Axiata: Cash Flow Positive

So for the first time Axiata, Malaysia’s second-largest mobile phone company Axiata may consider paying a dividend from 2011 as improving business conditions have helped bolster its balance sheet, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

A likely payout to shareholders would be the first dividend from the company since its listing in 2008 after it was split from Telekom Malaysia.

“We have not made any decision ... However given the strength of our balance sheet, especially our cash and debt position, we are in good position to consider it from 2011 onwards,” Axiata’s CEO Jamaludin Ibrahim told Reuters in an interview.

Axiata’s 2009 net profit tripled to 1.65 billion ringgit, helped by strong performance of its overseas subsidiaries in Indonesia and Bangladesh unit AxB.

The firm, which has a market value of $9.5 billion, turned free cash flow positive for the first time in 2009 and slashed its gross debt to earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) ratio to 2.4 times from 4.6 times.