Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Clare Chin, Head of Investor Relations at Axiata Group Berhad. Apologies for the slight delay. Nonetheless, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Axiata's first quarter 2026 results briefing. Today, we have present with us, Vivek Sood, Group CEO, Nik Rizal Kamil, Group CFO, as well as representatives from our operating companies. There'll be a short presentation followed by a Q&A session. Without further ado, I would like to hand over the floor or the mic to Vivek.
Thank you, Clare. A very good morning to all of you. Thanks for attending this Q1 results briefing call. Let me start with a bit of a reflection over the last three years and the strategy going ahead, and how we are positioned to ensure that we can deliver on the strategy which we laid out and actually briefed most of you in January when we had Investor Day. I think over the period of last three years, as Axiata, we've improved our financial position by strengthening our balance sheet. We've been able to get our OpCos more resilient, with the lower leverage level at the operating company level. We've also been able to pay down some of our holding company debt from, I think it was around MYR 11.5 billion, which is down to now around MYR 7 billion.
We've been also able to upstream our dividend well from the operating companies, resulting from a strong cash generation over those markets. We also have this focus around the five vectors of value creation and five strategic priorities. I would say most of them are pretty much executed on. Some of them are still to be seen as the benefit realization, specifically on account of the mergers which we've done in the three markets, which is Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. I think Sorry, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Sri Lanka has been a good success. I think we are seeing that impact coming out in the results of Dialog. In fact, as we speak, Dialog is the most valuable company in the Sri Lankan stock exchange at this point in time on the market capitalization.
This synergies puts us in a fairly strong position in most of the markets, being number one or a strong number two player, as well as a strong position in Indonesia, where we have sufficient spectrum to compete in the market. We've also optimized our portfolio by exiting out of some difficult markets like Nepal as well as the Myanmar on EDOTCO. Yes, we did consequently took some haircut, but I think in the long run, it was better to get that cash from those assets and deploy it in a better purpose than really struggling to move money out of those markets. Going forward, on the back of this, going forward, I think we've laid out the strategy to focus on telecom and technology areas. Telecom would be essentially focused on delivering full potential and high cash flows.
Technology would be essentially to create value, and over a period of time, realize those value creation. This will come out of sharper capital discipline, portfolio simplification, and unlocking full potential. I think given our market position in some of those markets where we are present, I think we have a very strong opportunity of delivering the full potential of our telcos. This cannot be delivered without having best people who are engaged, enabled, AI native, and having the right kind of a winning culture in place. That's some emphasis which we will continue to put in. What do we, as financial outcome deliver is enhanced dividend, better TSR, and a resilient balance sheet, which we project. If I go to the next slide. This is what we said, basically telecom and technology assets.
Telecom is based on profit generation and technology on value, ensuring that we are able to get good yield coming out. As far as technology businesses are concerned, I think primarily looking at investments from external funding. As you know, for our fintech business, we are currently running a process for external funding, we expect that should be completed in a shorter period of time. The outcomes which are given on the right-hand side. I think important factor is that these outcomes have been aligned to the management's long-term incentive to ensure those are in line with shareholder returns. If I go to the next slide. Quickly, I think the profits for quarter one were strong at MYR 274 million.
Having said that, the profit does get impacted because one-off events, for example, accelerated depreciation continuing in Indonesia as well as the modernization effect coming in Bangladesh, and also the fact that the currency ringgit strengthened versus our operating currencies during the year. Having said that, and on an underlying basis, if I adjust for some of these one-offs, I think we've had a very strong quarter, with revenue growing at 8.5%, EBITDA growing at 25.9%, EBIT at 67.9%, and profit more than doubling. The profit of MYR 438 million on underlying basis is actually delivered after a fairly long period of time, which is Q4 2022, which was done.
Also, I'm happy to say that most of the markets, we are rolling out 5G, except Robi, where I think it's still more at the discussion stage or I would say trials, because of the absence of spectrum in those markets. I mean, arguably, one can say whether 5G investments is monetizable or not. We think our position in some of those markets, specifically Bangladesh and Cambodia, should be able to give a better outcome coming out of the 5G. We are seeing monetization in early stage on the execution of 5G strategy. Specifically in this market, I think fixed wireless access is a big opportunity which we think we can capitalize on. On the telecom side, I think Dialog achieved their highest ever profit. XL merger integrations are ahead of plan. I think we are seeing synergy realization coming in.
It's early days to see the full impact of the integration there. We've seen market share improvement in Dialog and Robi. We think also Smart we would have, but Smart, we don't have public information for us to be very concrete in stating that. Also the fact that we continue to have capital return through Axiata, where EDOTCO continue second year in running, paying dividend. Also Dialog, because of its cash flow and profit performance, we've actually moved to a quarterly dividend payout from Dialog. This also ensures that we are not risking the Forex movement from a cash flow standpoint. On the technology business, I think Boost continue to grow its loan book. I think we are still on plan to break even Boost Bank in three years time horizon. Loan growth is not as high as we had expected.
Having said that, I think the bank is managing the costs in line with what were the plans so that we still meet the target of three years for breakeven in Boost Bank. ADA continues to do well on the top line coming out of solution business, whereas the customer engagement, which is A2P SMS business, remains stable. Can I go to the next one? Let me quickly run through the operating company by company, our performance. I think CelcomDigi, you would have already heard the CDB's presentation, so I'll not spend too much of time on it.
The only aspect which I would address is while market remains fairly tight and the growths are still quite low, I think company is continuing to focus a lot on the operational excellence, which is driving better cost structures as well as improvement in the EBITDA margin and resulting in improvement in profits. That, I think, is a target which they have put for themselves, both in terms of the OpEx savings as well as CapEx efficiency during the year. Next slide. I think XLSMART, I don't do comparison because last year was not really comparable given that we had only one entity, which is XL, in the base for the quarter one. Worth looking at how is the performance on a quarter-on-quarter basis, which may be more meaningful. I think we are seeing market structure improving.
ARPU's been uplifted quarter on quarter by around 6% to around IDR 47,000. Also, EBITDA margin's been uplifted to around 45.6% from the last quarter of 34.6%. Those are basically benefits of the synergies coming into play as the integration progresses ahead of the plan. I think we expect the integration of networks to be completed by quarter three, and by early 2027, the IT integration should also be done. As far as human side is concerned, I think we've already done the restructuring of headcount and also the combined sales restructuring is currently in progress, yeah. We should start seeing the full benefits coming in 2027 onwards, but this year we are looking at approximately MYR 300 million of synergies from the merger coming in.
Profit numbers obviously do not look that great for the simple reason that we still have the accelerated depreciation on the integration coming and hitting the numbers. That should come again in quarter two, that would be because by that time, we would have completed the network integration in Indonesia. Robi, I think very strong performance coming out of top line growth of around 8.1%. Quarter on quarter, obviously, because of the two days less as well as seasonality, you don't see growth there. Year- on- year, I think a strong 8.1%, and they've been the best performer in the market, gaining market share in this particular quarter. In fact, we've been doing that for the last whole year.
That growth is reflected into a very strong EBITDA growth of around 3.5% quarter-on-quarter and 21% on a YTD basis, and reflective of EBIT growth. Having said that, EBIT growth does factor in BDT 1.2 billion on account of D&A coming out of Dhaka modernization. I think that we expect to be completed by the first half of this year. That should provide much efficient as well as much improved network in the core market in Bangladesh, which is Dhaka. That should allow us to have a very competitive position in this market. Reflective of that is, you see from a cash flow standpoint, I think we've been flat mainly because of the investments made for Dhaka modernization. Overall profits of BDT 2.3 billion has been a strong 85% growth on a year-on-year basis. Dialog, I think has been a terrific performance.
I think the benefits of the merger are being fully realized as well as market has seen market structure improvement. I think both operators, SLT as well as us, have seen ARPU improvement and there are necessary improvement in the market structure, which is very clearly visible. Growth, 9.2% on revenue. EBITDA grew by 23.1% and more than double profit. That came across all lines of businesses. Barring some global business, which has been still, because of the global traffic not back to the normal level, all of the businesses have been significantly ahead. Global traffic deliberately has been something which is the hubbing business our company has not been focusing on because that's a very low margin business for us. All the high margin business have been doing well.
As I said, synergy benefits are realized and cash flow generation has been strong, and that's resulting in a very strong balance sheet. In fact, they would have by now paid out all their USD debt, which also insulates them from the currency volatility, as was felt in the earlier times when Dialog went through the financial crisis. We've also moved to a quarterly dividend in Sri Lanka with a dividend per share of LKR 0.7, totaling around LKR 6.4 billion declared for the first quarter. Based on the current share price, that should result in around 9.2% yield. Very strong performance. That's reflected in strong profit number, more than doubling from compared to last year, around LKR 9.1 billion.
On a cash flow, while 12.8% increase on cash flow impacted partly because of the 5G investments which has been made, as well as some spectrum which was purchased there. Next. Smart continues to deliver consistently their performance. Quarter-on-quarter, obviously impacted because of number of phase and seasonality, but year-on-year, strong 7.3% growth in revenue. Even though electricity costs have gone up, they see impact on the growth in EBITDA as well as EBIT. Very strong cash flows remain steady and profits remain steady. A lot of investments have been going into investments into 5G. I think we should taper down once the 5G rollout is completed. Smart continues to have a very strong cash position of around $1.74 billion sitting on their balance sheet there.
Link Net. This is one I said we've been kind of struggling with, and partly explained by the fact that the XL, which was one of the only customers initially, wasn't growing their fixed broadband business sufficiently, and that was keeping their margins and the revenues low. Having said that, I think we've started looking at now open access after the exclusivity period with XLS got over. Open access has been helping provide to the other ISPs, and also looking at scaling as sales as a service for some of the ISPs, given that there has been a strong sales process. One can argue, is there a cost we are putting in? No, that's not the case because it's all on a variable model. On first month itself, the cost of selling is actually recovered from the ISPs.
We also see enterprise pipeline conversion to grow, given they were in the first quarter's budget restrictions at the government and the large SOE spend. I think that's an area where we should start now seeing money being spent, and we should be able to get a better traction on the enterprise business going forward. I think we still remain focused on looking at potential monetization of these assets. Otherwise, are very focused on improving its cash flows and profitability over the next couple of quarters there. EDOTCO, I think stable performance. The only impact has been, again, similar to Axiata's reported numbers, is been the impact of foreign exchange and ringgit again strengthen against all the operating companies. Current operating currencies and EBITDA was kind of cushioned by disciplined cost management which was there.
We also had some of the adjustments on contracts in the last quarter of 2025, which has an impact. These adjustment on contract allowed EDOTCO to extend the duration of their contracts, which does provide certainty of cash flows for a longer period of time. Those were kind of strategic decisions taken to capture a longer cash flow certainty of EDOTCO. Okay, next one. I think ADA, we see a strong top line growth of 10.7%. Having said that, I think the margins were lower because of front-ending some of the marketing platform and logistics cost for some new customers, which were acquired on the e-commerce business by ADA. We don't see these costs being continual, we should see the revenue build-up translating into better margins in the subsequent quarters.
I think we are still pretty much looking at improved results for the full year coming out for ADA. Next one. Boost, I think, was somewhat benefited because of the one-off MYR 51 million income coming from software services gain. This is basically some of the platform access which was provided to the other players in the fintech space in Malaysia. That resulted in improved EBITDA, and also better profits coming out in the first quarter of this year. Bank loan book continues to grow well, and Boost wallet was also scaling up their credit business. We are, as I said, still tracking this well, and with new money coming in, it should be well-funded for meeting the objective of break-even over the next three years timeframe. I'll then hand over to Nik to go through the group financial numbers.
Sure. Thanks, Vivek. Assalamualaikum, good morning. I will now take us through our quarter one 2026 financial performance. On this page, you can see that on revenue, we recorded at the group level of MYR 2.8 billion. Year-on-year, this amounted to a 3.2% decline, which was mainly driven by the strengthening of the ringgit against all other OpCo local currency. Taking out the impacts of Forex on a year-on-year basis, i.e. constant currency, revenue grew by 8.5%. The key drivers for the underlying performance was mainly in Robi and Dialog for mobile growth, while Boost, as what was alluded to by Vivek earlier, posted a one-off revenue recognition from software service gains. At EBITDA, we recorded MYR 1.356 billion, year-on-year, 11.2% higher, and at constant currency, 25.9% higher.
Key drivers for the underlying performance is the cost optimization and scale benefits from revenue growth in Dialog and Robi, and also lower overall cost at company level. For revenue and EBITDA, you will notice that on a quarter-on-quarter basis comparing to quarter four last year, it was slightly below, and this is mainly due to quarter one 2026 having two less days due to the shorter month of February. At EBIT, we recorded MYR 583 million, 48.4% higher year-on-year and 67.9% higher at a constant currency basis. Key drivers is the flow from the top line and also lower Depreciation and Amortization charges. JCE, which is our joint control entities, share of results posted MYR 62 million, 48.4% lower year-on-year. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, higher by 100% or more than double. Under JCE, we essentially have two companies. One is CelcomDigi in Malaysia.
I won't go belabor into the point, but as what was mentioned by Vivek, it was a solid performance by CelcomDigi. You would have heard at their own analyst presentation. The contribution to Axiata Group was 9.4% higher at MYR 131 million compared to the same period last year of MYR 119 million. At XLSMART, it was a share of loss of MYR 69 million due to the higher merger integration costs. However, the underlying performance was positive at MYR 128 million after we take away the accelerated impact of accelerated depreciation due to the network integration and other network integration spending. At the PATAMI level, we recorded MYR 274 million, 71.3% higher year-on-year, and more than doubling quarter-on-quarter. This is a reflecting of the stronger performance of continuing operations despite the absence of XL Axiata and EDOTCO Myanmar's results in quarter one 2026.
This is in comparison to the first quarter of last year. At underlying PATAMI level, it was MYR 438 million, more than doubling year-on-year and also quarter-on-quarter, lifted by the strong underlying performance at XLSMART, Dialog, and also Robi. Next page, on balance sheet. Group cash was at MYR 3.6 billion, lower by about 19.5% year-on-year and a slightly lower 3.3% lower quarter-on-quarter. Year-on-year performance is mainly due to the deconsolidation of the XL Axiata balance sheet from second quarter of 2025. HoldCo cash was strong at MYR 705 million, 28.6% higher year-on-year. Group borrowings was at MYR 15.1 billion, 33.9% lower year-on-year, flattish on a quarter-on-quarter basis. This is again, mainly due to the deconsolidation of XL, but also debt paydown at HoldCo, Robi, and also Dialog. HoldCo borrowings was 26.6% lower at MYR 6.85 billion.
This is a comparison on a year-on-year basis. In quarter one 2025, HoldCo borrowing stood at 9.3 billion. In a one-year time space, we have basically reported a lowering of HoldCo borrowing by about approximately MYR 2.5 billion. This is due to the discipline and some of the liability management that we managed to do in the financial year 2025. Quarter-on-quarter is also slightly lower by 1.6%. AOFCF was strong at MYR 510 million, 19.9% higher year-on-year, and more than doubling quarter-on-quarter. This is driven mainly by the higher EBITDA performance as what we've gone through previously, earlier, however, offset by higher CapEx, mainly at Robi and Dialog from network modernization and also 5G rollout. As a result, our net debt to EBITDA quarter-on-quarter was slightly higher at 2.51 times compared to 2.46 times at the end of quarter four 2025.
This is mainly due to the impact of the stronger ringgit. Comparing to the same quarter last year, it's lower as quarter one of last year, we had three times net debt to EBITDA. Moving forward, as what we've basically presented in our Bursa announcement, we've now moved, and what we've indicated, during the quarter four, the full year 2025 analyst call. For this year, FY 2026, due to the various movement in our portfolio, we've now moved to a prospects for the financial year ending 2026. I won't go through the whole paragraph. I think this is already included in our group announcement. Just to highlight a few matters, whereby for 2026, the group will still continue to progress on our strategic journey, centered around two key portfolio grouping, telecoms and technology.
For the telecoms portfolio, quarter one 2026, we saw a very strong performance that delivered strong profit growth. For same quarter and under the technology portfolio, it also turned around to report our profits. ADA was already profitable, but in Boost, we benefited from the one-off revenue recognition from some software sales. We've also included a paragraph around the ongoing geopolitical tensions, in particular, the Middle East region, due to the conflict between U.S., Israel, and Iran. Whilst we've indicated that the group is mostly exposed to second-order effects through our reliance on global vendors, international financing, and overall regional economic sentiment that will affect consumer demand, we will continue to basically monitor the situation and exercise prudent liquidity and risk management, and we will periodically also assess the impact of group operations and financial performance.
This is done quite rigorously, not only at the group level, but also at our individual OpCo level. As such, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we believe that the groups continues to remain on track to deliver on the profitability and valuation growth. On opportunities and risks for 2026, by and large, this is still the same as what we had communicated during the Axiata Analyst & Investor Day in January earlier this year. Under opportunities, merger synergies in Malaysia and Indonesia and market repair across all our markets continue to prevail in our telecoms portfolio. We had touched upon already on 5G market leadership in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Cambodia, and potentially in Bangladesh to come in the future. Other opportunities also relate around the successful monetization of our infra assets and also continuous reduction in our whole core debt and OpEx optimization.
Under risk, obviously, the risk around transition from single wholesale network to dual wholesale network in Malaysia continues to be there. We do have some clear light in front of us with regards to the resolution at DNB or Digital Nasional Berhad. With the next milestone, which everyone is aware of, in June, with the resolution of the MOF Put Option, and also the refinancing of the government-guaranteed loans. Under 5G, obviously, monetization of 5G investment in markets continue to be a risk. However, as what was alluded to by Vivek earlier, we do see a lot of opportunities here as well, especially in the areas of FWA fixed wireless access and also other use cases to enable us to monetize on our 5G investments.
As I mentioned just briefly before, geopolitical and macroeconomic risks continue to pose serious risks to the group, especially around the prolonging of any tensions in the Middle East. With that, I end our presentation. I believe we can now move on to Q&A. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Nik. Thanks, Vivek. Moving on to the Q&A session. I would like to highlight that we also have representatives from our OpCos, namely from XLS, Robi, Dialog, Smart, as well as Link Net on the call, if you wish to address your questions to them directly. To ask your questions, you may choose to do this verbally, just raise your hand and wait for your name to be called out for your turn. Otherwise, you may also choose to type your question in the chat box, too. Let's start with the Q&A session. I do see one hand up at this point. It's Sigrid from JP Morgan. Sigrid?
Hi, Clare. Thank you. Can you hear me?
Yes.
Great. Thank you, management. I have two questions. Maybe I'll take them one by one. Firstly, I noticed the first quarter operating cash flow is pretty soft at MYR 216 million, as compared to the MYR 1 billion quarterly run rate in second half of last year. May I know the reason why?
You ask both two questions together or?
Yeah, sure. The second question is on the lower D&A this quarter. It is about a MYR 85 million quarter-to-quarter reduction, and also compared to first quarter, as compared to fourth quarter last year, there is also a sharp reduction. Maybe just for the reason for that as well. Thank you.
Okay, sure. Thanks.
Okay.
So on the-
I think these are basically some housekeeping questions, right? Essentially just to repeat, right? It's basically on the D&A decline for Axiata on a Q- on- Q basis. And the second question is the d ecline in cash flow.
Yeah. Okay.
based on the Bursa announcement.
Okay. I think maybe I can answer both of them.
The first one on the soft AOFCF is mainly because last year in the first half, we had XL Axiata, as well as the EDOTCO Myanmar in our baseline, whereas that doesn't exist now. The cash flow from these two businesses are not captured in the results of quarter one 2025. That's what explains the cash flow effect. On a profit line, the way Bursa requires us, we just show on continuing businesses separately. It's not necessarily comparable like to like, right? If you go in the table below the cash flow statement, you will get the details.
Yes.
The second one on D&A quarter-on-quarter, I think it's because last year we had the Dhaka modernization of around MYR 96 million, which was amortized. Whereas in Q1 2026, that's only MYR 38 million. As I said in my earlier comments when I was talking about Robi, I think we'll have another quarter with some effect coming on Dhaka modernization. That's basically swap of the old existing equipments to the modernized equipments. We will see for another quarter. That's mainly the reason why you see a drop in the D&A charges from quarter-on-quarter.
Okay, thank you. Just maybe allow me to follow up on the question on operating cash flow. I am looking at the number compared to second half last year, which I understand there shouldn't be any impact from XL deconsolidation. If I am just looking at operating cash flow, there is about MYR 1 billion per quarter in the second half of last year, whereas this quarter is around at MYR 260 million, if I got that number correct. I just want to clarify on that number. Thank you.
I think MYR 260 million for a quarter, meaning obviously, you're looking at around close to MYR 500 million for half year versus MYR 1 billion, which you're talking about the second half, right? Is largely because some of the OpCos have been rolling out 5G, which I said earlier. The OpCos in Sri Lanka as well as in Cambodia have rolled out 5G, and that is what comes in as the early effect, and I think we should start seeing that tapering down as their 5G rollout gets completed.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you, Sigrid. Let's move on. I see Prem has his hand up as well. Prem from CGS-CIMB. Please proceed, Prem.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. Two questions from me. First of all, with regards to the monetization of both EDOTCO and Link Net, could you provide us with some updates on where are we with regard for the timeline? Are we still scheduled for this to be completed in 2026, and potentially where the risks are with regards to deal completion in 2026? The second one is maybe just a bit of a housekeeping. If you could provide us with some color with regards to CapEx spend by entity scheduled for 2026. Thank you.
Yeah. I can take this. With regards to the potential monetization of the two assets that you mentioned, Prem, I think no major updates other than it is still in progress. With regards to timeline, yes, the target, as what we've communicated before, is still to pursue for a completion in 2026. The risk will obviously be around approvals that will be needed, either from a regulatory perspective, but more in terms of timing of when we can then go and get shareholders' approval, et cetera.
Okay. Anything that's gone wrong in the process in the recent past?
In their current process? No.
Yes.
I don't think we're in a position to comment because it's still ongoing, Prem.
Yeah.
Prem, I think, realize it's pretty complex when it comes to EDOTCO.
Yeah.
Given we are talking of multiple countries and potentially multiple issues to be dealt, given the regulatory environment in each country could be very different.
Yeah.
Yeah. Understood. With regards to the CapEx by entity for 2026?
I think for CapEx 2026, we did not guide for it.
Yeah.
Essentially, maybe just to give you a little bit of color. For 2026, you would probably be looking at CapEx down to halving, perhaps, given that we've reconsolidated XLSMART.
Yeah.
XL Axiata into XLSMART. Essentially, CapEx for the group, when we look at it, excluding-
Yeah
CelcomDigi as well as XL, will halve on a year-on-year basis.
Yeah. Maybe what I can also add, Prem, we can't use the first quarter CapEx spend as a run rate, because there's some heavy loading CapEx spend with regards to the 5G rollout in both Cambodia and also Sri Lanka. Also, as what Vivek had mentioned earlier, the data modernization work that actually only commenced towards the end of last year. The first half of the year, we'll probably see a little bit higher CapEx, but those are the three key big projects, basically.
Perfect. Thank you.
Okay.
Thanks, Prem. Let's move on. We also have Louis on the line from Citi. Go ahead, Louis.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for hosting the call. I had three, sorry, housekeeping questions to ask. The first one relates to D&A, but on the Dialog side. We saw it's down Q on Q. What's driving that, and should that be the run rate we're looking at going forward? Second question is, can you remind us what drives, on the Axiata level, the Forex gains? Is it because of derivatives or you're holding US dollars? Last question is on underlying PATAMI. Could you give it to us on the reported basis rather than on constant currency? Thank you.
Okay. Maybe I'll take the housekeeping question first in terms of Dialog, right? Just to clarify or to be sure, Louis, it is Dialog declined on a Q- on- Q basis.
for the D&A, right?
That's right, yes.
Yeah.
Robi you've explained, but just we're wondering on Dialog?
Okay. Essentially, there was a small impairment taken on some receivables that was taken in fourth quarter for Dialog in for 2020.
DF.
All right. Yeah.
Decrease in receivables.
Oh, yeah.
Okay. The first quarter should be the clean number for.
Sorry. It was some impairment on some assets that was taken.
All right.
about LKR 600 million in fourth quarter 2025.
Right.
Okay, yeah.
Okay, therefore, that's why it is lower on a Q on Q basis in first quarter 2026. The amount that was taken of impairment was LKR 600 million.
You have to add it back to get the run rate, right? Yeah.
Okay.
Okay. Second question.
Yeah. Can you remind us, Forex gains, what drives it?
Yeah, sure. Forex gain. Firstly, it's mainly from the gain that we got from the 2016 Sukuk redemption and also the CCIS, the cross-currency settlement. That amounted to about MYR 94 million. In the Bursa announcement, it is under the significant unusual items disclosure.
Okay, perfect. Thanks, Nik.
Okay.
The last one on underlying PATAMI on a reported basis.
New PATAMI on a reported basis. Basically with the Forex impact in there is MYR 395 million.
395, okay. Hey, thanks a lot.
No problems.
Okay. I don't see any further questions at this point in time. Oh, there are some follow-up questions, I think. Sure.
Okay.
Sigrid from JP Morgan. Please.
Hi. Thank you again. I might have missed this earlier, but may I get an update on the asset divestment progress? Thank you.
Okay. I think Prem already asked that question. The answer was that it's still in progress. Timeline to completion, as what we've indicated in the Investor Day, we're still targeting for 2026. The biggest risk for completion will be essentially around the type of approvals that we will need, the regulatory approvals, et cetera. If we were to take, for example, EDOTCO, it involves a multi-country operation. Every country will have their own separate nuances, basically, with regards to regulatory approvals or consents that will be needed. It is quite a complex transaction.
Okay. Thank you.
No problem.
We do have a follow-up question as well from Prem.
Sure.
Prem, please go ahead.
Sorry, I just wanted to clarify that point on Forex gains and losses. The MYR 94 million as a result of the Sukuk, that is being recorded under comprehensive income, correct? Not through the P&L, per se.
That's right.
Okay. All right.
It sounded like it was coming through the P&L.
Yeah, upon settlement, it will be flushed through to the P&L. The other comprehensive income, it w ill be flushed to the P&L upon settlement. Yeah.
Okay. All right.
Got it. Okay.
Thank you.
No problems.
Okay. Oh, we do have a question online. Let me read it out. It is from Wong. Given that the share price has been declining for the best part of 10 years, over the longer term, what is management's strategy to get back on track, and what are the short-term milestones to get us there?
I think we laid out our Axiata28 strategy. The key outcome we are looking at is basically a growth in dividend, which we said at around at least 10% year-on-year. When I say 10%, it's basically MYR 0.10 becomes MYR 0.11 in 2026. Second one is to ensure we have a strong balance sheet of leverage less than 2x, which does allow us to minimize risk of volatility in the various pockets. Third one is to get a TSR returns of high- single digit. Obviously, this was based on the starting point, which was more at the end of last year when we laid out the strategy. Last two weeks has been off since the exclusion of Axiata from MSCI.
I think we are seeing a lot of short sellers in the market, which I think would get squared off by the end of this month. We think we should be back to the level on stock price before the exclusion from MSCI index happened there. Those are the key milestones we are looking at, and those milestones would come based on the internal target or north star for each of the operating company, which is basically linked to the return on invested capital being higher than cost of capital. We have two of our assets delivering that. Others are on the trajectory to get that. The last bit is really around the synergies which we still see us capturing from the two assets in Malaysia as well as in Indonesia.
Okay. Thank you, Vivek. I hope that answers your question, Wong. Let me just check if there are any follow-up questions. Doesn't seem to be.
Nothing.
Okay. If there are no further questions on the chat box as well as online, then we should move on to closing remarks. Essentially, this will be the last analyst engagement as Axiata CEO for Vivek today before he hands over the reins to Nik on 1st of June. In closing, perhaps, Vivek, you would like to add some closing remarks?
Thank you. First of all, thanks for having this patient hearing every quarter. I've met some of you during the course of my being the CFO here as well as the CEO. Formally, we will reach out as things progress with Axiata going forward. Having said that, I think the last three years for me as a Group CEO has been interesting. I think we've really taken fair important step in bringing the financial condition of the company much stronger. Market consolidation, I think long term, is going to be valuable as we start seeing our market position getting stronger, as well as ensuring that the balance sheets are strong for us to ensure we can look at new opportunities as and when they arrive.
I'm looking forward to further success of Axiata from where we've been able to put now the company into a better position. With Nik taking over, I think there's no lack of familiarity on what Axiata's strategy has been and what Axiata needs to do going forward. I think that provides somewhat steady way forward for Axiata based on what we've delivered. I think I look forward to the delivery of Axiata28 as the strategy we laid out with the investors early this year. Thank you once again for being patient, listening to our quarterly calls. Thank you.
Thank you, Vivek. Yeah.
Oh, [inaudible].
Yeah, maybe I'll just finish off by, firstly, I just also want to take this opportunity to thank Vivek for all his guidance and also to the board for the confidence and trust put in me to then take over from Vivek and lead this company. Just want to reiterate what Vivek mentioned. I think we do believe that we have a very solid and robust strategy, which we had gone out and basically explained to all of you during our Axiata Investor Day. As far as me coming in on the 1st of June, nothing changes from a strategy point of view. I will provide the continuity.
We will continue to execute the strategy that we have, albeit that we will periodically, we always review our strategy, especially with regards to certain events which is out of our control that will necessitate for us to continuously be agile and nimble in terms of how do we tweak our strategy going forward. That said, by and large, as I said, we do have a robust and good strategy, and we are now in the execution mode. I also want to take this opportunity to also introduce Komathi Balakrishnan. As you would have seen in the announcement yesterday, Komathi will be assuming the role of acting Group CFO from the 1st of June going forward. With that, I look forward to continuing to work with you. Yeah, wishing you the good rest of the day, and those celebrating, Selamat Hari Raya Haji. That's tomorrow, I believe.
Yeah, take care and be safe.
Okay. Thank you, Vivek. Thank you, Nik. This concludes our call today. Thank you very much for your participation.
Thank you.
Thank you.