“
PRESIDENT & GROUP CEO’S
BUSINESS REVIEW
The acquisition of Ncell further cements the Group’s position as one of the leading
mobile operators in the region with close to 290 million customers from approximately
275 million today. We expect the acquisition to be completed in mid-year 2016.
”
agreement between Celcom, Telekom
Malaysia Berhad (TM) and its subsidiary
Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd
(P1), that will significantly enhance its data
leadership position by offering the converged
services of mobile and fixed broadband to its
customers and monetize its own nationwide
network reach by way of domestic roaming.
The agreement inked with TM accelerates
the fiberisation rollout of Celcom’s 4G
network with the provisioning of an extensive
and robust backhaul with high bandwidth
capacity. The second part of the agreement
involves Celcom providing domestic roaming
access to P1, further leveraging and gaining
investment returns of its extensive network
coverage.
These collaborations fit well into our strategy
for Celcom to expand its mobile proposition
and data leadership. With High Speed
Broadband (HSBB) access, Celcom can now
deliver services that are truly converged to
create a new revenue stream for itself.
4) Expansion by edotco, our tower
Infrastructure Business into a New
Footprint in Myanmar
In 2015, through our subsidiary, edotco,
Axiata marked its entry into the fast growing
Myanmar telecommunications market with
the acquisition of Myanmar Tower Company
Limited
(MTC),
effectively
solidifying
Axiata as a major player in the Asian tower
business. Without doubt, the Myanmar
tower market is expected to be one of
Southeast Asia’s largest and fastest growing
telecommunications infrastructure service
markets. This important and highly strategic
acquisition solidifies edotco’s position as a
leading telecommunications infrastructure
provider in the region.
Seeing the progress charted since its inception
in 2013, we are confident edotco is growing in
strength and is well-positioned to contribute
to the Group’s operational efficiency as well
as bottom line in the very near future. With
the acquisition completed by 2015, we now
have 16,500 towers, ranking as number 14 in
the world amongst the independent tower
companies.
5) Expansion into digital business
The changing consumer lifestyle of the
telecommunications
ecosystem
and
exponential growth of mobile Internet and
data provide dynamic opportunities in the
area of digital services. In response to this,
Axiata has been making targeted investments
in this area.
In 2015, the Group made six strategic equity
investments in digital services covering digital
commerce and activation, digital advertising
and digital entertainment.
•
An agreement was struck with New
York-based music streaming service
Yonder to provide mobile broadband
customers ad-free access to music they
can download, play and share.
•
Launched 11street.my in a joint venture
with SK Planet, a major Korean online
e-commerce entity.
•
A joint venture (JV) agreement with
American-based Adknowledge, to set
up Adknowledge Asia Pacific Pte Ltd,
a company pioneering social media
advertising by using user data analytics
to target relevant and appropriate ads to
customers.
•
Acquired Komli Asia as part of
Acknowledge JV, with strong Asia Pacific
presence, to strengthen our digital
advertising portfolio.
•
Invested in US Mobile Virtual Network
Operator (MVNO) Freedompop a unique
“freemium” offering a small amount of
mobile data free to customers with a
paid add-on option for upselling.
•
Invested in WSO2.Telco for its API
platform - a breakthrough cloud-ready
solution that enables Mobile Network
Operators (MNOs) to easily establish a
collaboration layer withWeb-centric APIs
for a much quicker rollout of services to
customers.
I am proud to say that there are now some 15
million customers using Axiata Digital products
or services, of which 30% are new customers
to Axiata. Our two e-commerce businesses,
Elevenia and 11Street, generated a Gross
Merchandise Value (GMV) of USD126.6 million
for 2015. Reflecting its business performance,
Axiata Digital has grown in size from a start up
to a thriving digital business entity with over
a thousand employees across all our markets.
While we continue to build our own digital
business, we are simultaneously enabling
the growth of a robust and innovative digital
ecosystem to further the development of
this space in the industry. Under the Axiata
Digital enablement umbrella, the Group
has developed three open source digital
platforms, two of which, Dialog’s Ideamart
and the Mobile Internet Fulfilment Exchange
(MIFE) platform, were winners at the GSMA
Mobile Awards in 2015. These platforms have
1
2 3
4
5
In-Country
Consolidation in
Bangladesh
New Strategic
Mobile Footprint
in South Asia
Expansion Beyond
Mobile into Fixed-Mobile
Convergence (FMC)
Expansion by Tower
Infrastructure
Business into a New
Footprint in Myanmar
Expansion into
digital business
Reshaping the Future
axiata group berhad | annual report 2015
018
