The research house said Maxis’s fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2015 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was up 0.9% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) (8.4% year-on-year) on slightly higher revenue and margin. Its core net profit fell 6.5% q-o-q (5.8% yoy) due to a higher tax rate. For FY15, EBITDA/core net profit grew by a decent 4.1%/0.8% y-o-y.

“This was largely in line with expectations, with FY15 EBITDA/core net profit at 103%/98% of our FY15 estimates (consensus: 103%/105%). But its FY15 dividend per share of 20.0 sen (4Q15: 5.0 sen) was below our expectation (23.5 sen), at 87% FCF payout,” CIMB said.