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Tag: Malaysia

  • Petronas buys 25% stake in LNG project in Canada

    Petronas buys 25% stake in LNG project in Canada

    Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) is acquiring a 25% stake in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Kitimat, Canada after it scrapped plans for the Pacific NorthWest LNG project in the country last July due to challenging market conditions as a result of prolonged depressed prices.

    Petronas said in a statement that its wholly owned entity the North Montney LNG Ltd Partnership had entered into a purchase and sales agreement for the deal. The purchase sum was not disclosed.

    Other shareholders of the project are Royal Dutch Shell plc’s subsidiary Shell Canada Energy (40%), PetroChina Canada Ltd (15%), Mitsubishi Corp’s subsidiary Diamond LNG Canada Ltd (15%) and Kogas Canada LNG Ltd (5%).

    The transaction is subject to international regulatory approvals and the completion of other associated agreement. It is slated for completion in the next few months.

    “Petronas is pleased to be part of the LNG Canada project. As one of the world’s largest LNG producers, Petronas looks forward to adding value to this venture through our long-term expertise and experience across the LNG value chain. We are committed to deliver LNG and natural gas, the cleanest fossil fuel in the world, to the growing global energy market,” said Petronas president and group CEO Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin.

    “Petronas is in Canada for the long-term and we are exploring a number of business opportunities that will allow us to increase our production and accelerate the monetisation of our world-class resources in the North Montney. LNG is just one of those opportunities,” he added.

    The proposed project includes the design, construction and operation of a gas liquefaction plant and facilities for the storage and export of LNG, including marine facilities.

    The plant will initially consist of two world-scale LNG processing units referred to as “trains”, with an option to expand the project in the future to four trains.

    Canada is Petronas’ second largest resource holder after Malaysia, with vast unconventional gas and oil resources in the North Montney.

    Petronas and its North Montney joint venture partners are one of the largest natural gas resource owners in Canada with over 52 trillion cubic feet of reserves and contingent resources.

  • Pos Malaysia’s Q4 profit nearly triples to RM29m on higher contribution from courier biz

    Pos Malaysia’s Q4 profit nearly triples to RM29m on higher contribution from courier biz

    Pos Malaysia Bhd’s net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2018 almost tripled to RM29.03 million from RM9.89 million a year ago, mainly due to higher contribution from the courier business coupled with improved cost management.

    Against the same quarter the previous year, its revenue increased 3% to RM653.08 million from RM653.55 million.

    For the full year period, Pos Malaysia’s net profit jumped 13.9% to RM93.25 million from RM81.88 million a year ago, while revenue was up 18.7% to RM2.47 from RM2.08 billion.

    Pos Malaysia the group’s future performance is mainly driven by the continued growth in e-commerce.

    “Technology and e-commerce remains a key platform to spur the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within the country. As the key player in the e-fulfilment space and with the widest last mile delivery network, the group is a key beneficiary of e-commerce growth in Malaysia. This will also benefit our end-to-end logistics businesses as heightened economic activity should increase the need for our services. Accordingly, we are generally optimistic Pos Malaysia’s prospects remain positive.”

    Pos Malaysia’s share price fell 5 sen or 1.4% to close at RM3.55 on some 197,200 shares done.

  • Allianz Malaysia Q1 earnings rise 30% to RM87m

    Allianz Malaysia Q1 earnings rise 30% to RM87m

    Allianz Malaysia Bhd’s net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 jumped 29.9% to RM87.23 million from RM67.17 million a year ago, due mainly to higher contribution from both general and life insurance segments.

    Its revenue grew 5.2% to RM1.27 billion compared with RM1.21 billion in the previous year’s first quarter, thanks to higher gross earned premiums and investment income.

    Allianz said the general insurance industry will likely see some volatility in a fully liberalised environment, which can be expected to remain for up to two to three years, as seen in other markets where detariffication has taken place.

    Competition is likely to intensify in the run up to the anticipated next phase of liberalisation in 2019. The general insurance segment aims to maintain its market leadership in 2018 and will continue to drive initiatives to ensure a profitable portfolio and create value for its customers and distribution partners. It will also leverage on digital assets to enhance its processes and service proposition to customers.

    Meanwhile, the life insurance industry grew at a softer pace with total industry new business recorded a growth of 1.9% in 2017 and 3.1% in first quarter of 2018. The segment will continue to strengthen its agency force with a focus on increasing productivity.

    Allianz said the group will remain focused on delivering sustainable results of its insurance businesses to its shareholders in 2018.

  • CIMB pledges RM75m to train talent to meet digital ambitions

    CIMB pledges RM75m to train talent to meet digital ambitions

    CIMB Group Holdings Berhad has pledged RM 75 million over the next three years to the CIMB 3D Academy, to enhance the digital quotient in all job roles; to enable the group’s digital transformation; and to build an agile, innovative, tech-savvy workforce across the board.

    The Academy – premised on digital, data and disruption – is aimed at helping CIMB embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to propel its digital ambitions via a group-wide people development initiative.

    The group aims to equip its 36,000-strong workforce – across all levels and categories – with digital knowledge and skills appropriate to their jobs, by end-2019, through an estimated two million staff learning hours.

    The group-wide people development initiative’s competency framework will be anchored on various pillars including digital world awareness; agile & entrepreneurial thinking; and data science & analytics / data-driven decision making.

    CIMB Group CEO Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said in a statement today, “As a leading ASEAN universal bank, CIMB has always prioritised our most valuable asset, our people. With the 4IR fast eclipsing existing digital revolution, we want to make CIMB the most powerful incubator possible for the development of talent, to propel the Group’s next growth phase. In tandem with the digitisation of our core with a data-first principle, the CIMB 3D Academy is a crucial component to help us develop a workforce with the right skillset to help achieve our digital ambitions.

    Through the Academy, our staff will be trained for agility, adaptability, creativity and an open mind to, among others, think like an entrepreneur and disrupt conventional thinking, in order to identify and reap opportunities to improve the Group’s value proposition for our 13 million customers and stakeholders across Asean.”

    The Academy will spearhead digital training with the goal of enhancing the group’s business powered by improvements in competency, mindsets and relationships within the workforce. A core group of roles to be developed include emerging ones such as agile leader, agile coach, scrum master, scrum product owner, and tech geek. Other digital-centric roles include data
    scientist, data engineer, data analysts, design thinker, UI/UX designer, as well as digital marketer.

    The 3D modules, which will be conducted primarily through a digital and interactive platform, will be developed both in-house and by external curriculum developers.

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  • Malaysian economy to continue to grow in Q3

    Malaysian economy to continue to grow in Q3

    Malaysia’s economy is poised to continue to grow in the third quarter of the year, according to the Department of Statistics.

    The Leading Index (LI), which monitors the economic performance in average of four to six months ahead, saw an annual change of 0.3% against 1.8 % in the previous month.

    On a monthly basis, the LI contracted 0.5%, mainly attributable to the deceleration in the number of housing units approved by 0.7%.

    Meanwhile, the Coincident Index (CI), which examines the current economic activity, rose 0.6 % in March 2018 on the back of the increase in real contribution to EPF (0.4%), volume index of retail trade (0.3%), total employment in manufacturing sector (0.2%) and real salaries & wages in manufacturing sector (0.1%).

    The annual change of CI stepped up to 3.4% in the reference month as compared with 3.1% in February 2018.

    Meanwhile, the Diffusion Index for CI remained at 66.7% since January 2018, while the Diffusion Index for LI was below 50% for two consecutive months.

  • High public debt can hamper growth: AmBank Research

    High public debt can hamper growth: AmBank Research

    AmBank Research (AmResearch) which projects the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita recede by 0.007% with every 1% gain in public debt and debt service, also foresees a near-term volatility in the local and global equity markets, thanks to noises from the domestic and international front.

    “From our analysis, we found an inverse and significant impact between public debt as well as debt service against the GDP based on per capita. It implies that a 1% gain each in debt and debt service, will lower GDP per capita significantly by 0.007% and 0.22% respectively. We also found that a government consumption presents a negative and significant impact on GDP per capita with a drop of 0.05% for every 1% rise,” it said while noting that the current debt level of RM1.09 trillion to the GDP was in line with its projection of over a trillion ringgit in 2018.

    A high public debt will result in more spending on servicing the interest for the borrowings, thus straining resources. This is reflected in the low ratio of operating and development expenditure to debt at 0.20x and 0.04x respectively in 2017 from a high of 0.50x and 0.14x respectively in 2008 which is also the lowest reading since 1988.

    Noting that public debt levels had been on an upward trend since 2004, the research house said the government’s inability to curb the growth in operational expenditure over development expenditure in its budget especially in Budget 2018, raised concerns on the risk of falling into a debt overhang situation which can potentially hamper the sustainability of growth and transformation measures.

    The inability to reduce the operating expenditure, may lead to the need to improve revenue collection while simultaneously driving GDP, which in turn will help improve the debt-to-GDP ratio and fiscal balance position.

    Meanwhile, the rising government guaranteed loans and Public Private Partnership (PPP) lease repayments that lacks transparency suggests an easy way to shift the debt figures, while holding public debt below the 55% level.

    Since 2004, public debt saw an average rise of 10.2% or equivalent to an average of RM252 billion per annum between 2004 and 2009, while fiscal deficit widened from -4.3% in 2004 to -4.8% in 2008 due to higher spending on development activities amounting to RM27.5 billion in 2004 and RM41.9 billion in 2008.

    Operating expenditure rose from RM91.3 billion in 2004 to RM153.3 billion in 2008.

    The surge in total public debt was even more glaring from 2009 onwards as it jumped from RM362 billion to RM925 billlion, translating to an average growth of 13.4% or equivalent to RM639 billion per year.

    Although the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP narrowed from -6.7% in 2009 to -3% in 2017 due to lower spending on development activities, which shrank from RM49 billion in 2009 to RM43 billion in 2017, operating expenditure rose from RM157 billion in 2009 to RM218 billion in 2018.

    On lowering the public debt, debt servicing, and government consumption to improve growth, Ambank Research opines the focus areas should be (1) improving the monitoring of the expenditure in each area of the economic activities, especially at the micro level; (2) greater transparency on government-guaranteed loans under public-private partnerships that may not be fiscally responsible; (3) improving and effectively managing government consumption; (5) targeting high-impact and productive businesses to drive growth; (6) boosting investors’ and household confidence by addressing leakages; and (6) an attractive ringgit to support overall business competitiveness.

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  • CIMB Malaysia to recognise RM920m gain from disposal of stake in CIMB-Principal Asset Management

    CIMB Malaysia to recognise RM920m gain from disposal of stake in CIMB-Principal Asset Management

    CIMB Group Holdings Bhd is expected to recognise a gain of about RM920 million following the completion of the divestment of its 20% stake in CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd and 10% equity interest in CIMB-Principal Islamic Asset Management Sdn Bhd to Principal Financial Group for RM470.29 million today.

    This, however, is lower than the initial expectation of RM950 million.

    The banking group told Bursa Malaysia that its common equity tier 1 ratio will also see an increase of 15 basis points, subject to final adjustments.

    Following the corporate exercise, CIMB’s shareholding in CIMB-Principal Asset Management Group and CIMB-Principal Islamic Asset Management will be reduced to 40% with the balance 60% owned by Principal Financial Group.

    “Asset management continues to be an integral part of our regional banking business and this shareholding realignment enables CIMB-Principal to have more scale and improved global investment expertise. We expect this change to improve our ability to deliver better products to our clients, while creating sustainable long term value for CIMB group,” said CIMB group CEO Zafrul Aziz.

    CIMB and Principal Financial Group have partnered in the region since 2004 and have grown their operations across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.

    The CIMB-Principal Asset Management group of companies has more than RM80 billion in assets under management and is one of the largest asset managers in the region.

    At the noon break, CIMB shares gained 8 sen or 1.3% to RM6.13 on some 8.95 million shares done.

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  • Q1 sales growth quarter for 7-Eleven Malaysia

    Q1 sales growth quarter for 7-Eleven Malaysia

    In a first quarter marked by expansion and sales growth, 7-Eleven Malaysia saw its net profit soar 11.6 per cent from the same period a year ago.

    Total sales growth for the quarter was 2.5 per cent, while the gross profit margin continued to improve, says the company.

    Driven by store openings, higher customer counts and improved consumer promotions, the group’s revenue for the quarter grew by 2.5 per cent to RM535.7 million (US$134.4 million).

    Gross profit of RM171 million improved by 7 per cent, and this was mainly attributed to the increase in revenue and improvement in gross margin by 1.3 points.

    Profit after tax was RM8.9 million, up 11.6 per cent.

    One2Pay mobile wallet launched in January, with payments and top-ups enabled in all stores, while continued store expansion took the total network to 2235 outlets.

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  • Aeon Malaysia share price jumps 6.52% on higher Q1 earnings

    Aeon Malaysia share price jumps 6.52% on higher Q1 earnings

    Aeon Co (M) Bhd rose as much as 6.52% in early trade to RM2.45 after reporting a 6.63% jump in net profit for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018.

    At 11.23am, the stock was trading at RM2.42 with 941,700 shares done.

    Aeon’s net profit for the first quarter stood at RM27.94 million compared with RM26.20 million recorded a year ago.

    Revenue for the period grew to RM1.11 billion from RM1.07 billion on the back of higher revenue from its retail and property management service businesses.

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  • Aeon adopts wait-and-see approach over GST

    Aeon adopts wait-and-see approach over GST

    Japanese retailer AEON Co (M) Bhd is adopting a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the upcoming abolishment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on June 1.

    Executive director Poh Ying Loo said Aeon was still seeking greater clarity from the Pakatan Harapan government.

    “The GST question was something that was also posed by shareholders earlier and our stand right now is that it is too early to decide right now,” Poh said at a press briefing after the group’s 33rd annual general meeting here today.

    “We understand that other policies and tax regime such as the Sales and Services Tax (SST) will be reintroduced. We can’t really comment on whether of not our pricing would be cheaper until those things are made more clear,” he added.

    The group has allocated between RM300 million and RM500 million in capital expenditures (capex) this year.

    According to Poh, this was slightly lower than last year’s capex of some RM500 million.

    “The capex is inclusive of our newest mall in Kuching, Sarawak which we have already opened in April this year,” said Poh.

    With three levels of retail floors and four levels of car park, the Kuching mall is AEON’s debut presence in East Malaysia.

    The remaining capex will be for the expansion of Taman Maluri Shopping Centre and the refurbishment of Tebrau City, Bandar Utama and Bandar Sunway.

    As of the end of 2017, AEON has 26 malls across the country.

    A big part of AEON’s drive this year is to further strengthen its omni-channel strategy that will leverage onto its physical stores for offline experiences, logistics and convenience.

    “We had partnered with online concierge and delivery service Honestbee in January, and the response has been encouraging. We expect this business will grow with time,” said managing director Shinobu Washizawa.

    The firm is also set to roll out a “groceries drive-thru” service in Bukit Indah, Johor whereby customers can order groceries online from Aeon and pick them up themselves through a drive-thru window, starting next month.

    Aeon posted a net profit of RM105 million on the back of RM4 billion revenue for the year ended 31 December 2017.

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  • Idea Cellular-Vodafone merger to take off by Q3

    Idea Cellular-Vodafone merger to take off by Q3

    After much delay, Axiata Group Bhd is positive that the merger between its Indian associate company Idea Cellular Ltd and Vodafone India will materialise by the beginning of the third quarter of this year, as just two more approvals are required.

    Speaking to reporters after the group’s AGM yesterday, Axiata president and group CEO Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim said that a foreign direct investment approval and a nod from the department of telecommunication are required before India’s second and third largest telco player can merge to become a single entity.

    The huge Indian telco market has seen quite a shake up since the entry of Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Jio, resulting in mergers as well as exits by telco players.

    While the merged entity is expected to face challenges in the first year of operations in the hyper-competitive Indian market, Jamaludin is optimistic that Idea could see a turnaround in two to three years time, negating a need to exit the market.

    Axiata, which currently holds a 16.3% interest in Idea, will see its stake diluted to around 8% after the merger.

    Axiata fell into the red in the first quarter ended March 31, after registering a net loss of RM147.41 million against a net profit of RM239.02 million a year ago due to the share of losses reported by Idea.

    Excluding Idea and foreign exchange impacts, Axiata is cautiously optimistic on its financial performance for this year.

    Meanwhile, as for its infrastructure and services company edotco Group Sdn Bhd, Axiata is looking at two or three major acquisitions in Asean and South Asia, in a bid to become the fifth largest independent tower company in the world by 2021 from the eighth.

    On May 16, Axiata announced that edotco Pakistan Private Limited (edotco PK) has successfully obtained approval from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), allowing local lenders to fund the acquisition of 13,000 tower assets currently under Deodar Private Limited (Deodar).

    On funding to support its goal of becoming the fifth largest in the world, Axiata is currently engaging with bankers and financial advisers to weigh several funding options, including an initial public offering (IPO) exercise.

    Axiata will also be focusing on its digital-centric five year plan known as Triple Core Growth Engine plan – with key focus on digital telco, digital business and infrastructure, which started last year and is expected to go on until 2021.

    The group is also looking at keeping four of its 30 digital business and selling the rest as part of the plan.

    On the abolishment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and reinstatement of the Sales and Services Tax, Jamaludin said that more details are required on the new ruling before the impact of it can be determined.

    “We have to find out what is the higher ruling. The question is who will bear the cost. In the case of GST, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission decided that they will bear half we will bear half,” he added.

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  • Malaysia’s April headline inflation up 1.4%

    Malaysia’s April headline inflation up 1.4%

    Headline inflation rate rose by 1.4% year-on-year (y-o-y) in April 2018, slightly higher than 1.3% year-on-year registered in the preceding month as transport inflation rebounded from a negative territory logged for two months to positive at 0.4% y-o-y, said MIDF Research.

    Amid unfavourable base effects, MIDF Research foresees headline inflation rate to average at 2.6% this year, supported by inflation rate for 1Q18 which registered at 1.8% compared to 4.2% in the same period last year.

    “We expect inflationary pressure mainly from fuel-related items to calm, consistent with gradual rise in global commodity prices on top of pass-through effect from a strengthening ringgit, re-subsidisation of domestic fuel price and withdrawal of GST.”

    As inflationary pressure remains steady, it anticipates Bank Negara Malaysia to maintain its current monetary policy with no more hikes in overnight policy rate for the rest of 2018 barring any pleasant upward surprises in domestic economic growth.

    It noted that food inflation continues to dip but moving forward, there is a potential for food inflation to rise in the upcoming months due to rising demand for Ramadan and Hari Raya celebrations.

    It expects 2018’s fuel-related inflation to moderate amid of unfavourable base effects, re-subsidisation of domestic fuel price and high likelihood of a downward adjustment of global commodity prices in 2H18 from the current temporary factors which pushed the prices up.

    MIDF also foresees inflation rate across all states will moderate below 3% in 2018 amid of unfavourable base effects and zero rated GST.

    “Looking forward, we foresee inflation level will gradually increase buoyed by moderating global growth, steady rise in commodities prices and tight labour market conditions.”

    The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 1.4% in April 2018 as compared to the same month last year, after indices for food & non-alcoholic beverages (+2.6%), restaurants and hotels (+2.2%), health (+2.1%), housing, water, electricity, gas & other fuels (+2.0%), furnishings, household equipment & routine household maintenance (+1.8%) and education (+1.1%), all recorded increases, according to the Department of Statistics.

    Chief Statistician Malaysia Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin said the overall index was also affected by the increase in the transport group by 0.4% in April 2018 as compared to the 1.5% decrease recorded in March 2018. Meanwhile, the CPI for the period January-April 2018 increased 1.7% as compared to the same month last year.

    The Statistics Department also reported that three states surpassed the national CPI rate of 1.4% recorded in April 2018 as compared to April 2017, which are Kuala Lumpur (+1.9%), Selangor & Putrajaya (+1.6%) and Penang (+1.5%).

    FXTM global head of currency strategy & market research Jameel Ahmad said while the inflation reading continues to suggest that the economy is encountering a period of lower inflation, it sees risks that this outlook could change over the coming months.

    “There has been a drastic change in investor appetite towards the US dollar, which has crumpled emerging market currencies across the globe. This has also impacted the ringgit, which currently appears to be at risk to falling back towards 4 against the dollar and is likely to do so, if traders continue to stock up on the US dollar.”

    As a result of the ringgit weakening, he said import price pressures are likely to increase over the next two to three months and this will consequently result in higher inflation potential.

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  • Lower palm prices pull Malaysia Boustead Plantations’ Q1 profit down 82.2%

    Lower palm prices pull Malaysia Boustead Plantations’ Q1 profit down 82.2%

    Boustead Plantations Bhd saw its net profit slump 82.2% to RM5.26 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018 compared with RM29.56 million in the previous corresponding period, dragged by lower prices of palm products.

    Revenue also fell 18.2% to RM154.6 million from RM189.02 million.

    Boustead Plantations has proposed to declare an interim dividend of 2.5 sen per share for the quarter under review.

    The group said in a filing with the stock exchange that the average crude palm oil (CPO) selling price was at RM2,491 per metric tonne (MT), 21% lower compared with RM3,166 per MT in the same quarter last year, while average palm kernel oil price declined 32% to RM2,188 per MT.

    Fresh fruit bunches (FFB) production for the quarter increased 8% to 226,323 MT, largely due to improved yields post El-Nino. Average oil extraction rate was slightly lower 20.5%.

    Boustead Plantations vice chairman Tan Sri Lodin Wok Kamaruddin said the year ahead is expected to see an increasing supply of alternative vegetable oils, putting pressure on demand for CPO and leading to increased palm oil inventories.

    “However, the CPO market could benefit from the likelihood of higher tariffs by China on US soybean as well as the European Union’s removal of anti-dumping duty on Indonesian biodiesel.”

    At the midday break, Boustead Plantations shares fell 1 sen or 0.7% to RM1.35 on some 992,600 shares done.

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  • DBE Gurney to open Harumi fried chicken brand quick service restaurants in Thailand

    DBE Gurney to open Harumi fried chicken brand quick service restaurants in Thailand

    D.B.E. Gurney Resources Bhd’s subsidiary, D.B.E. Poultry Sdn Bhd (DBEP) has on May 23, 2018 entered into a joint venture agreement with Farmmesh Foods Co LTD (FFCL) to open and jointly operate Quick Service Restaurant operations with Harumi™ fried chicken brand concept in Thailand.

    The deal is following a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the parties on March 8, 2018.

    DBEP will hold a 30% interest in Super Harumi Thailand, while FFCL will take the remaining 70%. DBEP will inject an initial capital of RM37,000 into the joint venture, along with providing training and the running of the business.

    DBE Gurney said the JV business will enable it to expand its retailing business through HARUMi products and allow it to expand to Thailand following its early expansion into Taiwan, in addition to the existing outlets in Malaysia.

    The stock trading half a sen lower at three sen with some 1.3 million shares changing hands.

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  • Axiata Malaysia slips into the red in first quarter

    Axiata Malaysia slips into the red in first quarter

    Axiata Group Bhd fell into the red in the first quarter ended March 31 registering a net loss of RM147.41 million against a net profit of RM239.02 million in the same quarter a year ago, due to the share of losses reported by its associate company Idea Cellular Ltd, which operates in a backdrop of devastating price wars and a hyper-competitive Indian market.

    Axiata recorded a non-cash dilution loss of RM357.6 million from non-participation of preferential new shares issued in Idea. Axiata holds a 16.3% stake in Idea.

    The share of results from associates and joint ventures were also lower as the losses widened to RM86.1 million from RM30.5 million as the India associate continues to face intense market aggression.

    Excluding the impact of Idea, Axiata’s net profit would have been up by 34.6% or RM386.9 million.

    Axiata’s revenue fell 2.3% to RM5.75 billion from RM5.88 billion in the previous year’s corresponding quarter, mainly due to unfavourable foreign exchange translation impact arising from a stronger ringgit.

    “While we remain in line with expectation, our investment in Idea continues to be challenging. The current state of the industry in India has led to foreign operators either exiting the market or consolidating. Delays in the proposed merger between Idea and Vodafone India will bring further impact to Axiata. We also expect regulatory matters in Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Bangladesh as well as currency fluctuations as challenges for the year,” said Axiata president and group CEO Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim in a statement.

    He, however, said the group is set to gain from edotco’s growth and expansion. It will also continue to invest in key digital businesses such as digital financial services and enterprise solution/Internet of Things.

    At market close, Axiata’s shares fell 1.17% to RM5.07 with some 1.26 million shares done.

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