Hi, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Clare Chin, Head of Investor Relations at Axiata Group Berhad. Thank you for standing by for Axiata's Q4 results briefing. Today, as usual, we have with us Dato' Izzaddin, Axiata Group CEO, as well as Vivek Sood, Axiata Group CFO, as well as representatives from our operating companies. There'll be a short presentation, followed by a Q&A session. Lastly, two housekeeping reminders. You will be on mute throughout the presentation session. Also note that we will end the call promptly at 4:30 P.M. Without further ado, I would like to hand over the conference to Dato' Izzaddin, please.
Thanks, Clare. A very good afternoon to all of you, and thank you for joining us this afternoon for our financial year 2021 results. As you can see on the slide, and you would have picked up the Bursa announcement, 2021 reflected a strong underlying performance. Revenue and EBITDA at 8.3% and 8.5% growth respectively surpassed the KPIs, the headline KPIs guidance that we've given. EBITDA margin remains stable at 44%. Reported PATAMI is at MYR 890 million, and that includes a MYR 338 million goodwill impairment at in Celcom. PATAMI, reported PATAMI only reflects a margin of only 3.2%. Of course, underlying PATAMI that grows from MYR 865 million to MYR 1.3 billion.
This improved performance resulted from the high EBITDA across all OpCos, lower net finance costs, that's effectively about 4.3%, as well as narrowed losses at Axiata Digital. Of course, this was partially offset by the impact of accelerated depreciation of 3G assets in Celcom and Robi, just over MYR 100 million. We exceeded the headline KPIs. It's worthwhile noting also, we achieved an Opex savings of about MYR 696 million, CapEx savings of about MYR 1.3 billion. That's a pretty significant and commendable achievement on the part of the operational efficiencies that we aspire to.
Operating free cash flow that's affected by the accelerated CapEx at XL, notwithstanding that the operating free cash flow dropped by 43% to about MYR 1.9 billion. Notwithstanding that, the balance sheet remained resilient. Gross debt to EBITDA of about 2.56 times, just marginally over the 2.5 times guardrail. As a result of the Touch Mindscape acquisition that completed on 24th of December, that involved a debt of about MYR 1.4 billion, and as a result, lifted the year-end leverage. Year-end debt stands at about MYR 19 billion, while cash balances at MYR 7 billion. Now, worth noting again, and Vivek will provide details later. 7% of our debts are fixed rate.
We have an average maturity of about 8.9 years, and 37% of that debt will mature within 1-2 years. Now, all of that is largely revolving credit in nature, working capital facilities, and as I said, the MYR 1.4 billion debt for the Touch Mindscape acquisition was a bridging finance, which will be refinanced through a Sukuk issuance by edotco sometime this year. Moving on to the OpCos. Celcom recorded strong recovery with positive subscriber momentum. Revenue rose by about 5.6% to about MYR 6 billion. This is largely driven by prepaid and postpaid subscribers. Again, you would have picked this up.
Subscriber growth that Celcom achieved was about 900,000, 700,000 from prepaid and 200,000 from postpaid. PATAMI rose to about MYR 943 million as a result of the revenue flow-through, improved credit management, better stock, inventory management levels, as well as, better debt management levels, lower net finance costs, and of course, there were some one-off items in the year before. I think what's worth noting also, the focus is on the postpaid ARPU. That's declined to about MYR 67 compared to, you know, the market benchmarks. We are focusing on making sure that, the average yield improves. Moving on to XL. As I said, steady performance despite the competitive pressures.
Revenue rose by about 2.7% to reach IDR 26.7 trillion, and that's about MYR 7.8 billion on the back of higher data contribution, EBITDA growth of about 1.7%, and that's a margin of 49.6%. Of course, this was moderated by higher sales and marketing expenses, whilst free cash flow declined by about 51%. Again, mandated accelerated CapEx rollout to an enhanced network capacity and coverage. PATAMI rose to IDR 1.3 trillion. That's the highest PATAMI we've ever achieved since 2013. Of course, this was also boosted by the lower D&A, accelerated depreciation from the 3G sunset the year before. Robi, good data revenue momentum. Now you can see in all our markets, it's all about data revenue growing, yeah?
Revenue grew by about 7.6% in tandem with higher usage led by increase in 4G subscriber base. EBITDA was moderated by higher network costs as well as sales and marketing expenses. PATAMI was lifted by about 16% as a result of lower net finance costs and taxes. Dialog, star performer. Double-digit growth across all metrics and all key four business lines. Notably the acquisition of H One, the ICT service provider that we acquired last year. That improved by LKR 2.2 billion. As a result, revenue excluding device rose by about 18%. EBITDA went up by 15%, free cash flow by 22% and PATAMI by 42%. As I've said, double-digit growth across all metrics.
This is as a result of better market share capture from the well-executed network investments, cost management and lower net finance costs. Now, of course, we all know and have read about the situation faced so far as the Sri Lankan economy is concerned. USD is not available, and we're making sure that the business of Dialog is maintained so that it can continue to provide the critical service of mobile telephony. Celcom, this is one of the companies that did not do as well as the others. In fact, the only one that didn't do as well as the others. Their revenue was pressured by the continuous lockdown as well as stiff competition. Revenue declined by about 1%. As I've said, by lockdown impact and competitive pressures.
Of course, whilst core revenue went up by 3.8%, the ILD declined. The revenue from ILD declined by 19%. That was not enough to offset that decline of 19%. Value-added services also declined by about 36%. However, EBITDA rose by about 1.1% as a result of better cost control management and healthy EBITDA margin of 58.2%. Moving on to Smart. Again, good results driven by higher data contribution. Improved data contribution on the back of higher data subscribers by about 10.5% as well as usage. That drove revenue by 7.3%.
As a result, EBITDA rose by about 4.5%, from the revenue rise as well as offset by the higher network costs. PATAMI consequently is rather flattish at about 3%. Now, the good news is Axiata Digital. Strong profits at ADA as well as narrowed losses at Boost. Revenue almost doubled to MYR 980 million. This is largely driven by ADA from improvements in its customer engagement business and coupled with the acquisition of new users at Boost, specifically users of the wallet at about 900,000 and merchants of 139,000. Net losses narrowed by 62% to MYR 112 million. Arising from lower marketing expense and higher profit at ADA, as I've said earlier.
Again, Vivek will go through the details, but essentially the good news is Boost has recorded smaller losses, MYR 125 million losses compared to MYR 298 million the year before. ADA, on the other hand, managed to chalk up profits of about MYR 32 million compared to the MYR 4 million the year before. Good news all around. edotco, a significant organic growth in built-to-suit orders as well as co-location. Revenue rose by about 5%. Now this is driven primarily by the two biggest market and contributions, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Of course, the other countries like Cambodia and Myanmar, there were lower contribution from those two markets. EBITDA and PATAMI rose by about 13% and 72.9% respectively. This is a result.
The higher EBITDA is a result of continuous cost optimization and unrealized Forex gain. In fact, if you look at the details later on, PATAMI rose to about MYR 242 million. Again, commendable set of results. The board has approved a second interim dividend of MYR 0.055, bringing total dividend per share for the full year to MYR 0.095. This is well higher than the year before. The year before we declared and paid MYR 0.07. This is certainly in the right direction so far as our target of MYR 0.20 per share for 2024. In so far as our sustainability efforts, our commitment to net zero target, you would have read that in November 2021 we made a business pledge on the Science Based Targets initiative.
That formalizes our commitment to set a long-term Science-Based target to reach net zero no later than 2050. We plan to announce our roadmap come this April, just before the AGM that will be held in May. In so far as the 2022 headline KPIs, we're making a slight modification here. For revenue ex device, that stays. We are targeting a mid-single digit growth. As I mentioned earlier, the growth for 2021 was 8.3%. For 2022, we are giving guidance of mid-single digit growth. Now we are decided to adopt EBIT growth as a measurement. The guidance we're giving is high single digit growth for EBIT.
Now this is a metric that we've decided to use to better reflect a better measurement of our capital-intensive business. Yeah? This is something that we will sort of continue to give guidance to the market in months to come. Just a word of caution that these headline KPIs are based on BAU. Yeah? Meaning we've not incorporated the impact of a Celcom Digi merger or the completion of the Link Net acquisition. Of course, if there are changes, such as the completion of Celcom Digi merger and the completion of the Link Net acquisition, we will provide the guidance to moderate or to change the headline KPIs as the case may be.
For 2022, the risks around regulatory challenges, global chip supply shortage, which could result in supply bottlenecks, increased taxes in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and for Malaysia is the Cukai Makmur, and of course, uncertain macroeconomic environment in general, specifically Sri Lanka, that will have an impact on our business. There is expectations of interest rates moving and so far as the U.S. is concerned, that could lead to a strengthening of the U.S. dollars. We don't believe that the emerging economies in which we operate in will do the same, because that will, you know, while inflationary pressures will set in, but high interest rates is certainly not a good recipe for economies to recover from the pandemic.
We don't think that the interest rates will move in the economies that we operate in. Myanmar is another space to watch, and we continue to monitor the developments in Myanmar. As far as the Axiata 5.0 vision is concerned, we are very focused on executing key focus area number nine, which is industry consolidation and value realization. Sorry, number 10, yeah. Part nine for 2022 includes the completion of the Celcom Digi merger, Link Net acquisition, and of course, right now, there's work in earnest insofar as the integration planning is concerned, so that we can kick off immediately on day one. That is, in a nutshell, a summary of the 2021 results. I'd like to invite now Vivek, our Group CFO, to go into the details.
Thank you, Dato. Very good afternoon to all of you. Let me start with the reported numbers. You would see reported numbers are marginally lower than what is underlying performance, and that essentially because of the translation impact from the operating currencies to the reported currency, which is ringgit. Across markets, we've seen ringgit strengthening against the operating currencies, except in Indonesia. The biggest impact comes from the LKR, which is Lankan rupee, which has depreciated by around 8%. The profits have been good on a reported number basis, more than 100% improvement, and mainly coming out of the improved higher EBITDA, lower finance cost. However, offset partly by the Ncell goodwill impairment, which around MYR 338 million, which we took at the end of the year.
If you recall, last year we did take an accelerated depreciation of 3G across markets, which had an impact of nearly delta of MYR 500 million between last year and this year. That's what is reflective of the profit numbers. I think the good story is that our sequential growth, both in revenue and EBITDA, remains strong. If you can see quarter-on-quarter, 5.5% growth in revenue and a 6.4% growth in EBITDA. Little more details around the underlying performance, which Dato alluded to earlier. I think stable EBITDA margin of 44%.
Underlying profit growing up by 57.5%, fueled by EBITDA improvement, lower net finance costs, around and close to MYR 109 million lower finance costs compared to the last year, and offset partly by the accelerated depreciation, which was a continuing effect coming in Celcom and Robi. I think the key highlight here is all markets have delivered strong performance except in Nepal, where we were impacted by prolonged lockdown and also on account of heightened competition, not just from the mobile competitor, but also from the ISP. During lockdown, we saw most of the data actually moving to the home broadband, and that resulted in lower data consumption.
I think key other highlight is our program on cost excellence, which was started back in 2017, continues to deliver on savings and profit largely contributed by higher EBITDA, lower losses coming on digital business and lower net finance costs. This is explanation of underlying PATAMI movement from 2020 to 2021. If you see, the major contributor, as I said, was EBITDA, followed by lower net finance cost and impacted partly by the higher D&A and around close to MYR 134 million coming on account of the accelerated depreciation in this year. If I look at the lower chart, which talks about the reported PATAMI versus underlying PATAMI, the key elements, two elements to talk about.
One is the impairment which we have taken on the Celcom goodwill, essentially because of the lower cost, the cash flow projections, which we have versus what we had earlier, and on account of the Forex and derivatives, which is basically, on both translation and transaction, losses incurred on the unhedged position in dollars. If I go to the next slide, which talks about the adjusted OFCF. Adjusted OFCF is basically after lease payments, if you factor that. The adjusted OFCF is down from last year, mainly coming on account of higher CapEx. This has essentially contributed, if you look at the lower chart, from highest CapEx spend in XL Axiata and edotco. Edotco is essentially on account of backlog CapEx because there were a lot of towers in the pipeline which were implemented in 2021.
Edotco added around close to 3,500 new towers in our key markets during that year, which resulted in higher CapEx spend. XL has been essentially on account of accelerated CapEx investment to improve customer experience and extend our footprint coverage in the markets. If I go to the next slide, which is really about the balance sheet. I think balance sheet remains fairly strong with our guidance of 2.5x gross debt to EBITDA. Marginally up, mainly on account of the borrowing of around MYR 1.4 billion, which we did at the end of the year for Touch Mindscape acquisition. Cash balance remains fairly strong. If you see at the lower-right end bottom, most of the cash is actually at the group level at Celcom and edotco.
Balance sheet remains even more resilient with the long maturity profile of our debt. On an average, we would be around close to 9 years of maturity. We also have a fairly stable 67% of our debt in fixed, and around 50% of our dollar debt is being hedged. I think fairly strong resilient balance sheet as we speak. If I go to individual companies, Celcom, I think strong recovery, essentially coming out of strong growth in prepaid. Prepaid business grew by around 13% year-on-year, and also around an 8% improvement coming on from the MVNO business. Postpaid business remained resilient with around 200,000 new subscribers being added, but in terms of revenue, pretty much flat.
Profits coming out of an improvement in credit management, which reduced the bad debts, higher EBITDA, as well as lower net finance cost. Year ended with 5.6% growth on revenue ex-device and a 9.9% improvement in EBITDA. If I normalize for the employee restructuring program we did in 2020, the EBITDA growth is around 5.5%-5.8%. This translating into profit improvement of nearly 39.2%. A good year for Celcom. If I go to the next slide, which is on XL, steady performance. I think competitive pressure remains intense in that market. Impact coming largely on account of the EBITDA as well as the profits.
It's mainly EBITDA coming on account of the higher spend on marketing and increased regulatory fees. The year ended with strong profit of around BDT 1.3 trillion, which is the highest after 2013. Strong profit performance, though revenue and EBITDA remained muted on account of intense competition in the market. If I go to Robi continues to excel in the top-line growth and mainly coming out of the data revenue improvement. Having said that, this market we also see fairly steady voice revenue compensating for the increased investments in the data side. We are in this market fairly close when it comes to number of 4G subscribers to the number one operator in the market.
EBITDA at 2.7% improvement, mainly on account of higher network costs. They rolled out around close to 700-1,000 new sites and also on account of sales and marketing expenditure. Profit at 16.1% growth, contributed partly by EBITDA improvement and partly by lower finance cost in the market. Essentially the debt from the banks was available at reasonably cheap rates, supported by high liquidity in the market. Dialog, I think strong performance, as Dato said, on all metrics and as well as all lines of businesses. All of them contributed on double-digit growth. Growth also supported partly by a new acquisition, which we did early in the year.
18.2% growth in revenue and 15.6% growth in EBITDA, translating around nearly 42% growth in profit for the year. A very strong performance. Albeit, I would say that the headwinds on account of macroeconomic situation in that country brings challenges as we move forward. Ncell, I think one of the businesses which struggled in 2021, essentially on account of prolonged lockdown. This was one market which saw the longest duration of lockdown. Given that it is essentially a prepaid market, the impact of lockdown resulted in lower distribution capabilities and consequently lower revenue. Having said that, pressure on competition continued from the government-run mobile operator as well as the ISP, which I had mentioned earlier.
The core revenue, while it grew, was not enough to compensate for a 19% drop in the ILD revenue. EBITDA continues to be positive at 1.1% growth. The EBITDA margins remain strong at 58.2%. Profit improved essentially because of the sum of the write-off which we took in the previous year. Smart continues to remain steady business. One market where we've seen ARPU improvement happening, and also continues to deliver on a steady revenue growth and EBITDA growth and a very strong cash flow generation for the business. Digital business, I'll, I think, spend a little bit of time there. Very strong performance coming from ADA, and this is coming on all lines of business, including the impact of the Awake Asia acquisition, which we did last year on e-commerce-enabled business.
Most of the improvement came from the customer engagement business, which is essentially an A2P and SMS-based advertising business, and also our partnership with Facebook in this area. That resulted in a strong revenue and profit growth for ADA, and also acquisition of new clients in that field. Boost, I think the primary focus for Boost has been to reduce the losses and improve the propensity of allied businesses like Boost Credit, Boost Connect, Boost Biz, et cetera. All of them have contributed well in the year, offsetting a pretty much flattish Boost Life, which is the payment P2P business during the year impacted because of the prolonged COVID impact.
Consequent to lower losses from Boost as well as strong profit performance from ADA, we saw around MYR 173 million lower losses coming from the digital businesses. Fairly strong performance. Boost continues to be on target to have a break-even on a run rate basis in 2022. Edotco, as I mentioned earlier, had a very strong performance coming from Bangladesh and Malaysia. Bangladesh essentially on account of new towers which were rolled out and improved colo in that market. Malaysia coming out of existing business, but also from the new acquisitions which were done in the earlier part of 2021.
The strong growth in number of towers, 3,500 and around close to 5,400 tenancies resulted in revenue growth of 5.2% and EBITDA growth of nearly 13% and translating into profit growth of 73%. Partly, profit contribution also came from unrealized profit, forex gain, as well as lower bad debts during the year compared to what was there in the year 2020. Dividend, as Dato' announced, we are pleased to announce second interim dividend of MYR 0.055, taking the total full-year dividend at MYR 0.095. Which is in line, if you recall, of our communication to the investors back in December 2020. So we've kind of. Sorry, 2020. It's pretty much in line, and it's in line with our plans to deliver the Axiata 5.0 dividend. I'll now hand over back to Dato'. Moving forward.
Thanks, Vivek. Well, as far as our headline KPI is concerned, I've kind of alluded to what we're trying to do now, to move from the EBITDA growth to EBIT growth. You can see on the left, tracking the FY 2021 guidance, low single digit both on revenue growth and EBITDA growth, and the achievement of 8.3%, 8.5% respectively. Revenue growth for 2022, we're targeting a mid-single digit growth. Whereas, for EBIT growth rather, we're targeting a high single digit sort of target. CapEx, which is not really part of the headline KPI, but guidance we're giving is about MYR 7.1 billion.
No letting up in terms of CapEx significantly because of the needs for XL to improve coverage and improve the quality of service and also so far as Celcom is concerned. Again, these targets may change upon the completion of Celcom Digi merger, as well as Link Net acquisition. That's just the base marker that I like to put on the table on this matter, on the headline KPIs. Next slide. So far as the risks and opportunities are concerned, I've again mentioned this already, regulatory challenges in various markets that we have. Global chip supply shortage, the taxes in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, uncertainty in certain economies, overall macroeconomic environment, as well as developments in Myanmar.
Far as opportunity is concerned, yes, there is that opportunity notwithstanding that Indosat and Hutchison has already completed their acquisition, their merger. As we all know, merger integration will take time. The team at XL is not waiting for chance and trying to seize the opportunity over there so far as the market is concerned in the various cities. We think that the continuing demand for data, digital content, as well as the ongoing digital transformation, particularly for enterprises, that will provide opportunity for a revenue uplift. Of course, like all mergers and/or acquisitions, what is always key is integration. I keep reminding to the team doing the deal is probably the easier part, definitely the easier part.
Integrating the businesses, generating the synergies that underpin the basis of these acquisitions is key. Focus, a lot of focus and attention is being given to the planning side as well as later on once we complete the execution, if you like, of the integration activities. Of course, we continue to identify other inorganic opportunities this year. Because as part of our Axiata 5.0 vision, it calls for certainly in the enterprise space especially, yeah, we hope to be able to well execute some of the plans that we've made so far as the enterprise market or segment is concerned. Last but not least, is the digital bank license. We're hopeful to be one of the winners that the central bank will announce next month, as what was indicated by the governor recently. What's more important is after the announcement, and if we're one of the successful ones, the launching of the digital bank. A lot of planning that the team is doing insofar as 2022 is concerned. I'll end there and perhaps Clare to go on to the Q&A session.
Thank you, Dato. Okay, so we'll move on to the Q&A session. Just a quick housekeeping. Option one, basically, if you want to ask your questions verbally, please click on the emoji to raise your hand. Unmute your line, ask your questions, and please remember to mute your line thereafter. Second option is to ask your questions in the chat room. Click on Show Conversation in that little icon there. Type your question in there, and we will also answer the questions from that meeting chat room. We are also joined by our colleagues from our opcos. Basically from Celcom, we have CEO Dato' Idham, CFO Jennifer, as well as CMO Allen. From XL, we have Pak Budi, CFO. Edotco, CEO Adlan. ADA, CEO Srini. Boost, CEO Sheyanta, as well as Dr Hans, Group EVP.
Feel free to direct your questions to them as well, if you wish. Shall we proceed with the Q&A sessions? Oh, okay. We have a question coming through. First question, hands raised, is coming from Izzati from Macquarie.
Macquarie.
Yes. Izzati, please proceed.
Good afternoon. Can you guys hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Great. Hi, everyone. Congratulations on the set of results. Great presentation. I think I have two questions. I'll start with the first one. I guess it's for Dato' Izzaddin. What's the guiding principle when it comes to the M&A activities that Axiata pursues? Because there's been several development, you know, with Link Net, home broadband in Indonesia, Celcom Digi, ICT service, and Dialog. In the next six to 12 months, geographically, where will the focus be? Or if you can share what vertical of the business you'll be focusing on. That's my first one.
Okay. Is the second question part of the first question, or are they separate?
It's kind of related. I can just go on with the second one. Just quick follow-up.
Yep.
There's been emphasis in the narrative as well on the enterprise business. So will there be any target that Axiata will be releasing and sharing with the market in terms of revenue target or some sort like that? That's my second. That's it from me.
Yeah. Thanks, Izzati, for the questions. In fact, the second question is related to the first question, 'cause part of the M&A focus, I mean, if we go back to Axiata 5.0, it's about the vision of, for example, there are new growth areas in enterprise, for example. This answers the second question. The enterprise target is 20% of our group revenue by 2024. Now, we shared this in the December Investor Day last year about how we think our group revenue or how enterprise is gonna be a very significant portion of our business. Now, if you think about that, 20% of our current base of revenue base of MYR 25 billion, that's MYR 5 billion. I mean, okay, you know, 5 out of 30, so that's one-sixth, if you like. Yeah.
The point is this: it's not just to grow the business organically. That will be impossible. There has to be inorganic sort of targets that we pursue, not just from a revenue base or customer base, but also capability base. Yeah? Whether it's managed services, cybersecurity, you know, platform as a service, and so on. Yeah? That's embedded, if you like, in Axiata 5.0. The guiding principle, insofar as enterprise is concerned, that's one aspect of it. Now, insofar as Indonesia, for example, is concerned, the Link Net acquisition is about pivoting the mobile business to go towards convergence. Yeah? To bundle a lot of the offerings that XL is providing right now together with a convergence play. Now, for what it's worth, competitors are following suit.
Maybe that's a testament, if you like, that we are on the right path. Yeah? Because unfortunately, we've been relegated to third position insofar as the mobile business is concerned. We are now at about 17% market share, but at the same time, there is opportunity both on the integration opportunities, if you like, from the integration of Indosat and Hutch, at the same time pivoting ourselves towards the convergence play. All the acquisitions that are being contemplated are actually unique to the markets, unique to the business segments, and it will actually be, whether it was the next six to twelve months, or hopefully it's the next six to twelve months. Let's not forget edotco, the aspiration to target something like 70,000 owned and managed towers.
We are now at about 44,000, just above 44,000, owned and managed towers. There are sort of assets being put up for sale. We're looking at opportunities in Thailand, of course, Indonesia, and let's not forget, Philippines. PLDT has just put up its towers up through a process. It is something that has been sort of visualized under Axiata 5.0. Whether 6, 12 months, yeah. I think we will try to accelerate or expedite these things because my view is that the opportunities will only be there once, and once it's removed, then it's game over. Yeah. I don't know whether that helps, Izzati.
Yep. Thanks for the color. Can I just have a quick follow-up?
Sure.
Yeah. It sounds like, part of the strategy is also to acquire capabilities when it comes to the digital business. Can you share if you d o you face some challenges in terms of acquiring talents? You know, because in a way, you'll be competing with the big tech guys also, right? Is that something that you face.
Yeah.
If yes, how do you then overcome that?
Yeah. Well, you know, it's not just acquiring talent, retaining them also is a big challenge. The churn rate in tech companies, my understanding is 30%-35%. We're not too far off from that actually. At ADA, we're about 20% to 25%. So, you know, it's the usual people risk in that profiling of the organization that I'm going through with the team. All our retention policies and remuneration policies as well, we are retweaking how well staff are compensated and remunerated. Different businesses will have different sort of pain points and expectations. I think what's important for me is also to create the right environment at Axiata. You know, people keep asking me, you know, throughout the last one year, how am I doing? My standard answer is, "I'm in a good place." You know, some people choose to leave us, but it's okay. The grass is always greener on the other side. But hopefully, with the environment that we're trying to create, talents will be attracted to, you know, to remain with Axiata, whether it's cross-functional roles, cross-regional roles. I think we can offer that sort of proposition to the talents that we have. Yeah. Izzati?
All right. That's it from me. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Izzati. Perhaps we can take some questions coming through the chat group. We have a question from Amos Goh. Basically his question is,
What is Axiata's position on DNB's 5G SWN structure and wholesale capacity charge? Second question is, any potential completion delays in the merger with Digi through Q3 2022?
Okay. As you all are aware, last Friday, the four MNOs have put out a statement in so far as the 5G SPV or 5G network is concerned. I'm not in a position today to speak on behalf of the four MNOs. I think it'll be totally inappropriate. The four MNOs have taken that stance to not make any announcements thus far, except for the one last Friday, out of deference to the minister as well as the government. We have been advised that the government will make a decision very soon, and that's something that we certainly welcome. Just for the record, we continue to support the government's policy to roll out the 5G network. We're happy to support the government in every possible way that we can, as an industry. I'd rather not make any comments on 5G single wholesale network structure and wholesale capacity charge and so on. I think it'd be premature and a bit unfair. As I've said, I can't speak on behalf of the four MNOs. I don't know, Dato' Idham, would you like to add anything to that?
Thank you, Dato' Izzaddin. Thank you for the question. Well, it's simply as Dato' Izzaddin has mentioned at this point in time. The industry has made their statement, so it's something that we cannot comment at this point in time, and we respect the decisions that's going to be made by the cabinet or the government.
Yeah. Insofar as the merger with Digi is concerned. Just a bit more color. You know, four months have passed since the Form 2 was acknowledged by the MCMC, our regulator. There's a lot of work, engagements, exchange of information, meetings, and so on between MCMC and with both DG and Celcom. Insofar as the data points are concerned, insofar as the market share is concerned, information and so on, we are hopeful that the evaluation and validation of the work done by the commission should complete anytime soon. Hopefully, we'll get a decision. Hopefully, we won't have to wait to the Q3 . Again, I do not wish to preempt what the MCMC or when the MCMC makes a decision, but you know, we are preparing for day one. We are hopeful that day one will come sooner rather than later.
The good news is something I'd like to share with everybody on the call. Over the last couple of months, we've assembled a team of about 85 people, plus or minus, from both Digi and Celcom. What they've been doing is working on the various work streams on the integration plan. We have what we call the integration teams. The good news is this. Every time the team does a presentation because the various work streams various sort of topics that they cover every time a team does a presentation, Jørgen, my counterpart, and Telenor and I co-chair, we can't tell or I can't tell whether the person is from Digi or Celcom.
It's not that I'm trying to second-guess or stereotype people, but the good news is the culture, the cultures of two organizations are blending quite well, gelling quite well together. Of course, this integration team planning is done within the confines and boundaries of the law. We make sure that no commercially sensitive information is exchanged between the two parties and there are protocols that each of the individual needs to observe. We are ready, we are preparing to be ready on day one for day one. Hopefully it comes sooner rather than later. Amos?
Yep. Thank you, Dato'. That came from the chat group.
Okay.
Okay. We hope that answers the question. Next is from the chat group. We have a question coming through from Jim from Kenanga. Question is basically on group level,
How many percent of revenue comes from enterprise?
Yeah. You've worked it out. Sorry. The answer is about 7%-8% of the revenue of MYR 25 billion comes from enterprise. Yes, the larger contributions are from Celcom and XL. That's simply because these are two big markets so far as SMEs are concerned. If you think about it, Indonesia at last count, and again, this depends on how you define SMEs. That's easily something like in Indonesia, I can't remember what the number is, but a couple of million sort of SMEs. In Malaysia, the number that's been bandied around is about 1.5, but I think, again, it depends how you define SMEs now. The contribution comes from organically inorganically. If you remember, we acquired a company called H One. That's an ICT service provider in Dialog in Sri Lanka.
That contributed something like LKR 2.2 billion in financial year 2021. Celcom has also completed two relatively small acquisitions. Not big size, bite-size sort of acquisitions, but that's more to provide the capability. Yeah. This business is all about the people, the customer base, and of course, the capabilities of each organization. Because as you would appreciate, they would have signed up certifications from various parties, you know, and with a lot of tenders, these are key components to qualify for some of the tenders. Yeah. It's about 7%-8% of the 2021 revenue. As I've said, if the aspiration is 20%, assuming 25.9 remains constant, that's about MYR 5 billion. That's a fair bit of way to go.
We believe, with a significant acquisition, we will meet that target. I think just to complete the story here on enterprise, Jim, at the end of the day, enterprise individual people in the enterprise segment and work stream are very different from the mobile sort of background. There is a gap in terms of capabilities that we need to acquire also. Every time we look at an acquisition, it's not necessarily purely acqui-hire, purely customer base, purely solutions, track record. Ideally, we have all three. You know, that's the sort of thought process we go through when we look at acquisitions in the enterprise segment.
Okay. Thank you. We have questions coming through from Foong f rom CIMB. Foong, line over to you.
Hi, Foong.
Hi, good afternoon, Dato' Izzaddin and the team.
Hi, you're very faint.
Can you hear me?
No. Not quite. I can hear you, but very faint.
Okay. I think it's my mic settings again. Just give me a second. Okay. Can you hear me better now?
Yeah, slightly better, but yeah.
Okay. I'll try to speak louder through the microphone.
That's better. Yeah.
Yeah. Couple of questions from me. Firstly, I wanted to ask a bit about the digital banking prospects in Malaysia, as you highlighted just now that we're in the final leg of that license award possibly by next month. And I've asked this before about the addressable market, and I think Sheyantha mentioned that the addressable market may be north of MYR 40 billion on the unbanked and underbanked population in Malaysia.
Yep. Yeah.
You know, if I look at the total industry banking loan size, right, that MYR 40 billion is only about 2%.
Yeah
Just want to get any thoughts on whether, you know, that is just being too conservative, or, you know, and is there, you know, significantly a bigger addressable market out there? Also, is there-
Okay
Anything within the license that will constrain or, you know, Boost from, you know, taking a share out of the current banking loan size? Meaning to take away some market share from the existing traditional banks. That's the first question. The second question related to that as well is, we are seeing players making moves into digital banking in Indonesia. You know
Yep.
Just across the border, one of our regional peers are buying up a smaller bank there. Any thoughts on whether that might be something Boost would pursue as well? My third question, on the acquisition of Link Net, given that you wanna keep it listed, so who will actually undertake the mandatory tender offer? Will it be Axiata alone, or would it be together with XL Axiata?
Okay. Very good question, Foong, as always. I'll try and answer the first and second questions. I'll invite Shanta to then chip in, then I'll address the third question. Excuse me. Yes, you're right. Actually, in the engagements with central bank, they talk about this unbanked or unserved and underserved market. Let's take one simple segment. Let's call it the foreign worker sort of segment. Let's assume. I mean, I know at the peak we had something like, I don't know, 3 million or 2 million official foreign workers. If one foreign worker earns MYR 1,000 on average, let's say a month, yeah? 1 million, that's MYR 1 billion. And that's per month salary that goes through his wallet or his pocket, yeah? Not necessarily an e-wallet, but his pocket.
One million, 1,000 average, that's MYR 1 billion. If, let's say, that's 2 million, that's MYR 2 billion. You multiply that by 12 months, that's MYR 48 billion. You and I know, Foong, they earn more than MYR 1,000 on average, right? If you think about it, my view, our view is that it's a big market that is underserved or not served. I think that's why central banks are also very encouraged with this idea of a digital bank, because people don't have to go through the motion of filling in those forms to get to open an account, yeah? Now, from our perspective, we've been operating as if we've been offering microfinancing, we've been offering micro-insurance products and so on.
The digital bank license will, you know, the big win we like from the digital bank license is actually the ability to take deposits. If you think about 1 billion from 1 million customers passing through the system every month, that's a decent sort of deposit base. I mean, you don't have to assume you get 100%, right? 'Cause there'll be other people. Is there a constraint from Boost taking a share of the current banking loan size? Actually, not quite, because that's a different portfolio altogether. Then again, we could be looking at, for example, the youth market. You know, they're not interested in going to open a bank account with, I won't mention any bank names, the high street banks, yeah?
For us, if it's a digital bank, it will be much easier proposition for them to enjoy the facilities of a savings account and hopefully credit cards and micro-insurance and what have you, yeah? If we were to draw segments of opportunities or what you term here as addressable market, we like to think it's pretty big, yeah? Now, for Boost, in all likelihood, let's say a micro SME, they might graduate and grow bigger and in fact it will go the other way around, yeah? In all likelihood, yeah?
Again, from the traditional people that bank with high street banks, if you look at the youth market, the gamers and so on, I think the digital bank license will provide a very good sort of proposition in so far as they're concerned, yeah? Indonesia, yes, there is a great opportunity. Our advantage is we have XL, 58 million customers, distribution channels, retail outlets that we can capitalize on. Perhaps I'll pause there and get Sheyantha to chip in. Sheyantha?
Thank you, Dato'. Thank you so much for that question. You're right. I think, if you think about the addressable market, there are various ways to slice and dice the numbers. If you start off with an addressable market, and our model is primarily based on building a lending proposition around micro SMEs. There is an official number of micro SMEs, but there's a large set of micro SMEs that are not registered. Depending on the baseline you take, that number can be very different. I think, we've gone on some of the official numbers out there. Certainly as Dato' said, the opportunity is quite large. When we do our projections, we are perhaps somewhat conservative.
In terms of whether there are any restrictions on the banking license, I think Bank Negara has been quite clear that the purpose of this license is basically to develop new horizons for banking, right? To go and target underserved segments. Now, would that limit who can bank with the bank? I don't think so. But in terms of the focus and in terms of the strategy and the target segments, our bank would focus or for that matter, any bank that gets the license would be expected to focus on the underserved segments. The good news is, if you take the lending model that we have today, that is exactly the playbook that we have, and that's how we've been doing business.
I think, having been in that space, at least on the lending side of the business, we are quite confident that there is a sizable market out there. On Indonesia, yes. As Dato' said, I mean, we're watching the space. There is no standalone licensing framework that has come out like in Malaysia. But there are. OJK has changed guidelines so that there's an opportunity to, through inorganic routes, perhaps, get into digital banking for us by acquiring BUKU 2 banks, and I think that's been quite popular with a lot of players. We are evaluating options right now. I think Indonesia, for us on the lending side, has been a great market. We've grown quite significantly. As a market, we see a lot of potential. In terms of our next set of actions, we are evaluating all options right now.
Okay. Thanks, Sheyantha. In so far as Link Net is concerned, I'm not sure where Foong, you heard this about wanting to keep it listed. Actually, no. We do like to acquire the remaining shares not owned as a result of the acquisition from CVC and Lippo. That's just over 66%. The party that will undertake the mandatory tender offer will be Axiata alone because the plan is for XL to own 20% and for Axiata to own 80%. Now, that structure of ownership came about a whole process of a company trying to cover many issues. The primary one is the gearing ratios at both XL and Axiata. Yeah?
On balance, we felt that there's a strong logic or reason for XL to own 20% given the effort to integrate the two businesses and for Axiata to still own directly 80%. Owning 80% of this business will provide the direct dividend line of sight, if you like, so far as cash flow is concerned, so far as Link Net is concerned. If you think about it, where this is gonna sit in our three business verticals will be under infrastructure. Yeah? You have digital telcos, digital businesses, then infrastructure. Link Net will be part of that infrastructure sort of vertical.
And that-
Is that okay, Foong?
Okay. If I can just add in a follow-up back to the digital banking business in Malaysia, right? Would it be fair to say MYR 40 billion is like the baseline conservative estimate of the addressable market? And what would then be the blue- sky's addressable market, do you think?
Sorry?
The blue- sky.
Blue- sky.
Yeah.
Oh. I-
Okay, I can take it.
Pick a number, and I'll make that, Foong, pick a number, and I'll make that Sheyantha's KPI. I double that and make it Sheyantha's KPI.
MYR 100 million, MYR 200 million.
Sheyantha, you wanna take that?
I mean, in terms of yeah, you can take the MYR 40 billion probably as a baseline or even a conservative number. In terms of the top end, I really wouldn't like to put a number on that right now. To be honest, I would say that there is significant upside to that for now, but I wouldn't like to put a top-end number to that.
Yeah.
Okay.
I don't think it's unfair because that's always the theory of it, you know. The reality of it could be different. Hopefully, it's not. Yeah. We think if I use the analogy I gave just now, the foreign workers market, yeah, I think it's big. Yeah.
Which are those segments we wanna play?
Sorry?
Which are those segments we wanna play?
Yeah, yeah. Which are the segments we want to capture and play. Yeah.
Okay.
If I can just add, the addressable market that we mentioned of MYR 40 billion, that's the baseline we've taken to meet the KPI set by Bank Negara Malaysia , which is to achieve profitability in 5 years. We feel even with that low estimate, if you like, the path to profitability is quite achievable. I think an upside from that is a pure upside.
Okay. Got it. Okay. Thank you so much, Dato' Izzaddin and Sheyantha.
No, thanks, Foong. Thanks for the questions.
Okay. Thank you, Foong. I think at this point. Oh, yes, we have hands raised from Rahman.
Rahman from?
Rahman, I don't see it here, but perhaps he can introduce himself. I think it's Rahman from Khazanah, if I'm not mistaken.
I thought so too.
Yep. Hi, Dato'. Hi, Claire. Hi Vivek and team. Yep, this is Rahman from Khazanah. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the strong set of results. It's a follow-up question to what Foong had asked earlier. Dato', based on what you have answered, it sounds like Link Net is going to still be a separate company from XL Axiata. Can you give us a bit of color in terms of what the integration between Link Net and XL will be in order to deliver a converged play product for Indonesia?
Yeah. Excellent question. By the way, you're on the trading side of Khazanah, right? I assume.
Yes. Yes, I am.
Okay. Excellent question. That's exactly the reason. Yeah. Because we were looking at the financial capacity of XL Axiata and Axiata, and that's how we ended up with this 80-20 structure. Yes, it'll be two separate companies. The reason is also we couldn't do a structure, a transaction structure where we have merger of Link Net directly with XL Axiata on day one. Now, that's because there will be a huge capital gains tax. Although in that phased option is not dead. Will be a huge CapEx tax bill that we would have to pay because the vendors would want the consideration net of any taxes. That was a challenge for us. If you like, we believe that the integration arrangement that we are thinking of right now is a NetCo ServCo structure. Now, of course, this is a delicate balance because XL is listed, Link Net is listed, and of course, Axiata is listed. The difference is we will own majority in Link Net, we will own majority in XL. There's a lot of commercial agreements that are being developed. When we arrive at this transaction structure, we had already had various models as to the implementation of the convergence proposition. You're right.
Actually, there will be a bit of a, you know. The close collaboration is important and, of course, at the end of the day, what would be ideal is merging everything together, you know, because, you know, as they say, the goldmine insofar as synergies are concerned when it comes to these things is the back office. Yeah. The billing system, the fiber network, and so on and so forth. Yeah, but we believe there are commercial arrangements, there are cases around the world that will enable us to facilitate to share the passive infrastructure together between Link Net as well as XL Axiata. Yeah.
Thanks, Dato'. That's a very thorough explanation of where you think of taking things. Thanks a lot.
Yeah. Sure, sure. Good question.
Okay. Thank you, Rahman. Next in line, we have Piyush from HSBC.
Hi.
Piyush, go ahead, please.
Hi, Piyush.
Hi. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Yes. Loud and clear.
Yeah. Thanks a lot and, congrats on a great set of results. Actually, 3 questions from my side. Firstly, on edotco, can you share your thoughts on what's the target net debt to EBITDA or the capital structure you are aiming for edotco eventually? Because the gearing is still, you know, lower than what the regional peers are. Secondly, on your 2022 KPIs, where you're targeting revenue growth of mid-single digit, which markets are, you know, probably pulling it down? Because, you know, we are seeing recovery across from COVID and, you know, there was an expectation of, macroeconomic recovery and consumption boost, right? If you can help us understand, like, which markets are delivering that. Lastly, on CapEx of MYR 7.1 billion, can you give us some split of how is it among the countries?
Yeah, sure. Okay. On the first one on edotco, actually, this is a good question because, right now, rating agencies are sort of, lumping even edotco's gearing together with our mobile telephony business, number one. Number two, even for the mobile business, 2.5 times is a bit low on the lower side. Understandably, emerging economies and so on and so forth, it has its own set of issues. Insofar as edotco is concerned, we think we can go as high as 3.5 gross debt to EBITDA. Yeah, that's a possible target. We are very mindful of, the acquisitions we make. You see, the challenge is this, for the acquisitions we make, a lot of it is almost at full value. Yeah. That's a given.
It's a seller's market. It's a great asset, a great set of assets. Yeah. Towers provides, you know, steady income, assuming they've got tier one customers. The challenge is for us to be able to extract the value from the acquisition and basically to drive the EBITDA numbers. The challenge for the team is actually to make sure that the scale that we have can be used to extract a lot more numbers insofar as EBITDA is concerned. To answer your question, that's about 3.5, if you like. It's my sort of level, you know, that I think we shouldn't go beyond that. But then having said that, I've seen tower companies trading with multiples at 4x EBITDA net gearing, gross debt to EBITDA.
You know, I guess it depends now because it's not just about the gross debt, it's also about the structure, the maturity of the debts. It's fixed rate, it's term, you know, because our business is also long-term, so we need to try to make sure that, the debt that supports the business is also, matches if you like the maturity or the asset life now. Insofar as the 2022 KPIs, which markets are probably pulling it down? Actually, that's a tough one, Piyush, because revenue ex device grew at 8.3%. We are rather fortunate that, you know, the team, Vivek and the team did a comparison of some other telcos, with, if you like, regional footprints, you know, whether it's Etisalat or Ooredoo and so on.
We seem to be enjoying this 8.3% revenue growth. Which markets are pulling it down? I wouldn't say that. I would say that it's probably maturing. Yeah. So the Smart and the Dialog as well, that's sheer reflection of the maturity and the population base and of course the level of penetration. If you think about Ncell, there's still opportunities to grow. But Bangladesh and Indonesia are the ones that I think will provide that impetus we like to grow the revenue base now. Yeah. Vivek, you want to take the CapEx guidance of MYR 7.1 billion split?
Yeah. Well, I think in terms of numbers, the XL will continue to contribute significant part of our CapEx investment of MYR 7.1 billion. We're looking at around MYR 2.8 billion for XL. Celcom will remain steady in line with what is the current CapEx, which is around MYR 1 billion. We would expect that to change, obviously, depending on when the merger gets completed. The other one where we see high CapEx would be edotco, and that's essentially linked to the new tower orders which the business continues to get in their existing markets, as well as opportunities in the new markets, which would be around close to MYR 1 billion. However, that would be adjusted depending on the tower orders coming in. As you know, these are all linked to the cash flows coming from those. Dialog would be around close to 700 each, I would say. Smart would be around close to 300. Ncell remains around close to 250-300 million. These are the broad numbers for CapEx contributing to 7.1. In summary, it's really the large contributors remain XL, Celcom, and edotco.
Is that okay, Piyush?
Thanks, Dato'. Yeah, thanks, Dato', and thanks, Vivek. One follow up just on edotco 1. The 3.5 number which you gave, does it include your lease liabilities also? Or you're talking about just land buying?
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah.
That's right. I mean, I think, Piyush, just to add on that, 3.5 Dato mentioned is to ensure at Axiata level we are comfortable on overall gearing. I think that's. We are in discussion with the rating agencies because it is not fair to look at an infra company which has got a steady 15 years cash flow on the similar gearing levels as they would look at other mobile operations. I think we are in discussions with them. At this point in time, 3.5 is based on status quo.
Right. Okay. Fair enough because I think excluding that, then there is more headroom over there given the steady cash flow.
Oh, yeah. Of course.
For sure.
Yeah, yeah. Okay. Thanks a lot. Thanks.
Welcome.
Thanks, Piyush. Moving on, I think we have a question coming through from the group chat, Azmi from,
RHB
RHB.
On digital financial services, we can see that growth of merchants in Indonesia is slower than Malaysian counterpart. What are the reasons for this?
Interesting.
Sheyantha, are you still on the call?
Yes, yes, I'm here. No, let me take that. Yeah. I think in Indonesia, we have a very focused strategy when it comes to merchants. In Indonesia we operate primarily as a lender, whereas in Malaysia we offer both payment and lending services. Given the fact that, you know, typically when you have a payment solution, you onboard a large number of merchants, whereas lending can be very focused because it depends on scoring the merchants, having data on the merchants and prerequisites like that. It's really down to the difference in the model. It's not really a like for like comparison. In Indonesia we primarily offer lending services to merchants. In Malaysia it's lending and payments both.
Thanks, Sheyantha. Hope that answers your question, Azmi. Okay, at this point I don't see any further questions coming through. Maybe we give them another five seconds.
Yeah. No, no. I just wanted to correct this estimate of SMEs. Apparently, I mean, I just Googled this, yeah. Believe it or not, there's 62 million SMEs in Indonesia. Again, depending on how you define SMEs, but even if you take half of that's still a lot of SMEs to take advantage of now, whether it's, you know, digital financial services or enterprise and so on. I think that's where the opportunity is now.
Certainly.
Trying to make sure.
Okay. Doesn't look like we have further follow-up questions perhaps. Dato', you have closing remarks?
Sure. Well, thank you again for joining us this afternoon. It was an extraordinary year. That was the word I used when I addressed the entire organization at year-end for us. We're very focused to execute our Axiata 5.0, trying to future-proof the business in years to come. Telco, the telco industry is certainly at a rather unprecedented period of all sorts of confluence of factors that's affecting our businesses. We remain convinced that the infrastructure is here to stay. We are very optimistic about the prospects and, you know, we'll keep you guys posted on developments certainly as and when they come. I look forward to meeting you again. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
A rather auspicious day, yeah. 22/02/2022.
Could have probably started at 2:20, right?
That's an idea.
Sorry. Next decade or something. Okay. Thank you very much.
Okay. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you all.