Axiata continues to receive strong support from shareholders at its 31st Annual General Meeting

On behalf of the Board, I am pleased to conclude the successful 31st Annual General Meeting for Axiata. I would like to express gratitude to all our shareholders for their participation and continued support as the Group navigated a challenging period. Axiata has demonstrated a prudent yet progressive approach in enhancing its overall resilience which was made possible by its strong execution capabilities and agility.

Amidst the prevailing macroeconomic conditions, rapidly changing operating environment and evolving regulatory requirements, we continued to take meaningful steps in executing our Axiata 5.0 Vision to drive sustainable business growth and build digital inclusivity, connectivity and ecosystems that empower communities and businesses. The Group is encouraged that its efforts to advance an inclusive digital economy and society have earned it an improved ranking to 22nd on the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Digital Inclusion Benchmark, which evaluates the world’s 200 most influential digital technology companies on their responsibility to foster digital inclusion across the sector.

Sustainability and climate action continues to be an important focus of the Group. Axiata formalised a Board Sustainability Committee and refreshed its Sustainability Framework to drive its aspiration towards advancing a digital future, where people, the planet and business can collectively thrive. Following the launch of the Axiata Net-Zero Carbon Roadmap in 2022 in alignment with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) Business Ambition, Axiata embarked on adopting the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), planned over a period of three years, to prepare the business in mitigating climate impacts and risks and realising future opportunities.

Axiata delivered a solid financial performance and continued to meet customers’ digital needs despite a rapidly changing operating environment underscored by macroeconomic headwinds. We remained resilient and have strengthened our foundation for sustainable value creation. By delivering on decisive corporate transactions, including the Celcom-Digi merger, creating the largest mobile telco in Malaysia; the completion of the joint acquisition of Link Net, one of Indonesia’s leading fixed network service providers, with XL Axiata; the expansion of the tower business in the emerging market footprint, namely Philippines and Indonesia; and embarking on establishing a digital bank in Malaysia; Axiata continued to focus on creating a digital future for our customers and enhancing stakeholder value, building on our strategy to evolve into a diversified, next-generation Digital Telco.

We remain on track in our digital transformation journey, with the recognition of being one of the first three telcos globally to earn ‘running on Open Digital Architecture (ODA)’ status by the TM Forum. Our digital transformation serves as a value creation platform for Axiata, to simultaneously foster equitable growth while preserving trust with our stakeholders. Against this backdrop, we have embarked on our strategic journey from Telco to TechCo. We see this as crucial to harnessing synergies with the Group to unlock future value and securing growth by leveraging existing assets amidst the changing needs and expectations of the industry and stakeholders.

As we look forward, recalibrating and looking at the Group’s businesses through a ‘de-layering’ lens of our business model will be instrumental for our long-term growth, as demonstrated by the formation of FibreCo and ServeCo in Indonesia. At the core, we are forging clarity in defining our assets to create specialisation and greater efficiency, to maximise their potential for value creation for stakeholders. While excelling in operational performance remains a key enabler of success, we will continue to stay focused on our transformation journey, and I am confident that Axiata can continue to play a key role in supporting businesses and communities to advance their growth and build collective success – towards a digitally-enabled future.