So let me with that start with our financial highlights. So, as you can see, starting with total revenue and service revenue, and of course I'll focus on service revenue. We are flat year to date. We are down quarter- on- quarter. The reason we are down quarter- on- quarter is Ensign, our cybersecurity business, which has revenue recognition timing associated with it. So while it fell short in Q3, we expect those revenues to come in strongly in Q4 and stay on forecast for the full year. So at this point, as a note, when you look at our service revenue, irrespective of those timing issues around Ensign revenue coming in, which has created the downdraft in Q3 year- on- year, we expect that to come back, and we expect no change to our full year forecast, which has year- on- year growth.
Now, moving on to service EBITDA, we see good growth in EBITDA, as you can see from these numbers here. That's driven by growth in our high margin enterprise segments, which we'll talk about later, as well as cost and OpEx efficiencies that we have been driving. Now, zooming in on the bottom right side, you know, as usual, as you have seen with us, in many prior quarters, our net profit growth exceeds our EBITDA growth. It's the same reason as we've talked about before. We are driving CapEx to OpEx substitution across the business, as we use shared cost structures like Antina, and as we migrate our On-Prem systems to cloud and SaaS-based systems, which are more OpEx oriented. This is, of course, something that generates superior ROI for us. It's reflected in lower depreciation.
And we cross correlate that against our strong free cash flow, which, as you know, historically, over the past many quarters and continues to run, at about 50% higher than our net profit, you know, providing good buffer, for our dividend, obligations and to fund our growth. Now, staying on the subject of free cash flow, we continue to reduce our leverage with our strong free cash flow, and our net debt to EBITDA is now 1.25x. This, as I always say every quarter, gives us strong firepower. We use that firepower to aggressively drive our multi-market segmentation in the consumer business, to aggressively scale our enterprise business, and to make acquisitions. We are always asked the perpetual question around domestic consolidation, and we remain open.
But we also want to increase the scale of our regional enterprise business, which is growing well, and has strong customer traction around modern digital infrastructure. So we want to deploy some acquisition dollars to scale that business. Now, moving to the next page on segment revenue, which is quite interesting, starting with Mobile. So, our Mobile revenue declined 5% on a year-on-year basis and 6.5% on a year-on-year basis, looking at Q3. However, when you look at our quarter-on-quarter revenue attrition, we were actually down to about 0.8%. I'd like to draw a little bit of a comparative, if you will permit me. So we were down 0.8% on Mobile service revenue quarter-on-quarter.
This compares to the third operator, where we saw consumer revenues decline by 6% quarter- on- quarter, and the leading operator, which announced this morning where we know, where we noticed that mobile service revenues declined 4% quarter- on- quarter, so we're quite happy with this 0.8% contraction because it shows that we are close to flatlining revenue attrition on the Mobile side, certainly versus our competitors, and we did this by aggressively competing, and in fact, we added 55,000 subs in the third quarter over the second quarter. Most of the revenue impact for that has not yet come through. Some of it has resulted in this, in this modest contraction quarter- on- quarter, but the revenue effects will start coming through next quarter onwards in full, now the strategy that we're adopting in mobile is multi-brand, multi-market segmentation.
We see the market, as Johan will talk about, divided into Premium, Digital, and Value, and we're aggressively competing in all segments, and growing our revenue market share. Talking about revenue market share, we are a strong number two in terms of service revenue market share, and our lead over that number three operator has widened to about 520 basis points, we believe. Now, moving on to Broadband, we were actually able to grow year- on- year for the quarter, but again, looking at the quarter- on- quarter numbers, we grew 2.8%. Now again, drawing the comparative, we grew 2.8%. The number one operator we noticed was flat, and we believe the number three operator declined actually about 3%. Now, how did we do this? As we've talked about, we aggressively drove penetration of our Ultra Speed and high- speed plans.
In fact, we've doubled the number of subs that we have on high- speed and Ultra Speed plans, since from this time last year. The percentage of our base that we have on Ultra Speed plans and high- speed plans is actually quite significant and growing rapidly, leading to our ARPU increase, and superior economics for us. Entertainment declined quarter- on- quarter and year- on- year, and we'll talk about that some more. I'd like to focus on Enterprise, which performed strongly. Overall year- on- year, Enterprise grew. The impact of that was a little bit muted by Q3 for our Cybersecurity Business, Ensign , where revenues did not come in for Q3, but will be coming in in Q4 very strongly. As I said, we reiterate our full year forecast for that business and for our business as a whole.
Now, when you look at other segments of our Enterprise business, they grew strongly. Network Solutions grew 9.4% year- on- year, and within that, as Kit Yong will go through, we grew our Managed Services Business by about 25% year- on- year. Our Regional ICT Business grew 29% year- on- year, and as we have talked about, we are going to be integrating that business into our Enterprise business in Singapore so we can drive modern digital infrastructure, which is a driver of our growth in a way that's unique and platform based around hybrid multi-cloud and ubiquitous connectivity. We are doing this in Singapore, and we're going to be doing it in the region, so with that, I will pass on.
I always say our esteemed CFO and welcome Jacky to his first earnings call with us, but certainly not his first earnings call as a, as a seasoned practitioner. So over to you, Jacky.
All right. Thank you, Nikhil. Good day, everyone. I see some familiar faces, as well as some new friends on the line, and I'm excited to get to know each of you better in the coming quarters, and I look forward to sharing our latest updates and discussing our company's progress with you. So before I go into detail, just a reminder that the numbers on this slide, they all exclude D'Crypt as the divestment was completed on February 29th this year. So overall, we are reiterating our full year 2024 guidance. So against the guidance of Service revenue of 1%-3%, we ended nine months 2024 flat year- on- year, mainly due to the timing of recurring revenue recognition of our cybersecurity segment, which Nikhil mentioned, but we expect full year revenue to be in line with expectations.
And for Service EBITDA margin, it's slightly above expectation at 22.6%, up 0.9 percentage points year- on- year for the nine months 2024 period. And for the full year, we reiterate our earlier guidance of 22%. On CapEx commitments, which tend to be relatively higher in the second half of the year, is within expectations at 7.1%, including investment. And we have earlier declared SGD 0.03 as interim dividends in August. And at this juncture, this remains unchanged. We reiterate our earlier guidance of SGD 0.06 for the full year, and we remain committed to our dividend policy, which is at least 80% of our net profit after tax, excluding one-off non-recurring items. Next page, please. So some quick callouts on slide seven. So Nikhil has given you an overview on headline numbers, so I won't repeat those numbers.
So if you look at EBITDA for the quarter, it was SGD 114.6 million. For nine months 2024, it was SGD 341.2 million. So overall, EBITDA is up both year- on- year and on a year-to-date basis. Net profit after tax remains strong. We closed the quarter 11% higher year- on- year at SGD 40.4 million. For nine months 2024, we are up 9.5% at SGD 123.7 million. This represents roughly SGD 0.07 on an EPS basis. On free cash flow for nine months 2024, it is at SGD 167.2 or about SGD 0.0907 per share. Our leverage remains low at 1.25x, putting us on solid ground for financial flexibility. With that, Johan will take you through the Consumer business highlights. Johan, over to you.
Thank you, Jacky. But now I am no longer mute. Let's do that again. Good afternoon and evening, everyone.
Let me take you through, sort of the Consumer highlights. Quite a few things have been covered by Nikhil, so I'll browse through and give you a bit more, context and flavor to some more important strategic elements to that. So let's move. Next slide. So Mobile up or flat, which I think in this market is a great achievement. Apple is holding well. Sub base is up 63k, also alluded to by Nikhil on the back of strong growth in MVNOs. So that's really a great performance. Monthly churn rate, we kept that low at 1.1%. So in the light of the current market context, that's a great achievement too. Prepaid ARPU flat, Prepaid ARPU base marginally down as we move more and more to SIM-only and segment revenue, Nikhil related to. More interesting is actually the next page.
So the next page shows you that we have been quite aggressively and diligently, I would say, deploying a multi-brand strategy. And we are emphasizing in each of those categories of competitiveness. So Premium segment is all about bundling on the StarHub brand. Digital is driven by our giga! brand, which has been doing well. And then on the low cost, we have stepped up, and that's where a lot of our growth is coming from. It's not only connection, we actually also do additional elements to make sure that we differentiate. So we're taking a very active eSIM adoption strategy. We're embracing the migration to SIM-only across all segments where relevant, but we do not lose focus on things like device. We saw a really great iPhone launch in the last quarter, which continues to help us to differentiate also in tariff plans with device.
We're actively addressing cybersecurity concerns consumers have by offering, where we can, applicable cybersecurity solutions from us, which we see significant uptake. In fact, that's part of a vertical, which we call internally T2, and you see it highlighted here on the slide in green. Actually, we crossed the 5% contribution of Mobile revenue from that vertical. That's giving you a strong indication of how that is moving. Of course, we continue to focus on the shift to Digital. Moving to Broadband, we really had a very good quarter in Broadband. We basically grew ARPU, we grew subs, and on the back of that, we basically saw good uptake and uptake in revenue. Now, a lot of that is driven by a very proactive approach driving higher speed tariff plans. We call them internally and in the market; they're known as Ultra Speed.
So anything which is higher than 3 Gbps. And we see a very significant uptake of customers on those plans, which is good for customers and also for our ARPU. Churn remained low, 0.8%, slightly up compared to the previous quarter, but we believe in the market that's a great achievement and we continue to focus on that. And of course, Broadband, as you will see later on, we never look at Broadband individually. We combine Broadband in most of the cases with bundling of Entertainment and other services. So let's move there, because the revenue numbers Nikhil referred to. Entertainment, on its own, up or down slightly and a steady decrease, I have to say, from consumers on the back of a continuous process of cost cutting.
But we manage profitability of this particular line of business very carefully, and I'm very pleased to say that we manage the cost in tandem. So our profitability remains steady and good. The churn is slightly higher. No reason for alarm. There is a bit of an effect of OTT churn flowing through on that, but all in all, we're very pleased with the performance in that particular category as well. Now, as I mentioned, as we move to the next page, we look at Broadband and Entertainment often in tandem, and I would like to use the opportunity just to highlight the reason for that. Often broadband people in the business refer to as a connectivity, utility commodity service. Therefore, it's very important to differentiate. So we do that on two angles, two angles. Number one is Broadband itself.
We were the first mover to XGS-PON network, which we're very proud of, and I think it's paying off in the performance. We see a very strong adoption, and that also positions us very well for the upcoming government grants, which have been communicated to the market. Now, in broadband, we differentiate on service. I mean, we have a very skilled force of what we call Hub Troopers, ensuring that we do a great installation and also follow-up service where needed, and we bundle hardware as well as IoT on the back of that, so as a customer, you don't only buy a Broadband product, you actually are ensured of great service and support all along, and then we differentiate on the back of Entertainment, and in Entertainment itself, we have taken three years ago a diligent approach to focus on Entertainment, which matters for customers.
We all know about piracy of mainstream entertainment, but there is definitely a segment in the market which is willing to pay for premium content, which we see today, and we're pleased actually that we have progressively been expanding our Entertainment product portfolio in sports. We added FA Cup for this season, and we do see a constant and strong uptake on subscriber base, both for Premier League as well as for sports in general, and that helps us to differentiate as well, and obviously, not only is the churn lower of bundled, triple play customers, as we call them here, churn is eight times lower than standalone, which pays off as well, but on top of that, customers have a significantly higher ARPU. So that's important to make sure that we stand apart from the rest of the market.
And on that note, I'll hand you over to Kit Yong for Enterprise update. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Right. For Enterprise itself, see the camera on. Right. For Enterprise itself, if you can see that, overall year on year, we are having a growth of 5.4%, but quarter to quarter, you can see a decline of 3.1%. Now, let's break down into where the growth areas and where causing the revenue to come down. Right. First, for Network Solution itself, we are holding our Data and Network business, reducing churn, and we're growing our Managed Services itself. So we are able to expand our client base to strategic partnership with our partners, technology partners. We are going into competitive mode, taking over the install base of our incumbents. There is a different technology provider. So we are getting market share by offsetting the existing incumbents in our managed services.
We are also going into our value-added managed services as an inclusion to differentiate ourselves from a traditional SI or pure telco play. So we're increasingly seeing the differentiation and clients are getting to see the value. We need to continue to get more clients as a reference. And only when using our services, then they can differentiate and share with others, so-called colleagues or friends, right, in the same industry to share the advantage of using StarHub Enterprise services itself. Now, come to Cybersecurity services. All right. So you can see it's a quarter to quarter, there's a decline because of project timing, right? But from a year on year itself, it's still on the growth trend, right? Now, if I move into the regional ICT services, right, it is on the growth trend from quarter to quarter, right?
And year- on- year is on the growth, right? But having said that, we are also looking at the fact that there's a lower higher hardware sales, but then the team is working on towards the managed services where there's higher value and higher margins, right? And start to pivot our position from a hardware resale to a more value-added service provider in the markets that we operate. Now, next. So scale our Enterprise business in the region, right? So how we're going to do this differently here is not a traditional SI mode, nor a pure cloud native managed service provider, but combining both together with our unique connectivity solutions that we now call Ubiquitous Network, that is backed by our Hybrid Multi-Cloud architecture.
So that's created a very unique value proposition where we can partner with all hyperscalers and we can help them to build On-Prem private clouds. And the last mode, connectivity to the edge and collect, and once we extend to the edge, we collect data that they never had and introduce digital services, right, through the application modernization and with the data that we have and we collect at the edge, create new possibilities in data and AI use cases. And then with our new integration of our Omni Channel platform, they're coming together, right? So create a better client experience. So that's what we've been busy building this modern digital infrastructure powered by our three C's and also part of the Cloud Infinity rollout as a base infrastructure for us to do this.
Now, as we look at the use case that we have, not on a concept of a technology, but actual use case like JTC, you know that it's coming to a completion. It's going to build its TOP end of this year. We are all busy fitting things up. We're going to build new use cases after we deploy the network that is data driven. During our Analyst and Tech Day, we have the Moove Media CEO to share with most of you or some of you how they use our data and buy through collaboration, use our data AI capabilities to help them to grow their business through the data. Right.
And then we have SBS Transit, right, that did a design thinking workshop with us to co-create a use case that is to improve passenger experience during train disruption using our modern digital infrastructure capabilities to deliver the services and the infrastructure capabilities to solve a business problem. And one of them, we cannot state the client name because it's still work in progress with the client before we can declare anything. It's a smart retail platform, again, leveraged on the data that we have and leveraged on our services capabilities, improving analytics, even introducing Gen AI as one of the use cases. And you will see soon in the next few months where the industry will start to spread the news of our capabilities in embracing and delivering a use case on emerging technologies like Gen AI. Right. With that, move on to the next slide.
Let me hand over the key priorities that we are facing to Nikhil. Thank you.
Yeah. So we, you know, we always get.
Yeah. So we always get the question on DARE+ expenses, and it's a very good question and very important. So I'm pleased to announce that we are on schedule to complete our DARE+ build. And by virtue of that, we are also on schedule to finish off our DARE+ spend. So by the end of the year, we will have, as we have told you in the past, SGD 27 million of spend left, out of the SGD 270 million, flowing into 2025, which should be spent in the first half of 2025. And that has remained unchanged, and that's something that we'd like to reiterate. So that's something that you can factor in as you look at our outlook. Next page, please.
And then, to reiterate our priorities, we talked about our Consumer business and, through multi-brand, multi-market segmentation, which we're driving very aggressively. As you saw, our quarter-on-quarter trend lines are significantly superior to the market. Our focus is on retaining our revenue and potentially even growing in time. We believe, in terms of retention, we're quite close to that point, as we drive the offsets with multi-brand, multi-market segmentation. We are also focused on cross-sell and upsell, because very soon we will have our data lake and our IT transformation completed. And that'll allow us to do interesting things across the range of our Infinity Play product, which are not really available to the industry. The second thing that we want to do with our consumer business, or rather the third, is to, through our IT transformation and our cloud transformation, increasingly automate.
That journey has, of course, already started with platforms already on our cloud stack, and as we complete the cloud transformation, we will be increasingly automating to reduce cost, as we drive this multi-brand, multi-market segmentation, you know, model of a common platform. You heard from Kit Yong around modern digital enterprise, which brings together hyperscale capabilities, ubiquitous connectivity with core tech and tools with ourselves as the primary consumer, and then we make that available to our government and enterprise customers on a multi-tenant basis, and we are going to be driving this. We have been driving this hard. We're going to be amping this up even more, both in Singapore as well as regionally, as a regionally integrated enterprise business.
We've been talking a lot about our IT and network transformation that will drive automation, will drive scalability, that will drive new levels of observability, down to the very end point, in a way that is a little bit of a different paradigm from what is in the industry to date. And that journey will again be complete, you know, quite soon. Now, with all of that, we're incredibly focused on driving total shareholder return for our shareholders. One piece of it is, of course, completing our DARE+ transformation spend on budget and on time, which, as I've communicated and reiterated, we will. That allows us to harvest cost efficiencies in our Consumer business by digital engagement, but also digital efficiencies at the middle and the back end and automation at the core. On Enterprise, we've talked about this many times. We are not driving an SI model.
We are driving a more high margin scalable model in our Enterprise business that brings together, as we talked about, hyperscale capabilities, ubiquitous connectivity, with, you know, with things like applications modernization, et cetera, so by virtue of that, it's a more scalable high margin model, and certainly not SI or ICT, and that we will be driving harder to generate returns for our shareholders, and then, of course, M&A. M&A, we will look to do, and we will look to do it in an accretive manner that is protective of our dividend and our dividend trajectory. On the one hand, we are open to consolidation. On the other hand, we are very, very keenly focused on growing our regional enterprise business, not just organically, but inorganically by acquiring capabilities, but also expanding our footprint to other Southeast Asian markets, and then last but not least, prudent capital management.
We will maintain a healthy cash position and our commitment to our dividends, irrespective. One of the things that we've all been calling out is the impending 700 MHz spectrum, which will be awarded, and our payments in that regard. To reiterate, we will be maintaining a strong cash position, very strong leverage position, funding firepower and our commitment to dividends despite. We are to the second point is sort of similar to my first, which is, we're very focused on paying the dividend, and driving total shareholder return. Then as we look to allocate our capital, organic is important. We will aggressively compete, but in an accretive manner, as we've done so far. We continue our commitment to dividends and other capital return strategies, and we will continue to do accretive M&A. With that, I would like to culminate and pass this back on to Amelia.
Thank you, Nikhil. We'll now move on to Q&As. The only request that I'll make today is that because of the technical issues, I will have to mute and unmute my audio, so then it will be like a walkie-talkie system, so, you know, as usual, if you have any questions, please raise your hand and then I'll call upon your name and you can converse in a conversation with management. Okay, first up, we have Sachin.
Hi, thank you, and congratulations on a good set of numbers, actually. Two questions. I mean, thank you. First of all, I think, I really acknowledge that you have disclosed the transformation CapEx and OpEx. Just a little bit more color, how much of that SGD 52 million has been done in the nine months or anything you can disclose by 3Q. That's question number one. Now, secondly, I noticed that your Mobile metrics are much better than your peers, you know. I can clearly see that you have gained subscribers in the postpaid without ARPU dilution, which is quite surprising to me because when I look at your peers, I think both of them are struggling, so you know, could you tell us is it sustainable, and I saw that maybe the related question is, I saw that 5% of your Mobile revenue is from new services.
So could you throw some light here, you know, is there any target? What are these new services and is there any target for you to take these 5% to, I don't know, 10%, 15% in what time frame and what are the margins on these services? Yeah, I mean, these three simple questions. Thank you.
Thanks, Sachin. Let's have Jacky answer the first question for transformation.
Actually, before you do that, I'd just like to be a little bit cheeky and welcome Sachin back to this call. I think you missed the last one, Sachin, so it's good to see you on top of the roster, and also, we'd also, on behalf of StarHub, like to wish you a happy birthday.
Happy birthday.
Happy birthday, Sachin.
Yeah.
But with that, I'll pass on to Jacky.
Yeah.
I just want to make sure that the question is on DARE+ or?
Yeah, DARE+ transformation.
Yeah.
He was asking how much of the SGD 52 million was already spent in the nine months.
Oh, yeah. I'm working through this audio on. I should, I should unmute, right?
You should unmute.
Yeah.
I'm hearing echo.
Oh, okay.
Anyway. Yeah. So, I think, as mentioned, we are actually not changing the guidance. We are targeting for the whole project about SGD 270 million, and we expect to spend about SGD 90 million by, like, through the end of this year. And roughly, I think we have spent, I think on track, if you look at the SGD 52 million; it's basically paid out throughout the year. So Q4, there will be a portion coming in, roughly about SGD 10 million-SGD 15 million. Yeah.
Okay. That's great. Thank you.
And then, let's have Johan on the second question around Mobile and the new verticals, please.
Now I'll unmute myself and here we go. So thanks very much for the question. Two parts to the question. Number one is the performance of Mobile. And, thank you very much for appreciating and noticing the performance, compared to competition in the markets. So, no ARPU decline. I agree. We're particularly proud of that as well. The main reason for that is I think that the team has done a very, very solid job in terms of segmenting the markets and having a very segmented approach. And unfortunately, I wish I could give you more details behind some of the logic, but I would giving away a secret sauce, which I can't do, obviously. But we even saw on some of the underlying segments, marginal, marginal ARPU growth on some of the things the team has done related to pricing and inclusion. Whether that's sustainable, time will tell.
We are definitely having, I would say, a very well-calibrated set of initiatives lined up for the next 12 months, not only to continue to grow market share, in the various segments, but also to monetize in the right way, and obviously that will be subject to competitive pressure in the market as we go forward, but we have our plans, so that's number one. Number two, and that's an even more interesting topic, the 5% ratio in terms of new revenue. We believe that we always have believed that for the last sort of 24 months, as we have been preparing for that, that there is quite a significant opportunity, and to untap that opportunity, we need to have basically two things in place.
And one is linked to the DARE+ transformation, which is the—what we call the ITX program—is the user journey, which in the past used to be pretty clunky and a little bit slower than I would like it to be, but we're definitely speeding up on that. That journey has been improving. That's number one. And number two is the product range, which we're offering. So there's one in particular interesting driver, which is related to Cybersecurity, which we started to offer as an add-on and bundling, and we see significant uptake. And we do have a calibrated roadmap going forward to expand also that and bring, I would say, differentiated services to consumers, which really, really matter. So, we are hopeful and very determined to make that grow further as part of our total portfolio.
And then in the back of that, we also have things like gaming, which is ramping up. So yeah, I would say stay tuned in this particular segment. Thank you very much.
So can I say that Cybersecurity forms the bulk of that new services in the Mobile? Is it Cybersecurity as a bulk of that?
Yes. Yes, Sachin. That's totally correct.
Okay. Okay. All the best to you. I think this is a very commendable performance, Johan and Nikhil. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Sachin. Next up, we have Arthur. Arthur, please unmute yourself.
Oh, sorry, I was on mute. Arthur, please unmute yourself.
Hi, good afternoon. Hi. Yeah, three questions, please. Firstly, on Mobile, how do you see competition here evolving? Are you seeing increased inroads by the fourth player? Is there escalation on Mobile and Broadband? I'm just wondering, is the softness in revenues driven by competition, or is this mainly owing to migration to SIM-only plans? Second question I had is with regard to the 700 band spectrum. What are the plans for this? When do you take delivery and payment? And last question is with regard to Nikhil's earlier comments on consolidation. Just wanted to be a bit clearer in this. Does this pertain mainly to Enterprise, or are you still open to possible Mobile consolidation? Thank you.
Thanks, Arthur. Let's have Johan answer the first question on Mobile first.
So, to the question, Arthur, around Mobile softness, if I may use your words, obviously there isn't a very lively competition in the market going on. We deliberately timed some of the initiatives in the MVNO space the way we've done. A lot of those initiatives resulted not in a full quarter impact, so what you will see going forward is that that's going to ramp up fast and furious, and that's in a way the explanation for a slight softness in that sort of respect for this particular quarter because we didn't harvest the full quarter on the back of that, and the flywheel only started to turn in the second part of the quarter. The other thing which I think we're doing well in relation to that is to defend the device customer base. No doubt there is pressure on that.
But we had one of our best iPhone launches actually, ever. And that's again, kudos to the team in terms of execution, positioning, and branding, and also in relation to pricing. So yes, there is temporary softness from what we see, and an opportunity on the other side. And back again to also Sachin's point, the rest is subject to how the market will evolve. It will remain competitive, no doubt. But we'll compete in each segment with the right tools, and we'll ensure that we deliver a good experience, very solid experience in each segment. And by the way, which I didn't mention, also last quarter, we actually started really on giga! 5G. And again, that's, you know, I'm giving a bit away, a bit more information that's helpful in terms of ARPU, and also customer perception and NPS.
So there's a lot of things going on, but we're on it. Thank you.
Thanks, Johan. We'll now have Nikhil answer the next two questions on the 700 MHz upgrade plans and consolidation.
Yeah, thank you, Arthur. Great to chat with you. Thanks for joining us. So on 700 MHz, you know, as far as timing, I guess you've seen the two barbells, right? You've seen, I believe, Singtel announce that they will be looking to take receipt of the new bands and look to launch services quite early in the year. And on the other end of the barbell, you have probably heard from the, you know, from the Keppel announcement that they will be doing the same, but really on a much more back-ended timeframe, but no later than July 1st, right? Which is kind of the regulatory requirement. So I would say we, our intent, I don't want to really disclose when we're launching the services on the back of 700 MHz.
But needless to say, we're sort of in between those two barbells, to what extreme, I won't say. The other thing to keep in mind is obviously that, you know, we operate 5G through Antina. And there's an element of close cooperation with M1 in that regard. Now, on consolidation, again, I'll say, you know, we are of course quite laser focused, laser focused on expanding our regional enterprise footprint, and our capability set to drive modern digital infrastructure. But we are also highly interested and continue to be interested in consolidation. As I always said, it's healthy for the market. It's resulted in strong synergistic outcomes in multiple other markets around us.
We believe we're well positioned, as an acquirer, you know, from a market share standpoint where big enough for it to be matter, but where, you know, regulatorily, I guess, able to do material acquisitions. We have strong firepower. We have strong funding capability. We have low leverage. We've done acquisitions. You know, I think we are quite pleased with our operating performance and the traction of our transformation. So we're kind of here and ready, enable, but we can't really speculate, or we can't really comment on market speculation. And we can't really talk about the details or timing of any potential consolidation at this point. So stay tuned.
Understood. Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Arthur. Next up, we have Paul.
Yeah. Thanks, thanks again for the presentation. Just a few for me. On the 700 MHz, could you just remind us again the amount payable and the, you mentioned there were services on top of the 700 MHz. I thought 700 MHz would just give you some extra bandwidth, which I'm not sure you actually need it, but anyway, yeah, just some elaboration on that. The second question is on the subscriber growth for mobile. I just wanted to confirm, where is it called? It's, is it from Premium, giga!, or do you actually include MVNO in it, which I don't think you do, but I just wanted to clarify on that. And the last one would be regarding DARE+. So you mentioned harvesting cost efficiency. So did we see that this year? Because the first two years you really spent almost SGD 200 million.
Related to that, so just some housekeeping. Third quarter 2023 EBITDA margins were unusually low because it is below, I think like 19%. So was there any particular reasons why? Just some housekeeping there? Thanks again for taking all my questions.
Hey, thanks, Paul. Maybe let's have Nikhil continue the 700 MHz topic.
Yeah. Yeah. So Paul, the price for the 700 MHz spectrum was roughly about SGD 90 million per band. And you know, in the 2018, 2019 auctions, you know, we won three bands. Now in terms of capabilities, you know, and value creation out of the 700, business cases are obviously being built. Needless to say, it will improve the coverage experience and particularly in-building coverage experience and consumer experience. There may be also some things that we can do in our Enterprise business, which are meaningful, of course, because you know, we talked about the fact that we're pushing into ubiquitous connectivity, running our network of hybrid multi-cloud. And that really brings 5G together with fiber broadband, together with optical networking in a way that customers are frankly indifferent.
700 MHz can be an interesting part of that, particularly as we drive into smart city environments. But that work process is underway, clearly with some lag, as we, as usual, you know, some time required. We're looking to optimize our position on the 700, in terms of, you know, the number of bands, et cetera. And we're looking to optimize, you know, aspects such as, you know, the way in which we roll out, the timing of such rollout, and, you know, trying to get some value creation out of the 700 in time.
Paul, before we move on, do you have more questions around the 700?
Yeah, just one. I'll start to keep us talking about this topic anyway, but what, how was the amortization like? Because although it won't impact your EBITDA, but you know, do you have a dividend payout up to eight, sorry, up to 80, I mean, 80%? So I'm just wondering how would that kind of impact your net profit? And of course, ultimately could also impact your dividends. Yeah, thanks.
Sure. Nikhil, please.
Yeah, yeah, you know, it's a bit premature to comment on our 2025 guidance, but let me give you a few key principles. Number one, of course, we're committed to our dividend payout. So I will reiterate that, in terms of 2024 as well as 2025 in terms of our policy, and we're committed to, you know, total shareholder return and, you know, keeping our dividends in place. Beyond that, I can't really say anymore, other than to, you know, wait for February 2025, where we'll release our formal guidance, but rest assured, we're focused on maintaining our dividend.
This one, just the last one for which I will be silent on, but just on the amortization period, like, how long is the amortization period for the?
It's 15 years, but a little bit subject to the date of award. And the date of award is no later than July 1st.
Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Nikhil.
Sorry.
Okay, and then let's have Johan address the question on Mobile subs.
Yes. So Paul, thanks for that question. Maybe first clarify, we've always reported MVNO numbers as part of the Mobile numbers, so they always have been there. So that's a definition clarification. Second part of your question was where exactly is the growth coming from? And obviously the growth is across all segments, primarily on the MVNO and digital side. So hopefully that's answering your question to satisfaction.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay. Jacky, on the DARE+ cost efficiencies and comments on margins?
Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, so I think DARE+, we're going to gradually realize the benefit from that. But as you know, like, a lot of that will be like decommissioning some of the legacy systems, which is going to take time to phase out, and so the benefit will gradually come throughout 2025 and 2026, but it's going to be like a step process.
Okay. So I see legacy, you are running both systems. So that's why you have a duplicate cost. Is it? Want me to understand it?
Yeah, that's right. That's going to be some time for overlapping because of migration, et cetera. And so it's going to take some time to decommission the legacy system. Exactly right. So we're going to run some of the systems in parallel and, but we'll gradually decommission the legacy system.
Okay. Yeah. Thanks again, for taking all my questions.
Yeah. To add on, Paul, I think you asked about, you know, the margin improvements to date, and versus last quarter. So I think as you heard from Jacky, the DARE+ efficiencies haven't really come in yet. So the margin efficiencies that you're seeing are from other areas.
Okay. Yeah. Sure. Thanks. Yeah. Just that the third quarter of last year was unusually low. I mean, I should remember this, but I just thought, was there any particular reason? Yeah.
No, nothing in particular.
Okay. Okay. Sure. Thanks.
Just ongoing efficiencies.
Okay. Yeah. Thank you.
Thanks, Paul. Just as a reminder, you know, just raise your digital hand and we'll get to your question. I don't think we have anyone in the queue right now. Oh, okay. Michael, please.
Hi. Thanks. Thanks for having the call. Just two questions for me. So basically, it's more of, first off, can you just remind us of what's your current cost of financing? And secondly, because now we've come close to the end of DARE+ and with the expenses, like Nikhil mentioned, it's going to most likely be expensive to the first half. So can I also just get a bit more of an update on the benefit realizations that we've had to date and what we should expect for the upcoming year in terms of these realizations? Thank you.
Thank you. Nikhil, would you like to address the second question first?
Yeah. So, as you point out, Michael, we're on course with our DARE+ spend to tail off within the first half, and there's only SGD 27 million left for next year. The second point that I'd like to reiterate is the efficiencies that we've achieved so far are not really associated with the DARE+ efficiencies, or if they are the early DARE+ efficiencies, not really the bulk of it coming through. As Jacky pointed out, those will start to come in in the second half of 2025, progressively into 2026. I can't really at this point point to numerical impacts, unless my CFO would like to, but we'll save that for, you know, our 2025 guidance. And we'll give you a directional sense at that point.
Okay. And, Jacky, for the question around cost of financing.
Yeah. Michael, on the cost of financing, we never really disclosed the exact number. But if you look at our debt profile, I think about 90% is actually fixed interest rate. And we actually entered into the debt arrangement, I think when the real interest rate was relatively lower, compared to the current day's interest rate. So that will give you an idea of what's our cost of financing at this point.
Michael, I hope that answers your questions.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Do we have more questions from the phone?
Hi, Amelia, can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you, Neel.
Yeah. Sorry. For some reason, I can't seem to find my raise hand function on the screen. Nikhil, I'm just going to repeat a question that Arthur asked. Between the two, I mean, you've got the balance sheet, but between the two operators, what would be more attractive for StarHub in a consolidation scenario? I mean, do you want subscribers or do you just want to get the spectrum, I suppose? That's.
By two operators, you mean, SIMBA and M1?
Yeah. I'm leaving Singtel out of this, right? It's Panda or SIMBA, whatever they call themselves, and M1.
Yeah. You know, I may have to take the fifth on this, if you don't mind. You know, the various pros and cons, and, you know, scale as a function. I don't think spectrum is a function, by the way, as much as scale, cost efficiencies, but the other lens I would look at, other than scale and cost efficiencies, is also multi-market segmentation. And as I said, you know, we look at the market as divided between premium, which is Singtel and ourselves, digital, which is Circles, GOMO, and giga!, and Value, which is where SIMBA is a leader, but we have made great strides, so those are the three lens I would look at it at, you know, scale, cost and CapEx efficiencies, and multi-market segmentation, but beyond that, Neel, if you don't mind, I'll take the fifth on this one.
Yeah. I understand, I understand it's conjecture and it's probably stuff that, you know, all three of you all are working on. If I can have a quick follow-up, well, I mean, what I've heard in the market is that Circles has its own sort of pathway, right? And doesn't want to be, is, is that true or that's just something I've heard in the market? And I'm trying to figure out Circles is, yeah, it's, it's an attractive asset in M1's portfolio. So, or you're going to take a fifth on this as well?
I can't really comment on Circles. I think you make a correct point that, at least based, I mean, at least based on the data that we have, yes, Circles is, I believe, a significant portion of M1's portfolio, as measured in, you know, sort of almost any respect. But beyond that, beyond that acknowledgement of your statement, yes, I'm going to have to take the fifth on this as well.
All right. Thank you, Nikhil. Sorry, I sort of suspected that you couldn't probably give great answers on these questions. The results stuff is very strange.
Full marks for trying, Neel. No, you know, no bias, so.
All right. Thank you.
Thanks, Neel.
But you know what, I guess what I would say is I'm, you know, against a shifting M&A landscape. I personally am quite pleased with our situation. You know, I believe we're the only acquirer.
No, I am too. Trust me. Like I used to cover execution markets like Hong Kong and Taipei ages ago, and there used to be like six, seven operators back then.
[crosstalk] in the competitive marketplace. So whichever way the market landscape shifts, you know, I'm feeling pretty confident that we can play this to the right outcome. And as you've surmised, we have choices, right? So.
Agree. As I said, I used to cover Taiwan and Hong Kong years ago, and there were six, seven players, and consolidation was the best thing that ever happened in those markets.
Yeah. It always happens, right? It's not a question of when.
I'm sure at my age.
[crosstalk]
Yeah. It's 20 years ago. So, all right. Thank you, Nikhil.
Thanks, Neel. I see Sachin has his hands up.
Yeah. Actually, since we have time, I think we should utilize, you know, your, your Nikhil's time also. And just to, if you, we have this SGD 80 million, you know, in savings. I remember when we started the transformation program, we talked about that SGD 80 million savings from that program. So could you, could you just give a reminders a little bit on that SGD 80 million savings? Anything has been saved so far? How much is the room from here on? And will it be just cost savings or it is a combination of higher revenue and, you know, and the cost savings? You know, if you could just, go back to that, when we started the transformation program, the original thesis of SGD 80 million, benefits to the earnings, right? I think that's where we started. So if you can a little bit, are we on track for that?
And is there any deviation and in what form? Revenue and cost savings. Yeah.
Yeah. So Sachin, just to be clear, we, yes, we did, guide as the outcome of our DARE+ program to have an incremental net profit after tax of SGD 80 million on top of our 2025 net income, which I believe was, SGD 145 million, right? So SGD 225 million or so. So I would say at this point, there is no change to that. In terms of how that breaks up into revenue and cost and all of this, you know, those are things that continue to evolve. And with the full year behind us and as we remap our plans against the landscape, both competition as well as opportunities, you know, we'll obviously be, you know, taking another look at those numbers to see how we can meet that SGD 80 million, incremental net profit after tax.
So that's 225 plus 80, right? You're talking about that, right? 300 million.
SGD 80 million in incremental net profit after tax on top of our 2021 net profit after tax, which is when we initiated DARE+, right, at the end of 2021, and that number was SGD 145 million.
Yeah, so that looks very ambitious target. I mean, from here on, right? Because we're talking of almost seven, you know, almost 80%-90% jump in our earnings for to achieve that, right?
Yeah. So albeit, you know, I think you heard Jacky talk about, you know, this is not linear. You know, a lot of it is backended, particularly as efficiencies start to come through, from platforms having been built, and then decommissioning happened and efficiencies being realized, and then of course revenue outcomes being realized as well. So by function of that, you know, it's obviously backended. The market has obviously moved significantly since we started this. The macro has moved significantly. We've been pretty consistent in reiterating that target. But the how's and the whys of how to get there will continue to evolve. And where we sit today as we end the year, we'll take a look at how we can achieve those targets.
So it's largely cost savings and not really new revenue opportunities, right? Can we say?
No, I think both. I think both. I think the ratio that we looked at last time around was two of the SGD 500 million, which achieves the SGD 80 million, SGD 280 million were cost and SGD 220 million were revenues. And I would say that I wouldn't say that ratio has changed dramatically. So for now you can probably use the same ratio, but don't hold us to the ratio because this is an evolving analysis that we have to do with as more data comes in and as we, you know, put more time behind us, in a changing landscape.
Okay. That's very helpful, Nikhil. Thank you.
Thanks, Sachin. We can probably take one last question before we end the call. Just give it a few more seconds. Okay. No more questions. Otherwise we will end the call for today. Thank you very much for joining us, and you know how to get us if you have additional questions. Thank you very much and have a lovely evening. Bye.
Thanks, guys. Thanks for making the time.
Thank you.
Happy birthday again, Sachin.