XL Axiata Records Revenue Of IDR 25.37 Trillion In The Third Quarter Of 2024

JAKARTA PT XL Axiata Tbk (XL Axiata) recorded revenue of IDR 25.37 trillion in the third quarter of 2024 or grew 6.26 percent on an annual basis or year on year (yoy) compared to IDR 23.86 trillion in the third quarter of 2023.

In addition, the profit attributable to owners of the parent entity amounted to IDR 1.31 trillion in the third quarter of 2024. This figure jumped 31.67 percent from the same quarter in the previous year of IDR 999.99 billion.

XL Axiata President Director & CEO Dian Siswarini said that during this period, digital data and service revenue reached IDR 23.38 trillion, or around 92 percent of total revenue.

Dian said that he is also very optimistic about the future of the Fixed Broad Band (FBB) and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) service businesses where the business continues to show very positive growth.

According to Dian, during the nine months, especially in the third quarter of 2024, the situation and conditions of the national telecommunications industry are very challenging, where competitions are tight, amidst people's purchasing power that continues to weaken.

"We are still able to achieve a fairly good performance, while still being able to score a level of profitability that has grown positively," he said in his statement, Thursday, November 7.

Dian conveyed that the challenges ahead will certainly not be lighter, especially Indonesia's economic conditions which will still be affected by the world's geopolitical conditions, as well as the level of purchasing power of the people who are still weak.

"We will continue to work hard to maintain performance growth in the coming period, and we are confident we will be able to do so," he said.

Dian added that XL Axiata will continue to take various initiatives to obtain new sources of reliable income in the future, one of which is through home internet services.

Therefore, Dian conveyed that XL Axiata continues to encourage and accelerate the growth of the FBB home internet service business, which continues to show very encouraging potential.

XL Axiata has also acquired 750 thousand First Media subscribers, so that currently it has more than 1 million FBB customers as a whole.

Dian said that with the addition of First Media subscribers, XL Axiata is the second largest Internet service provider in Indonesia, with coverage of the FBB network of six million home passes spread across more than 127 cities in various regions in Indonesia.

"We also offer access to various entertainment content that customers can enjoy as a form of service outside the FBB (beyond Fixed Broadband) and are ready to bring convergence services to the next level," he said.

As for the end of September 2024, the total number of XL Axiata subscribers continued to grow and reached 58.6 million, with a blended APPU reaching IDR 43 thousand, increasing YoY. This blended APPU increase is of course in line with the company's focus on achieving and maintaining productive customers.

In terms of operational costs, Dian said that the company managed to maintain the level of stabilities and costs related to sales and marketing could be reduced when compared to the same period the previous year, in line with the implementation of digitalization strategies.

Meanwhile, several other cost components fell on an annual basis, such as interconnection costs and other direct expenses. Meanwhile, the regulatory cost burden increases on an annual basis.

Overall, the annual operating cost burden can be maintained under revenue growth.

Dian conveyed that the company's digital transformation strategy, including developing customer experience through the MyXL and AXISNet applications, continues to show its effectiveness.

"Both applications have provided very strong results until the first nine months of 2024. It has recorded more than 32 million active customers using MyXL and AXISNet, with the growth of Monthly Active User (MAU) reaching 113 percent since December 2021," he explained.

Dian explained, one of the keys to XL Axiata's growth is to continue to personalize offers and services where net promoter score (NPS) data continues to increase significantly, thus encouraging the use of services and ultimately helping to increase revenue.

"The results of implementing digital-based strategies through data analysis also allow XL Axiata to invest in high-value areas and build networks, including to meet demand from all customer segments," he said.

According to Dian, this data analysis also allows the company to evaluate key performance indicators (KPI) in all aspects related to customers, marketing campaigns, and customer loyalty.

So that companies can design the right strategy to face challenges and opportunities at the right time.

For information on XL Axiata's financial position as of the end of September 2024, gross debt was recorded at IDR 12.7 trillion, with a net debt to EBITDA (including finance lease) ratio of 2.5x.

Meanwhile, net debt was recorded at IDR 10.9 trillion. In addition, 47 percent of existing loans currently have floating interest rates (floating) and 53 percent have fixed interest rates. Free Cash Flow (FCF) is at a healthy level, with an increase of 23 percent, to IDR 7.6 trillion.

Dian conveyed that XL Axiata also continues to increase the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to encourage an increase in company operating costs and savings.

"The use of AI is focused on improving customer experience, increasing the operational excellence of companies (operational excellence) and innovation. With AI, it allows XL Axiata to provide personalized and instant customer support, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty," he said.

In addition, Dian said that the company is also able to increase operational efficiency, because it allows automation of various processes such as sales, services, and customer onboarding.

"XL Axiata also uses AI to extract insight from large data. This opens up opportunities for new sources of income, such as offering AI-based solutions to external and industrial partners, turning companies into technology-driven companies," he added.

XL Axiata allocates capital expenditure (Capex) of around IDR 7 trillion, the majority of which supports the need for network expansion.

By the end of September 2024, the total number of BTS XL Axiata reached 165,094 BTS, including 4G BTS as many as 110,280 units. The level of connection with the fiber optic network (fiberized) reached 62 percent.

In addition, BTS fibreization is carried out to improve the quality of the data network and in preparation for the implementation of 5G in the future.

Dian conveyed that service traffic, which grew by more than 10 percent (yoy), reached 7,823 Petabytes.