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DiGi.Com Bhd will start selling the Apple iPhone in the second quarter of this year, Chief Executive Officer Johan Dennelind disclosed today.

He said this on the sidelines of DiGi’s Deep Green Challenge for Change Finale graced by Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon Magnus and Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

DiGi will be the second mobile telecommunications company to sell the iPhone in the country after Maxis Communication Bhd.

The iPhone entered the local market last year, when Maxis launched the smartphone on July 31.

Since the response to the revolutionary iPhone in Malaysia was overwhelming, Celcom Axiata Bhd recently expressed its interest to also sell the iPhone in Malaysia’s vibrant telecommunication market.

On DiGi’s “Deep Green” initiative, Dennelind said the company had set aside another RM60 million to achieve the target to reduce its carbon footprint by 50 per cent by 2012.

To date, it has invested RM40 million to embed sustainable development into every aspect of the company.

“Challenge for Change is one of many corporate responsibility programmes we have undertaken to address global issues that impact the environment.

“And we are committed to spend up to RM100 million over the course of the next three years to support our Deep Green agenda,” he said.

Six teams from four universities were selected for the final round from a total of 15 teams to undertake projects to design renewable energy solutions for rural, underserved communities in Malaysia.

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Malaysia’s second-largest mobile phone company Axiata Group Bhd is considering paying a dividend from 2011 as improving business conditions have helped bolster its balance sheet, its chief executive said yesterday.

A likely payout to shareholders would be the first dividend from the company since its listing in 2008 after it was demerged 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 chief executive officer Datuk Seri Jamaludin Ibrahim told Reuters in an interview.

Axiata’s 2009 net profit tripled to RM1.66bil, helped by strong performance of its overseas subsidiaries in Indonesia and Bangladesh.

Jamaludin Ibrahim … ‘good position to consider it from 2011 onwards’

The firm, which has a market value of US$9.5bil, 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.

Axiata recorded an EBITDA margin of 42.2% in the quarter ended December, up from 31.7% a year earlier, and compared with 41% recorded by Singapore Telecommunications, South-East Asia’s biggest telecom firm.

“We believe we could maintain the EBITDA margin. Of course the pressure point would come from the competition and also our own investment in mobile broadband.”

Axiata has 120 million mobile subscribers across Asia, up 34% from a year earlier, with a presence in a number of countries including India, Indonesia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka.

The company has a 86.5% stake in Indonesia’s third largest mobile phone operator XL Axiata, which could become the number two player in the world’s fourth most populous nation, after growing aggressively last year.

XL Axiata has a free float of only 0.2% as Emirates Telecommunications Corp controls another 13.3% stake in the Indonesian firm.

Jamaludin said Axiata would always review the possibility of increasing the free float of its Indonesian unit but declined to comment further on the timeline.

“We have said back at the end of 2008 that we are open at possibility in increasing the float up (to) 15%-20%. It is something that we are always looking at, and right now we also looking at it, perhaps more seriously,” he added.

Axiata share price has gained around 27% since the start of the year, outpacing a 1.1% rise in the broader Kuala Lumpur index.

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Glovemaker Supermax Corp Bhd is proposing a bonus issue on the basis of one bonus share for every four existing shares held in the company.

CIMB Investment Bank Bhd said in an announcement on behalf of Supermax that the proposed bonus issue would entail the issuance of 71.4 million shares of 50 sen each to shareholders on a date to be determined by the board of directors.

It said the rationale behind the bonus issue was to increase the capital base of the company to a level which would better reflect the current scale of operations as well as enable shareholders to have increased equity participation through greater number of shares.

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