which gets amortized every year. And also the fact that some of these acquisitions were on the back of a balance sheet debt finance, and the interest impact coming into in that process. And I think we've talked about in the past our intentions of fundraising to reduce the leverage level in edotco. Headline KPIs, beginning of the year, we did say our headline KPIs at low single digit revenue growth and high single digit EBIT growth.
I think we're fairly confident that we should be able to hold on to that KPI, and we do expect some lower spend on the CapEx relative to what we have indicated at the beginning of the year. I'm happy to announce a MYR 0.05 dividend.
... which is in line with what we have been indicating to the market, and which translates to around MYR 460 million payout, which will be sometime in October this year. With that, I hand over to Lila to take us through the financial numbers. Lila, over to you.
Thank you. So the next two few slides will show the movement from quarter to quarter and also year-to-date numbers. As mentioned by Vivek, we recorded strong top-line numbers year to date. On a reported basis, year to date recorded MYR 11.4 billion; it grew by 11.7%, driven by all the OpCos, except for ADA and Ncell. EBITDA grew in tandem at 12.4% year-on-year. However, you can see EBIT is impacted by impairment of asset for Ncell, which is about MYR 393 million. Increase in depreciation and amortization, and lower EBIT contribution from a few OpCos, namely Dialog, Ncell, and edotco.
At the reported level, losses widened to MYR 502 million, impacted by lower share of results from CelcomDigi of MYR 223 million, relative to the PATAMI contribution of CelcomDigi last year. Ncell impairment of assets of MYR 393 million, and the write-off of the CGT-related receivables at Ncell of MYR 377 million. This was, however, cushioned by the gain on disposal of CelcomDigi, as mentioned by Vivek, on the final closing adjustment of MYR 402 million, and lower ForEx and taxes as well. Next, on the underlying performance. On constant currency basis, revenue ex device grew by 17.8%, supported by continued growth from all opcos, except ADA and Ncell.
ADA, as mentioned earlier, was impacted by the renegotiation of contract with XL from 50% to 22%. And then Ncell's top line was impacted by the revision in call rates, hitting the voice segment, basically. EBIT continued to grow year-on-year, supported by EBITDA growth of 18%, but this was offset by higher depreciation and amortization charge, largely coming from XL, edotco, and Link Net. You had a decline of 83.2% due to a few factors, namely higher depreciation and amortization. As mentioned earlier, mainly from edotco, post the Philippines tower acquisition. Secondly, as mentioned earlier, also, higher net finance costs, which mainly is twofold: overall increase in borrowings and increase in borrowing rates itself. These are mainly from edotco and Dialog.
Thirdly, smaller contribution from CelcomDigi share of results, as mentioned earlier. Next. On the adjusted OCF, this shows an increase by 44.2% to MYR 601 million, largely due to higher EBITDA and lower taxation, which has offset the increase in CapEx, net finance costs, and D&A depreciation. The higher EBITDA largely contributed from XL, Robi, and edotco. The lower taxation, as mentioned earlier, was largely contributed by Dialog and edotco. On an OpCo basis, the graph below, you see Robi's adjusted OCF was impacted by high CapEx, NFC and taxation. Others in the MYR 200 million, right at, on the right, was supported by lower tax coming from group adjustment, mainly arising from Ncell asset impairment.
Link Net's year-on-year movement was due to the non-comparative figures in the first quarter last year, as consolidation only took place after we had completed the deal in second half of 2022. Next. On the balance sheet, you can see the net debt to EBITDA improved to 3.06 x versus 3.23x in quarter one. This is on the back of improving EBITDA from the OpCos. If we also adjusted for CelcomDigi dividends, the net debt to EBITDA would be lower to 2.92 x. Overall, capital structure is carefully being managed amidst uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, where 36% of foreign currency loans are hedged and 63% of group borrowings are on fixed rates.
Cash balance is standing at a healthy MYR 6.3 billion as at 30th of June. Dr. Hans, you can take through the performance of our digital talents.
Yeah. Thanks, Lila. I start with XL. Sequential quarters of growth supported mainly by the sustained rationality in the pricing environment and also some competitive gains in the market. Overall, still our performance by itself.
... Revenues grew 12% year-to-date, driven by data, also, to some extent, the price lever and, in terms of usage increase. ARPU grew by 8% year-to-date, accordingly, and this increase of around IDR 5,000 from IDR 36,000 to IDR 41,000. XL Home , the fixed broadband business, today, 56% of XL Home subscribers are also converged service subscribers. EBITDA for XL grew by 13.6% year-to-date, with a margin increase of 0.7 points to 48.5%. EBIT, similarly, strong flow-through with 27.2% increase, and a margin expansion of 1.6 points, ending at 13.2%. Resulting mainly from, as I said, EBITDA flow-through and also partially offset by a higher D&A, yearly increase of 9.3%.
PATAMI grew by 5.9%, and reached IDR 651 billion. The higher EBIT flow-through was, in this case, partially offset by higher net finance costs due to the additional borrowings for the Link Net acquisition , and also offset somewhat by the share of the losses around IDR 76 billion-IDR 77 billion . AOFCF grew by more than 100%. There's some phasing of CapEx, and below budget CapEx executed and rolled out by around 12.6%, resulting in improved cash flow. Moving to Robi, as Vivek mentioned, again, the second market in our portfolio, which has demonstrated good market structure, as well as a degree of rationality in the pricing environment.
Revenues grew 18.9%, and importantly, the growth was across all segments of Robi's business, data, voice, and value-added services. ARPU is also expanded and subscribers grew by 3.6%. ARPU expansion was at 15.4%, a very significant step forward in terms of monetizing the market rationality. And this increased from BDT 123 to BDT 142 bodes well for increased revenue traction in quarters ahead. EBITDA grew by 16.4%, and whereas margins fell moderately by 0.8 points to 43.3%. The revenue growth was partially offset in this case by higher manpower costs in the quarter.
EBIT grew by 17.5%, and margin, again, similar to, EBITDA, moderately down or rather flat, at -0.1 points, ending at 13.9%. PATAMI grew by more than 100% and, reached BDT 664 million, resulting from higher EBIT flow-through, and lower foreign exchanges on the US dollar, which more than offset the higher income cost, taxation, and some messaging gain we undertook in the business. AOFCF, however, reduced by 38.1%, due to the acceleration of CapEx by 65.6% relative to last year. And this was, by design, to capture the growth opportunities in, in the market on the backdrop of greatly improved market conditions and price rationality. Dialog demonstrated a 30% EBITDA lift on a quarter-on-quarter basis, driven largely by cost rescaling initiative.
This is very encouraging, given the signs of delivery on the resilience program that we have spoken about previous quarters. Strong traction on most fronts of cost rescaling, as well as the revenue initiatives. Revenues grew 19.8% year-on-year, mainly driven by higher revenue contribution from international business and mobile data. EBITDA, however, negative 1.1% year-to-date, with a margin contraction of 5.9 points. This is on a year-to-date basis. However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, as I mentioned, the traction achieved on the resilience program and cost rescaling has delivered an EBITDA growth of 8.8% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Similarly for EBIT, with a 30.6% growth quarter-on-quarter, as I mentioned earlier.
As this has been on the back of increased cost from inflationary pressures and also higher D&A at 7.8% year to date. PATAMI grew by more than 100%, reaching LKR 11.8 billion , returned to positive relative to the previous period when Sri Lanka went in macroeconomic crisis. So this certainly impacts on Dialog's operations, both above and below EBITDA. The growth in PATAMI is supported by a ForEx gain of LKR 12.3 billion , which partly reversed the ForEx losses of LKR 24.3 billion in the previous year. AOFCF, again, grew more than 100% year-to-date, resulting from lower CapEx at -45.1%.
The very controls they have given the macro, as well as the risks associated with the market, largely arising from the macro environment. Ncell very challenged, however, green shoots in terms of international traffic business, where the decline we have seen in previous periods was reversed. In fact, EBITDA revenues grew by 5.6% year-to-date. Core revenues also grew 8.0% quarter-on-quarter on the back of a recovery in minutes of use. Having said that, on a year-to-date basis, core revenues dipped by 8.3%, mainly due to reduced domestic interconnect rate , which was alluded by Lila previously. This is a phenomenon that has depressed the voice revenue since mid-January 2022.
Also lower voice usage, with a contraction in volumes of 15% year. EBITDA contracted by 1.6%, whereas EBITDA margin expanded by 2.5 points to reach 56.2% from the year. Lower revenue flow through, but margins improved, as I said, this rising from cost optimization measures and also lower direct costs. Direct costs contracted by 14.2% year-to-date. EBIT -6% year-to-date, with a margin which is largely stable at 24.4%, despite the lower EBIT flow through and this has been achieved due to cost optimization measures, which have held EBIT stable. PATAMI at -4.0% and reaching NPR 2.4 billion at the halfway mark.
This is a decline of around NPR 100 million and moderated relative to EBIT, due to lower net finance costs and lower taxes on a year-to-date basis. AOFCF, negative 12.3% year-to-date, compounded. So EBITDA performance compounded by high CapEx of 28.7% year-on-year. While there have been CapEx rollout in this half, it has been largely to maintain capacity and quality of service, following any event we had, strategy rollout of the network. Smart on a very stable track of profit generation, 2.7% revenue growth year-to-date, and EBITDA expanding 1.5% year-to-date, with a strong revenue flow through and only marginally offset by higher manpower costs.
EBIT grew by 4.7%, with a strong EBIT flow through and also led by lower D&A on a year-to-date basis. PATAMI grew 22.7%, resulting from higher EBIT flow through and supported also by lower net finance costs, and an improvement in share from the associates. Cash flows likewise 1.3% growth year-to-date. Relatively flat, while EBITDA growth was marginally offset by higher CapEx, 8.6% CapEx growth year-to-date. Again, CapEx targeting the capture of opportunity in the market and laying the foundation for further profit growth in the quarter. Link Net green shoots again after several quarters of decline. Revenue grew 0.9% quarter-over-quarter.
As Vivek mentioned, turnaround, signs of turnaround in terms of RPOs as well as churn rates, which is good news, given the decline that was observed in some previous quarters. In terms of rollout, homes passed has grown by 327,000 homes passed year-over-year. Today, the network stands at homes passed, total homes passed of 3.31 million as at June 2023. EBITDA contracted by 13% year-to-date, with margin contraction of 3.2 points, and today reached 44.69% in terms of EBITDA margin.
... EBIT, likewise, a negative 73.6%, with a margin contraction of 11.2 months. PATAMI, greater than 100% year-to-date. Lower EBIT flow through, compounded by higher net finance costs, and also the impact of additional draw down volumes to support the CapEx expansion, as Vivek mentioned earlier. Link Net is on a journey of rolling out home passes to support XL through a wholesaler arrangement, and this is the beginning of Link Net's journey as a FiberCo and specialized wholesale provider of home passes and infrastructure. AOFCF grew 34% year-to-date, resulting from the lower CapEx spend and also a delay in some of the home pass roll out. But however, this was offset by a decline in EBITDA and higher net finances. Pass on to-
On the digital businesses, I'll start with Boost. So our revenue year to date shows MYR 60 million, growth of 92.2%. And this is supported by the charging of merchant discount rate, MDR, from January onwards, and increased loan disbursement as well. Profitability remained in the red on the back of provision of estimated credit loss, higher NFC and higher OpEx, which is partly contributed by start-up costs for the digital banks, which is to be launched later this year. Subscriber numbers continue to be encouraging, with Boost live users increasing 6.3% year-on-year to 10.7 million, and the Malaysian merchants increasing by 20.1% to 607,000. Adjusted for FCF, decline due to NFC.
Next, our digital advertising and analytics company, ADA. The quarter-on-quarter revenue increased by 38.2%. However, revenue year-to-date declined by 13.2% due to lower contribution from customer engagement segment, following the contract negotiation with XL that was mentioned earlier. Also, as Vivek mentioned, the lower spending from customers industry-wide, which impacted the marketing solutions for ADA. As a result, EBIT and PATAMI are still in losses, but this is somewhat cushioned by higher interest income and lower taxation. The decline in the adjusted for FCF here was largely affected by the lower EBITDA, offset by the lower taxation and higher interest income.
On the infrastructure side, edotco's top line has benefited from its organic growth in Bangladesh and inorganic ventures in Philippines and Indonesia, contributing to the growth of 12.6% year-on-year to MYR 1.3 billion. Tenancy ratio, as Vivek mentioned just now, was 1.6 x. In terms of EBITDA, this grew in line with revenue, but the flatish EBIT was a consequence from the higher depreciation and amortization from both organic and inorganic expansion in Bangladesh and Philippines. PATAMI, however, turned to a loss impacted by higher NFC. One-off tax adjustment for Bangladesh of around MYR 36 million. This is a one-off prior year tax adjustment for Bangladesh due to the change in tax law in June 2023, but it's looking retrospectively. Yeah.
Apart from that one-off tax adjustment, it's also impacted by forex, forex losses due to depreciation of ringgit Malaysia versus U.S. dollars and pesos. In terms of adjusted AOFCF, year-on-year improved, largely due to lower CapEx, excluding the acquisition CapEx for Philippines towers. Year to date, AOFCF would have been positive at MYR 211 million. Next, I hand over to Vivek.
Yeah. So if you recall, in February, we had given our guidance for 2023, which was a revenue growth of mid-single digit and EBIT growth of high single digit. I think we are cautiously optimistic in saying that we would be in line with our guidance given in the beginning of the year. Coming out of the... despite the macro challenges in the frontier market, but I think the improvement on the market structure in some of the key markets is seemingly in the right direction. We also expect CapEx to be marginally lower than what we had estimated earlier, mainly coming out of the conservative approach towards investments in some of the markets where macro challenges exist. Also slower acquisition of towers than estimated by edotco.
However, some of that will get offset by accelerated investments in Link Net for building the fiber for XL-
... this point in time. So that's what the headline KPIs look like. Having said that, I think, if I can go to the next slide, the risks are there and opportunities are there in all businesses. So do we have, and I think the macro challenge around strengthening of U.S. dollar, and rising interest rates will continue to have impact on, on Axiata's performance, given that we at group level and also at some of the OpCos, we do still have USD exposure. We're also seeing interest rates increasing in some of the markets. We overall have seen around 1.6% weighted average interest rates increase over the last year. Regulatory risks continue.
I think, the, whether it's in the form of higher taxes or, network quality of service expectations or spectrum expected to come out in some of the markets, for example, XL, Bangladesh, et cetera. And also the current landscape on 5G. I mean, this could be an opportunity as well as risk. I think risk more from the fact that there is still not full certainty around the path it's going to take. I think our balance sheet, which has been a key focus, how do we de-leverage our balance sheet? I think that will have an impact on short- to medium-term, our ability to invest in new opportunities, which I think would be a bit of a compromise. Having said that, I think this should provide much stronger position for us in the future.
I think macro overhang in frontier markets, things have started stabilizing, specifically in Sri Lanka as well as Bangladesh. However, they're still not easy to get dollar available for the imports of CapEx, and also the fact that there is overhang of existing inflation and affordability challenge in some of the markets, which does impact the frontier markets performance. We also see risk of delayed execution of fiber in Indonesia, and specifically because Link Net is now building fiber in newer markets where right of access has been a bit of a challenge. I think we are moving in the right direction, but there may be delays coming on account of that.
Opportunities, I think we've seen, as Hans mentioned, at least two of our largest markets outside Malaysia, has seen some competitive intensity getting rationalized. There is clear understanding amongst the operators on improving the market structure. I think synergy benefits on XL and Link Net would be a big opportunity for us. And ability to delayer, which we've done for edotco in the past, as well as potential for Link Net and possible asset monetization would be, would be an opportunity for us. It should not only re-improve the balance sheet, but also give us a better ability to reinvest into growth in these assets.
Obviously, the last one is the existing discussions we are having with Bharti on the merger between Dialog and Airtel, which, as you know, is a non-cash deal, requiring some of the approvals from the regulator. This should, in our view, improve the market structure in Sri Lanka. I think that's pretty much what we have to talk about, so we'll open up for Q&A.
Thanks, Vivek. Okay, we'll move on to the Q&A session. As a reminder to ask your questions, you can choose to do this verbally. Just raise your hand and wait for your name to be called out for your turn. Otherwise, you can also type your question in the Teams chat box. So, we'll start with the verbal questions. We see Ranjan from JPM. Please unmute your line and ask your questions, Ranjan. Thanks.
Thank you, management. I only have one question. If you can please elaborate on how you plan to delever the business. I see the absolute net debt is rising still, between... In the first half of this year, we have seen, like, net debt increasing by MYR 3 billion, and the cash flow is still negative. If I look at the operating cash flows and deduct the lease liabilities and CapEx, and include the interest payments from associates. So how... If you can just share, like, how you're planning to delever the balance sheet and reduce the debt?
No, so I think, Yeah, Ranjan, let me try and answer this question. Yes, there has been an increase in the debt level, largely coming out of the fact that ringgit did weaken against the dollar, and we have a fair amount of dollar debt in the balance sheet at the corporate level. In addition to that, the tower acquisitions, which was from Philippines, and more of that was also coming out of the debt. So, as you know, and we talked about it, is we are currently running a process in edotco on getting primary and potential secondary opportunity. We are in the midst of that process.
There are bidders who've been keen to discuss with us that we expect to take it forward. In addition to that, we do see in future once we are able to carve out the FiberCo, which is what the intention is in Indonesia, creating a FiberCo and Cellco. The growth in FiberCo will come out of the partnerships with the other investors getting into it. And third is, I think the organic development on the EBITDA growth, I think is still fairly strong, and we do expect that to continue. I mean, double-digit growth, which we've talked about even quarter-on-quarter, it's actually a double-digit revenue growth and EBITDA growth coming in. That, I think, should also help in our reducing the leverage.
Having said that, I think it's important for the analysts and investors to look at leverage on the buckets of businesses, than looking at it on a consolidated basis. And that's how we've started seeing our the rating agencies also started to doing that. And that's why even after the deconsolidation of Celcom, we did get additional headroom being provided by the rating agencies. I mean, a fiber, for example, a fiber business or a tower business cannot be seen on the same eyes as you see a mobile business. And similarly, mobile business cannot be seen on the same light as a digital bank business, for example, because there it's really a very interest income basis.
Because some of the debt which we classify as debt, in the, though it's small, on the Boost credit business, in reality is not a debt because you have a corresponding loan book to support that debt. So I think we need to start, maybe from our side also. I think we need to start looking at that from that perspective than looking at it from an overall balance sheet for for Axiata. So I think those are, those are the, those are the things which which we think should overall look at de-leveraging as well as, I think, looking at from a different eyes on each of those businesses.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay, thanks. Let's move on then. We next up is Luis from Citi.
Hi. Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for hosting the call. I had three questions. The first is related to Ranjan's question, but on the overall strategic review, where are we in terms of, you know, your... In terms of, when the conclusion will come from it, or is already this, edotco and FiberCo stake sale forms part of the conclusion? Second question is on Dialog. We noticed that, revenues ex device were down 5% QoQ, but the subs and ARPU were only down 1% each for the quarter. What's driving the incremental downside? Third question is on edotco. After the acquisitions in Philippines and Indonesia last year and year to date, the tenancy ratios are still stable. When do you expect these to pick up? Thank you.
So I, I think, let me take the first one, and then maybe, Hans, you want to cover the Dialog. And edotco, I think I can cover, or if Adlan is on the call, then maybe Adlan can talk about it. So on the strategic review, yes, we did talk about looking at the all the assets and how do we want to look at both from a strategy standpoint as well as portfolio standpoint. I would not dwell a lot on this today, because I think it's better that we do it on an investor day, which is on sixth of December, and would be good to have you present there to look at that aspect.
But just to give you a bit of a glimpse, I think our focus would be on the five blocks of assets and how we create value across all those blocks of assets, and which basically is CelcomDigi as a merged co, where I think clearly the synergies across the organization, as well as looking at newer opportunities to develop in the Malaysian market would be one of the key focus. However, there, because we are an associate, so we do participate from the board and the strategy standpoint. Second would be really around Indonesia, which is the strategy around how do we, how do we make the mobile business and fixed mobile convergence more sustainable with the intention of making the fiber side lighter for Axiata.
Third one would be, I think, frontier markets. I think we do have four frontier markets. This has got a very strong position when it comes to market position. I think out of these four, well, three of them, we are number one, and four, we are significantly number two operator. But I think these markets are challenged because of the macro situation. So I think how do we ensure we ring-fence further downside risk on these and eventually look at how do we, how do we strengthen or reduce the exposure or risk around these markets? The fourth one is really around the towers. I think we talked about towers as an opportunity where they could, in future, be independent as a tower company. And the fifth one is...
is the digital businesses, which in our view, we would over a period of time, I think they do attract substantial investor interest, specifically the ADA, and also, Boost with the opportunity of getting into digital bank. I think eventually these would be monetized over a period of time, as we see the right opportunity to do so. So those are the five buckets we will look at it. I think in terms of more details around how we work with these five buckets and still be able to provide sustainable earnings for our shareholders, is something we will talk about more detail in December, when we all meet, and also talk about our strategy, which we have reviewed in the past.
Mr. Hans.
So you're correct that the revenue ex device shows a contraction greater than the sums and ARPU equation. We have Supun online as well, he can add, but the high level, this difference arises from the drop in international roaming due to the appreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee versus the U.S. dollar. And also, there's been some decline in TV revenue, which does not impact the ARPU substitution that you mentioned. Having said that, there's also some increasing pressure on consumer wallet in the market with the continuing inflationary pressures, and this would tend to bite into the consumer wallet for discretionary services, starting with television. So that kind of sums up the difference. If you have any follow-up questions, Supun can probably expand that.
Thanks, Dr. Hans.
On the edotco, Adlan, you're on the call?
Can we unmute Adlan's line? Okay, Adlan, can you take the answer, please?
Thank you. Yeah. So hi, Luis. So I think, if you look at, Philippines, I think, if you look at the first half of this year, we've been focusing in terms of closing, our transaction, right, with PLDT. So far, we have actually closed about 2,600 towers. The balance we are going to, focus on in the second half of the year. I think, we'll try and complete, whatever we can, by quarter three this year. And, essentially, I think, whilst closing the transaction, with PLDT, we've also been focusing in terms of finalizing our, agreements with all the other customers, which include Globe and DITO.
So we do have some element of co-location orders coming from them. But essentially, I think it's still work in progress. You'll probably see a better progress coming from Globe and DITO probably towards the second half of this year. As you know, there were some changes, for example, with regard to probably in terms of holding and all that, with regard to DITO, and hence there were a little bit of slowdown from that perspective. Yeah. On Indonesia, I think we were focusing with finalizing all our agreements, MLA with all our customers. We do have some orders, but I think delivery would probably come in the second half of the year.
Thanks, Adlan. Thanks, everyone. Very clear. Thanks, Clare.
Thank you. Okay, let's move on. I think, next up is, Arthur from Citi as well. Can we unmute Arthur's line, please?
Hi, can you hear me?
Yep.
Hi. Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Just two questions for me, please, both on Link Net. Can we get some clarity on the performance from Link Net? You look at the losses, they seem to have expanded quarter and quarter on higher depreciation and presumably higher interest charges as well. How should we look into this in the following quarters, given that you're further expanding in the network investment side on the pivot to InfraCo? Basically, I'm trying to find out when we're seeing the bottom in terms of the losses. And second question is with regard to the InfraCo plans, if you can elaborate on that. Also, for the plans for XL to acquire the subscribers from Link Net, will this be subject to shareholder approval as well, and will Axiata be allowed to vote on this, or is it purely minorities?
Okay, thank you. Thanks, Arthur. Link Net performance, perhaps.
Yes, like I mentioned previously, the quarter has shown several green shoots in terms of reduction in churn, increase in net adds, stabilization of the ARPU, and in fact, if you look at ARPU on a year-on-year basis, it has actually increased. So the stabilization of the business, the decline that we saw in previous quarters mainly arising from post-pandemic churn and rationalizing of... has been abated, and I think we can be confident that these turnaround measures will continue to deliver in the quarters ahead. The increase in depreciation coming through mainly from new rollout as well as the lagging effects of the old migration exercise, which was carried out in the previous year.
Likewise, the net finance cost on the rollout of 1 million home passes, the project, which has now been commenced to support XL's contract of 1 million home passes on a wholesale basis.
We do have Kanishka on the line. Perhaps you may want... Would you like to add anything, Kani?
I think broadly, we can be bullish about business as usual performance. However, likewise, prepared for continuing increases in borrowing and net finance costs, given the demands of the home pass rollout for the whole service. Kanishka is on that.
Yeah. As Dr. Hans highlighted, it's quarter-on-quarter, the operational metrics are improving in terms of gross adds, net adds, and gross churn. And even though the depreciation and net finance cost will continue to increase, we are optimistic that the gains from the operational performance will offset the downside from depreciation and additional net finance cost coming in. That's all, Dr. Hans.
Yeah. Second question, the preparations for the separation of the CellCo and the InfraCo on the FiberCo and CellCo underway. Yes, there would need to be a shareholder approval for such a transaction, and-
At the Link Net side. At the Link Net side.
On the Link Net side, not on the XL side, due to materiality. On the Link Net side, again, Axiata will not be able to vote at the shareholder meeting for this transaction.
For the acquisition of subscribers by XL from Link, is that-
It will be subject to a fairness opinion only, but there will not be a requirement for a shareholder.
Understood.
Not, not on the XL side. XL side, it's only fairness opinion.
Understood. Okay, thank you very much.
Thanks, Arthur. Okay, I think next on the call, we have a question from Angel Sun. Can we unmute the line, please, and go ahead and ask your question?
Hello, hi. Am I audible?
Prudential.
Hello.
So sorry, we can't hear you. Angel, we can't hear you.
Hello, am I audible?
Yeah, go ahead.
Oh, okay, I am? Okay. Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I'm Angel from Prudential, and I just had one question, probably also relating to some of the questions asked earlier in terms of seeing how your leverage ratio has probably gone up quite a bit. Whether you guys have any internal targets in terms of leverage ratios, both at the consolidated level as well as at individual subsidiary level, especially the item two and three. And also any targeted timeline that you can share, that you can guide to probably bring that leverage down by a certain time frame? Yeah. Thank you.
Thanks, Angel. If I understand your question, it's on leverage. If you look at the group, there are mainly three buckets in terms of business segments, right? You've got infrastructure, you've got MNOs, and you've got the digital businesses. So the leverage levels would differ from one segment business to another. For example, infrastructure can go up to 4x-5x , the net debt to EBITDA level as opposed to the MNOs. Yeah. So each of the businesses have their own covenants also, that they have to meet. We don't have an ideal target, if you're asking, but we are aiming for Axiata to have a net debt to-- gross debt to EBITDA, to under 3x , and that will be over the next few years, subject to our deleveraging plans.
Okay. Okay, that's clear. So you're talking about the three markets. So Infra being about 4x-5x, and the other two markets assume a lower, like, so less than 3x, right? So that the average will be, will be at around 3x.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, correct.
Timeline over the next couple of years. Okay, and in terms of how you guys will be getting there, that will be similar to what, the first question in terms of the different strategies in terms of, both the Philippine side and the, like, the fibers and, and also, again, in debt, about that bigger, that sort of strategy to bring that average down over the years? Thank you.
... Okay.
Yeah, I think, we, we would, I think what we are trying to do is put guardrails across all operating companies based on these principles, which Lila talked about, on what should be the net debt to EBITDA or gross debt to EBITDA on each class of assets. So that's a guardrail which is being put, and this guardrail would ensure that none of these assets breach the requirements, for us. In the meantime, long term, as I said earlier, that infra businesses, we would potentially get new investors to come in, to help fund the growth of these businesses.
Okay, I understand. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Angel. Okay, let's move on. Next in line is, Foong from CIMB. Foong?
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for the call. I've got four questions. Firstly, for Dialog, can you share with us how much cost savings have been delivered from the cost rescaling initiative so far? And how much more can we expect in the future quarters? And also, can you share with us the timeline as to when you expect Dialog's earnings to return back to the 2021 levels? That's question number one. Number two, for Robi, what drove the QoQ drop in PATAMI? Were there any one-offs, or is the second quarter the run rate that we should be looking at going forward?
And then third question, for edotco, I note the comments from Adlan earlier on, the Philippine tower, co-location potentially going up from the second half of this year. Can you remind us as to when you expect the Philippine business to be earnings accretive? And that is based on what tenancy ratio assumption? And finally, on the digital bank , what was the startup cost in the first half, and what do you expect it to be for the full year? And once you've launched by the end of the year, where do you see losses for next year? Yep, those are my four questions. Thank you.
Okay. Dialog,
Yeah, maybe, Supun, you'd like to take the first question? So year to date, the delivered savings of around LKR 7.5 billion. And we expect a similar run rate going forward in the second half, similar or thereabouts. And also in timeline for earnings to recover back to 2021, we could expect this by the end of 2024 is the aspiration that Dialog has aside from any further macroeconomic shocks, which might come in. But given the improvement in the macro and the stable dynamic so far, we are confident that this recovery can be delivered. Supun is on line, add to that.
Yeah. Yeah, I think, key would be the macro recovery and then the larger export industry recovery, which we expect to happen from next year. And then in the next year, continuing the CRS program, we expect to get back to, the previous, 2021 pre-crisis margin towards end of next year.
Okay. Robi, I think, there are, essentially two one-off items, in the quarter two. One was, on account of physical verification of assets, which was carried out, and completed in quarter two, resulted around, BDT 1.3 billion, which is nearly around MYR 26.5 million, equivalent, impact. And second impact was on account of, a higher SIM, push to the market before the budget was announced, which resulted in around BDT 600 million, impact, which should benefit this quarter, given that we won't have that kind of a SIM push happening. So that BDT 600 million is, close to around MYR 12 million. So those are two strong, one-offs coming in the, in the quarter two for Robi.
Yeah, for Philippines, I think, Foong, we expect, yeah, co-lo to actually start picking up in the second half of this year. Because I think, we see that there are interest coming from DITO and Globe. I think, in our earlier model, we were looking at Philippines to be earnings accretive in the midterm now.
Okay. Now, the last point on digital bank , it's around MYR 20 million impact coming in the first half. I think would be similar going forward as we start implementing the bank. Having said that, I think on the BAU business, because all this business effect would mean that you would start moving some of the costs which are currently sitting in the existing business onto the digital bank , because we are looking at readjusting our operations on the existing wallet business as we build the digital bank. So you would see on the other side, reduction coming in the cost. I think once we get in next year, and the total project cost is around MYR 500 million, but that's over the next five years time frame.
And 60% of that would be an impact, because it's a joint venture between us and RHB Bank. So on a run rate basis, we should expect around initial period, around MYR 50 million-MYR 60 million coming impact from digital bank . And subsequently, I think the plan is to be profitable by three years, right?
Okay. If I can just throw in two follow-up questions, one for Dialog. Just now, it was mentioned that we expect a similar run rate of MYR 7.5 billion cost savings in the second half. Is that additional savings, or are we talking about just sustaining what we have achieved so far? And then, second follow-up question regarding the one-off at Robi. Were these normalized out of the MYR 44 million PATAMI that you guys reported?
Yeah, the first one, additional-
The second one.
Yeah, sorry, Vivek. Yeah.
Yes, go ahead.
It should be additional, savings-
Go ahead, go ahead.
That we are targeting.
So on second one, no, we've not normalized this.
Okay, understood. Okay, thank you so much, everyone.
Thank you.
Thanks, Foong. Okay, next we have Isaac from Affin on the line to ask a couple of questions. Isaac, go ahead, please.
Hi, good evening. Just one question for me, actually. Just, on the interest expense, can you just, remind me what's the average interest expense for the quarter, and how does it compare to, first quarter? And also, what's the outlook for the interest expense, and how is the group gonna manage that? Thank you.
MYR 1.2 billion, right? It's a start. Okay. Let's come back on that. I remember it was MYR 1.3 billion. Just check. Okay, we'll come back. What was the second question, Isaac?
Yeah, that's it. That would be my question. How is the group gonna manage the finance cost? I think it's quite high in the quarter.
Yeah. So I think, from a management standpoint, I think we are looking at bringing down some of the debt. I think we've brought down around MYR 1.9 billion debt in group, and we would be looking at another MYR 0.5 billion debt coming down in at the group level. And then I think we should expect some of the, if we can close the edotco transaction to reduce some of the exposure on the balance sheet.
Just a follow-up question. So in terms of the interest rate direction in the country you operate in, are they still on an uptrend? And, should we expect the finance cost, percentage-wise, I mean, so interest rate to continue to go up for the countries you operate in?
So, I think if I remember, Dialog interest rates are coming down, right? So currently, I think it's now the treasury rates are nearly, what? 12%-13%, right? So,
Yeah, it's coming down.
Interest rates in Sri Lanka, we see that coming down. We've seen fair stability now in, in Bangladesh. I think, Indonesia has also been fairly stable. So, so no major shift we are seeing. I think the one which was, the highest impact was in Dialog in Sri Lanka, which has come down.
Good to hear. Thank you.
I think everybody's... everybody is just waiting for FOMC, right? So there are a whole lot of speculation on that, so we, we just have to watch.
All right, that's precise for me.
I think also Isaac, perhaps just to add a little in terms of the sort of blended rates, we actually see across the footprint about 1-2 percentage points year-on-year increase in terms of blended average cost of debt. So again, as Vivek mentioned, depending on how, you know, we see the Fed rates, but essentially, we do keep a very close eye, particularly on interest cover across all operating units.
The good thing is, most of, on a group basis, our loans are 62% fixed on interest rate versus 37% on floating.
All right. Got it. Thanks.
Thank you, Isaac. Okay, I think we have, perhaps the last question from the floor, Prem from CGS. Please go ahead, Prem.
Yeah, Prem.
Hi, thank you for the opportunity. Just a couple of questions on Ncell, please. First of all, could you remind me as to what's the carrying value still on the books today after all these writedowns? I think at the end of last year, we had taken goodwill to zero, but, is there much left on the balance sheet? I do appreciate-
... that in 2029, there essentially, there is an option for the government to buy out that network. How is there any chance for us to walk away from this sooner rather than later? Or what are your thoughts around the longer term in Nepal, given the problems you've had since acquiring it?
Okay. So I think, maybe I'll try, and then Hans can add. I think, how much we have around MYR 1.2 billion left as carrying value at the group level, which is essentially nothing but plant and machinery and, mostly on that. So goodwill, as you said, is pretty much written off last year. 2029, I think we, at this point in time, are not taking an assumption that there is any walkout. I mean, we are looking at all scenarios and looking at the price to be paid based on the weightages on all the scenarios, which are there, which is what has been considered in the accounts for quarter two. Having said that, I think we are, we are obviously trying to improve the operations at this point in time. That's the priority.
The priority has been delivering better cash flows coming in from the business. If there are opportunities, we will look at those in terms of exit, but nothing which has been on the cards immediately. Hans?
Yeah, I think, Vivek covered it. There's continuous and ongoing evaluation of all options here, because, as you said, the macro environment, inclusive of the 2029 process is uncertain. So we will continue to review all options.
Sorry, one follow-up. After all of this, are there any more tax cases still ongoing?
No. So we have, which is what is the Section 57.
Mm-hmm.
which is what we've also disclosed in our notes. Which is, in a way, being kind of offset by or from the BIT, where they've said that no taxes can be levied on the same transaction. So that's the one which is still to be heard by the Supreme Court. So that's still pending. Apart from that, I think most of the past years' tax assessments, based on the outcome of those tax assessments, we've taken. In fact, this quarter, we did take around MYR 80 million impact coming on account of some of the cases where we think the chances of winning may not be remote.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
Okay. I think that concludes our call.
Okay.
Today, Vivek?
No, I think, I mean, we do expect all of you to join us on sixth of December. I think that's the date which we are blocking in our calendars for the Investor Day, Axiata Investor Day. And I think that's where we would talk about, as I said earlier, what's going to be our strategy. I think we've talked about Telco-TechCo. What does that mean in reality? We will talk about that, and we will also talk about the portfolio. How do we want to progress on the portfolio? Which is what I explained, the five buckets, we need to start looking at it. So we'll cover that, in more detail on that. So I think look forward to that.
Okay.
Okay, good. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.