Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Claire Chin, Head of Investor Relations at Axiata Group Berhad. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Axiata's first quarter 2024 results briefing. Today, we have present with us, Vivek Sood, Group CEO; Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, CEO of Telecom; Nik Rizal Kamil, Group CFO; as well as representatives from our operating companies. There will be a short presentation, followed by a Q&A session. So without further ado, I would like to hand the conference over to Vivek. Thank you, Claire. Very good afternoon, all of you. It's a pleasure to present the Quarter One 2024 performance to the analysts and the shareholders. Quarter One was a continuity of a fairly strong operating performance where we saw double-digit growth in reported revenue, EBITDA and EBIT. Part of the impact on reported was also the fact that the ringgit depreciated faster compared to the other operating companies. Having said that, the performance came strong from all the operating companies as far as the revenue is concerned, excepting Link Net and the strong performance on EBITDA and EBIT across all operating companies. Our main contributors for the performance was XL and Robi coming out of uplift of ARPU. I think as you've seen, the market repair in these two markets have been working in the right direction. And also from the fact that, EDOTCO has managed the cost as well as growth in the colocations. The reported revenue was lower by MYR 13 billion, this is for the continuing business. It was around, I think, MYR 60 million. When you look at the discontinued, which is basically Myanmar. Coming out of the higher Forex losses, given that the ringgit depreciated against the US dollar, and a lot of our debt in the group is in US dollar, and also the higher finance cost. Part of it was also with the intent of converting a lot of US dollar loan in both Bangladesh as well as Sri Lanka, into the local debt, to avoid any impact of the Forex. But the... As you know, the local debt is always more expensive than U.S. dollars, so that was the other impact which came. On an underlying performance, I think strong, if you adjust for the Forex, strong underlying profit development of MYR 142 million uplift in margin to 2.7%. Coming out of the six-point gap between 13.3% and 6.6% is basically reflective of the translation impact from operating company currencies into ringgit. And the revenue was down in Link Net and Dialog. Dialog was all driven because of our intent to reduce lower down the hubbing revenue to the low-margin business. But strong continued EBIT growth of 41.3% from the EBITDA development in all our operating companies. Cash flows, which we would say an adjusted OF CF, which is basically after the ROU depreciation, is near MYR 400 million. Coming out of good EBITDA development, which is of 25.4%, and also the CapEx spend, slower rollout in EDOTCO, deferment of CapEx spend in Dialog and Smart. Net debt to EBITDA, I think that's a strong improvement coming out of strong EBITDA growth, to 3.01%, compared to the last year, Quarter Four, at 3.35%. Marginal increase in borrowings, I think Nik will cover in more detail, why, why this borrowings increased. But, but mostly, the improvement coming out of, improvement coming out of EBITDA and EBITDA growth. We've also paid down some of our debt in, the group at the corporate center, MYR 100 million. We've been ahead of the headline KPIs, which we have set, but we are cautious the full year numbers, given the challenges on macro environment haven't vanished. And we expect us to remain in line with the guidance given at the beginning of the year, which is a low single-digit growth means, growth. If I look at each of the individual companies, Hans, Nik, you can... XL, I think double profit, coming a lot around the market repair, ARPU improvement, which is reflected in year-on-year revenue growth, as well as cost excellence efforts being made by the company. And that's basically translating down into EBITDA a bit as well as the profit line. Robi, as I said earlier, continues to show strong data revenue growth and cost optimization reflective in improvement in PATAMI. Dialog, EBITDA margin expands, while the revenue remained subdued because of the hubbing as we pivot away from other business. But the profits impacted because of the high interest rates, especially because of conversion of U.S. debt into LKR. Smart continues to deliver well, as well as profit response, and less impacted because of Forex, because of the dollar denominated operations. Link Net, I think, stabilizing now. We could see improvement, stabilization on head count, on the number of customers, but also improvement in EBITDA coming out of efforts made in lowering down direct cost marketing, manpower and bad debt, as this company prepares for becoming a wholesale fiber operator. But the overall profit continues to be impacted because of the high D&A and net finance cost. This is basically building of fiber home passes for XL to deliver on. So there's always a timing gap between the investment phase of building the fiber home passes and revenue generated from the actual home connect. EDOTCO improved contribution coming from most of the markets, and also effective in the revenue growth and also improvement in EBITDA, largely coming out of improvement in colo co-locations. Some built- to- suit, but mostly improvement in the number of colocations business. And EBITDA, EBIT kind of impacted mainly because of the net high finance cost. Most... I think preparing for launch of Boost Bank in Malaysia, most of the investments is going into the start-up cost for the Boost Bank. Yet revenue is showing a strong improvement with and PATAMI losses coming down. Operational standpoint, developing the ecosystem, which should support the Boost Bank. I think we're seeing continued development on number of users as well as merchants. ADA, a good turnaround for ADA, specifically on the e-commerce and customer engagement with the SMS A2P business we've seen, and also contribution now coming from the new data transformation and AI business, which is resulting in positive development. Compared to the last year, I think we've seen strong improvement on the A2P SMS business relative to, what it was in 2023, and that's basically reflective of the, PATAMI. So I'll hand over to Nik, to go through the details of the financials. Okay, sure. Thank you, Vivek. On this slide, on the reported results, which is on the continuing businesses, the revenue growth was in double digits at 13.3%, contributed by the strong performance from all OpCos, with the exception of Link Net, which was impacted by lower residential and enterprise revenue. EBITDA also posted double-digit growth of 25.4%, and EBIT at 49.9%, where the growth was largely contributed by XL and Robi, from market repair, from ARPU uplift, and also cost optimization. EDOTCO also posted double-digit growth due to higher colocation and lower manpower costs, mainly in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Philippines. PATAMI, though, was lower by about MYR 13 million to MYR 34 million as at quarter 1 2024, which represented a 29.3% contraction on a year-on-year basis. Mainly driven by Forex losses, where in quarter 1 2024, the loss of MYR 91 million compared to quarter 1 2023, where there was actually a gain of MYR 13 million. Finance costs, net finance costs was also higher, mainly driven by XL, Dialog and EDOTCO. On the next slide, on underlying performance. On a constant currency basis, revenue growth of 6.6% was contributed by all OpCos except for Link Net. So Link Net, as I alluded to earlier, is due to the slow recovery of residential segment and the lower contribution from enterprise. For Dialog, the lower contribution was due to the lower contribution from the low-margin hubbing business, which was a conscious decision by us to pivot away from. EBIT growth of 41.3% was largely contributed by XL and Robi, which posted double-digit growth. XL, the ARPU uplift was 10% year-on-year to close at a record high of IDR 44,000. And there was also cost optimization efforts at XL, which lowered direct sales and marketing costs from digitalization initiatives. In Robi, it was also assisted by strong subscriber growth. At EDOTCO, as I indicated earlier, double-digit growth with growth driven by mainly in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Philippines, from higher colocation and lower manpower costs. PATAMI grew by more than 100% as EBIT growth outpaced increase in net finance costs in XL, EDOTCO, and Dialog. Next slide, please. On adjusted operating free cash flow, that grew by more than 100% to just under MYR 400 million, at MYR 397 million. Supported by the strong EBITDA growth of 25.4% in XL, mainly contributed by XL, Robi, and EDOTCO. Furthermore, EDOTCO had lower CapEx from the slower rollout of build-to-suit in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Cambodia, and the phasing of CapEx spend at Dialog and Smart. Next page. On the balance sheet, net debt to EBITDA improved quarter-over-quarter, from 3.36 at the end of Quarter Four 2023, to 3.01x, at the end of Quarter One 2024. This is mainly supported by the strong EBITDA growth. Borrowings, though, on an absolute basis, increased by 2.8%, quarter-over-quarter, to MYR 25.5 billion. Largely due to the USD appreciation hitting EDOTCO's borrowing and also the Holdco USD debt. There were also additional drawdowns from XL, approximately about Indonesia rupiah 1.1 trillion for working capital purposes. Robi, by about BDT 3.7 billion, mainly for spectrum purchase. And at Link Net, roughly IDR 556 billion for the Home Pass rollout. At Axiata company level, there was also a prepayment of $100 million in March, which lowered Holdco cash balance quarter-on-quarter to MYR 1 billion. One thing to note is that while on a Malaysian ringgit basis, quarter-on-quarter, the absolute borrowing grew by about 2.8%, it is worth noting that 2.3% actually relates to Forex translation. Next, on balance sheet. As at first quarter 2024, 64% of group borrowings are on a fixed rate basis, mainly from Axiata company debt, EDOTCO, Dialog, and XL. 64% of the foreign currency borrowing is also unhedged, mainly due to Axiata's 30-year EMTN and the EDOTCO term loan. Plus, there's also USD debt exposure in the frontier markets for both Dialog and Robi. In terms of maturity profile, 20% of group borrowings has a maturity within two years. Yeah, in the next one to two years, whereby for OpCo itself is about 13%. With that, I will pass it back to Vivek to talk about the remaining slides. Yeah. Just quickly on moving forward financially 2024. I think, as I said earlier, we've delivered a strong Quarter 1 2024. We are still cautious about the challenges on macro environment, and as a result, still guidance for the year, similar to what we had said in the previous beginning of the year, which is mid-single-digit growth in revenue, 15% improvement in EBIT. CapEx MYR 6.1 billion, we're still maintaining. Expectation is we should be lower than this number. Next slide. So key developments when it comes to corporate action, I think the MOU, which we've signed, for further discussion with Sinar Mas on potential merger between XL Axiata and Smartfren. It's early stage, early days. I think we've started the process of carrying out due diligence, preparation of business plan, and computation of synergies and potential agreements to be developed and signed, but that will take some time to come to any conclusion or landing on a definitive basis. Regarding, I think recently you would have seen we announced the approvals from the respective boards of the two, the customers from Link Net into XL. We'll have to go through the process of getting the shareholders approval in Link Net, which is planned to be completed by on the twenty-eighth of June. Post that, the transfer of the customers will shift. In the meantime, the two companies are also preparing for the further contracting for home passes after the 1 million, which is currently in progress, gets completed, of another two million. The merger in Sri Lanka, Dialog Airtel, I think is currently underway. We expect the shareholders approval on thirteenth of June. And also, specific regulatory approval, which is pending, should be completed in May. EDOTCO, I think we decided to exit out of Myanmar because of the deteriorating environment in Myanmar. And also that process is currently awaiting regulatory approval. I think the time would take longer, six-12 months. But in the meantime, as this process continues, we will have - we are considering what's the next phase for funding OpCo. So I think risks and opportunities pretty much well known to everybody. I think funding of fiber deployment, while we see a big opportunity of being a fiber wholesale provider, and supporting XL to deliver on home while converged offering, and take a lead there, then we can do it. So we would need investors, and that's the process which we will be running shortly, to see investors in the fiber business. Investments on 5G rollout, I mean, I think there's been not much traction so far in anything out next year, but I think we need to be prepared for that next investment phase for 5G, as and when it comes in the respective market. The earliest one we would expect, probably Indonesia. Spectrum, I think investments would be required by Bangladesh. Indonesia is mostly for the 5G rollout. Opportunities, I think, we have seen a long cycle of high interest rates and strong USD. In our view, that's peaked. The question is timing on when the interest rate starts coming down, whether it happens quarter three, quarter four, one time, two times this year. But the reality is, our view, the interest rates should start coming down. That should help for us exposures in the US dollar funding. I think market rationality in the markets. I think most of our markets we've seen are to improvement. The traders are, in general, reacting positively to any price move upwards. Even whatever the size and scale of the operator is, we've not seen a price war, you call it a price, who's coming in from traders. And we've seen price very hardening in all our markets. I think our efforts around portfolio optimization, fundraise, specifically in the infra business and digital businesses, should support. Some of it would be monetization, but should support further development. So of course, the Dialog and Airtel merger's synergies, which I think, should be delivered once the merger gets completed. In the meantime, both the companies together are preparing for the, for integration plans, but they can be executed only as when the merger gets completed. That's it. I'll hand over back to Claire, and there is an appendix which goes into details across all of them. You can look at it and ask questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Vivek and Nik. Let's move on to the Q&A session. As a reminder, to ask your questions, you may choose to do this verbally. Just raise your hand and wait till your name is called out for your turn. Otherwise, you can also type your question in the chat box. So we can now start our Q&A session. First up is Prem from CGS. Prem, please go ahead. Prem, we can't hear you. Um- Okay, sorry. The unmute finally came on. Okay, thanks for the opportunity. Just one question, really, from me. EDOTCO's recapitalization exercise, how far away are we on that trajectory, and when do you expect for any transaction on that front to be completed? Hi, Prem. Nik here. Hi. On the EDOTCO fundraising, we are still currently reassessing all the options available. As you know, in this continued high interest rate environment, infrastructure company multiples are actually at quite a low levels, right? As such, valuation for the company at the moment is quite unattractive at this present point in time. That said, we continue to review closely with management in terms of their growth plans going forward. What we do know is that as it is today, they are still okay from a funding perspective. That said, we continue to sort of like form some views. We're in the midst of forming some views in terms of what the next steps forward will be with regards to EDOTCO. ... So it sounds like the plans have been delayed somewhat? Yes. Yeah. Okay, and- I wouldn't say delayed. It's probably we are having a rethink in terms of how we want to proceed with EDOTCO. How does this then affect the growth trajectory for EDOTCO, I suppose, especially now that we have taken EDOTCO Myanmar out, how does the P&L of EDOTCO look like over the next two to three years? So the EDOTCO business plan at the moment is still very much predicated on... Well, let's put it this way, with the exception of some of the newer jurisdictions that EDOTCO is operating in, most of the other tower companies are actually self-sustaining, and as such, they continue to grow with their build-to-suits and co-location activities. I think in quarter one itself, we can see a very healthy growth in co-locations for EDOTCO in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Philippines. So yes, the loss of Myanmar will leave a little bit of a dent. However, we still believe that it was the right thing to do, looking at how things are developing on the ground in that particular country. Maybe, just to continue on the same path with EDOTCO, what are your thoughts around growth in Malaysia? Is the other delays at, with DNB slowing down growth at EDOTCO, or do you think the mobile operators are happy to spend these days? I think, EDOTCO, actually, colo in Malaysia is now past 2. It's about 2.3. So while they're not get that many new orders on the expansion, but they have been getting a lot of colocations, and DNB still continues to give orders. As you know, the coverage, they expanded from 80% to 85%, so there are still outstanding colos. And what we've also seen is some of the other tower companies, they have given the orders are more, and those orders are also coming back to EDOTCO. So I think that DNB is progressing, not at the pace that it was earlier, but they're still getting these colos from DNB as well as the other operators. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Prem. The next questions I think we have from Luis from Citi. Luis, please, unmute your line and ask your questions. Hi, good afternoon, and thanks for hosting the call. I had three questions. The first one is just a clarification on Dialog's finance costs. The increase is purely based on the refinancing or, higher interest rates because of the refinancing, or was there a component of it which is related to any, you know, prepayment penalties or fees in order to facilitate the transaction? The second question is involving Link Net. We saw revenues are down 8% Q on Q, but subs were only down 1%, and ARPUs were actually up 4%. Does that mean it's really enterprise that is, you know, causing the revenue decline, for the quarter? Last question is, Vivek did mention that the potential consolidation in Indonesia would take some time, but any targets whether you can have progress within this year, or it's more of a 2025 event? Thank you. So Dialog- Do you want me to first one, Dialog? Yep, yep. Okay, I'll cover the question on Dialog finance costs. This was mainly due to the higher financing rate. Yeah, and there were no essentially one-off prepayment penalties- Mm-hmm ... or fees for the refinancing. On the Lankan rupee borrowings, essentially, a policy rate in Sri Lanka was between the range of 10%-16% during the year. And this is in comparison to USD borrowings, which had raised in the range of 6%-8% on average. Obviously, we are operating in a high interest rate environment at the moment in Sri Lanka, so as the economy improves and as the expectation of rate cuts in the U.S. starts to happen, then there's a possibility that the rate range in the high rate range in Sri Lanka will also moderate as we go forward. On- LinkNet also. Yeah, I think the anomaly that you went out from the fact that the subs and ARPU, which we have published in our quarterly disclosure, relate to the residential business, where revenues dropped by 1% quarter on. However, the inter-enterprise contribution took a step down 6%. Comes mainly due to the fact that the fourth quarter is generally a bumper quarter for enterprise, given that operates for project completions at the end of the year. Also, we've defocused on- ... project-based revenues in order to rationalize some price funds focused on recurring connectivity revenue and less on project-based one-off. So, both these effects, a drop down in enterprise. Thanks, Satya. Your last thing was on, EDOTCO exit from Myanmar or? Indonesia. Was it- Indonesia. Oh, yes, the consolidation in Indonesia. Okay. Look, Look, I mean, I think, as I said, we are at a very early stage. I think the process of due diligence is starting. We started working on the joint, business plans, synergies, et cetera. Our target is to complete by the end of this year, but if you recall, the time it took for the IOH and Indosat and Hutch merger was much longer. So we don't know, it might drag into 2025 or second half of 2025. But given that there is already a precedent in that market, so we should expect regulatory process to be relatively smoother. But I think we'll have to go through this whole process, before, and establish with any certainty, what time we will be able to complete. But as I said, intention is to finish it by the end of this year. Thank you, gents. Very clear. Thanks, Luis. Okay, moving on. We have questions coming from Foong, from CIMB. Go ahead, please, Foong. Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for the call. A couple of questions from me. Firstly, on the potential XL Smartfren merger. Given that Smartfren is a fair bit smaller than XL, what are the main benefits that Axiata is targeting out of this merger? Is it still the cost synergies, or is it perhaps the spectrum that Smartfren has? That's question number one. Question number two on Link Net. Losses narrowed quite substantially on a Q-on-Q basis. Could you share what happened there? Were there any exceptional items that boosted the number in the first quarter? And then, thirdly, also regarding Link Net, can you give us an update on the capital-raising exercise? Has it started, and when is it expected to be completed? Yep, those are my three questions. Thank you. Okay, let me take the first one, and maybe, second one was on? Linknet. Link Net was right. Nice. So on the XL, I think the rationale is quite clear. Spectrum deficit is one of the key factors. As you know, the XL has around 90 megahertz of spectrum, whereas the other two are around 50 megahertz of spectrum. That does put the challenge for XL to both build on 4G as well as plan for the 5G rollout. Spectrum is one thing. Second, I think, is also the fact that it combined closer to being number three, okay? And we do see, and not quantify, synergies should be quite similar. IOH has scale may be slightly lower than the IOH merger. Third thing is, obviously, improves the market structure. Consolidation in three-player market, which we've seen in other footprints of ours, does help, in terms of market structure, improvement. And I think also the fact that, there are assets, over and above just the two companies, which also can be further, benefiting. For example, the fiber, they bring the, associate company, and also the fact that Link Net is, is again an associate, helps strengthen company. So I think from a rational perspective, these are the factors which is there. Yes, cost synergies would be a substantial part of the business benefit, which will come. Also provides, then ability for us to kind of, with spectrum, kind of, expand our position in that market. Link Net, yeah. Yeah, so you're right, assets have narrowed overall the business, in a much more stable situation now. On one hand, churn and, conversion of gross additions into net additions has also been, substantial traction. The ARPU increase of 5.2% year-on-year got, realized largely in the Q4, Q1 period. In addition to that, there's a significant cost takeout, rationalizing of the outsourced cadre, right-sizing the business in preparation for the conversion to a fiber co, and I think we'll continue to see traction on these initiatives on the offer. So net-net, that- ... these two, both revenue effect as well as the cost side have stabilized. They rather narrowed them. What's sustainable? So on the capital raise, I think, we are obviously have to restructure Link Net, which is what is the immediate priority for us, which is what we said, converting Link Net into a pretty much fiber wholesale company. Currently, Link Net has four businesses. One is a consumer residential business, enterprise business, the media business, and the fiber business. So I think it's basically, positioning capital raises required for the fiber business. So I think that the exercise of carving out customers, and also looking at the overall structure of Link Net is something which is, being done at the moment. But we do expect, pretty soon to start the exercise of looking at, capital raise, for Link Net. But I think that would follow, and first priority is to have the restructuring of Link Net. Okay, thank you. If I can just put in one additional question on EDOTCO. So if I look at the PowerPoint slide, page 21, I presume that's on a continuing basis. The PATAMI is showing a negative... showing a net loss in the first quarter of 2024, of about MYR 47 million. So I'm wondering whether what's causing this, and does that mean that, you know, post the sale of EDOTCO Myanmar, EDOTCO's PATAMI on a recurring basis going forward is still in a net loss position? I think one is the finance cost has been high, because, you know, some of the towers we acquired, specifically in Philippines, was all from, mostly from the debt financing. I think that's one of the reasons. Second is the Forex impact. So some of the debt is also dollar-denominated debt, to be driving pressure, stability of it. Vic? Did you hear us, Foong? Yeah. Yes, I did. Yeah. I think Adlan was... Yeah, if you- Go ahead. If I may add, Foong, if you- Yep ... actually, yeah, that mainly is due to the unrealized Forex. Yes. Yeah, if you take out the unrealized Forex, we are in on a positive territory- On a continuing ... on a continuing basis. Okay. So if I take out the unrealized Forex, what would be the normalized PATAMI for- We are at about 1.1 million, About 1 million ... profit. Yes. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay, got it. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you, Foong. We don't seem to have any further questions at this point in time. Okay, good. Thank you very much for joining the call today. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you. We'll, we'll catch you all next quarter then. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thanks, and take care.