Malaysia-based Digi forecast service revenue to return to growth this year as more Covid-19 (coronavirus) restrictions lift and borders reopen, after it booked lower earnings in Q1.

In its earnings release, acting CEO and CMO Praveen Rajan praised Digi’s momentum in the opening months, offering a bullish outlook regarding commercial and tourist business, the latter of which is expected to boost roaming services.

Net profit dropped 10.9 per cent year-on-year to MYR236 million ($54.3 million) due mainly to a one-off tax hike. Service revenue fell 2.2 per cent to MYR1.3 billion, as a 3.9 per cent decline in prepaid sales to MYR615 million offset a 2.6 per cent increase in post-paid to MYR633 million.

Its total user base was flat at 10.2 million as post-paid additions of almost 250,000 was offset by a loss of a similar number of prepaid users.

Post-paid ARPU fell 6.2 per cent to MYR61 and prepaid 3 per cent to MYR32.

Capex dropped 45.2 per cent to MYR83 million, or 5.7 per cent of sales, due to some projects being deferred. Full-year capex is forecast at 12.8 per cent of revenue, or around the same level as 2021.