M1 to suffer higher capex as it beefs up investments in tech

Capex could rise to as high as $170m.

As the competition is expected to heat up in the telco scene with the arrival of TPG, M1 is expected to incur higher capex as it invests in new technologies.

According to Maybank KimEng, M1's capex is expected to soar by another 21% to $170m this year. It noted that this may be attributable as M1 firms up additional investments in new technologies, such as 4.5G/5G, HetNet, and NarrowBand IoT.

"Earnings will be diluted until they can achieve scale," Maybank noted.

Meanwhile, the brokerage firm noted that M1's net profit fell below the already lowered expectations. Postpaid revenue continued to weaken due to lower roaming, and IDD usage as the OTT switch deepened.

Data usage recorded a strong rise, but it barely made a visible impact on revenue or margins.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia