axiata shares fell monday as analysts said the market is digesting news on its outlook from a friday briefing the malaysian telecommunications conglomerate stock fell by as much as 65 and were last trading at 276 ringgit down 52 on the day and 11 in the year to date kenanga investment bank analyst ahmad ramzani ramli said in an email that axiata said in the friday briefing that it will continue with its expansion and transition to become a telcotech company and it didnt provide news about a strategic investor for its telco tower unit edotco all this indicates axiatas debt or borrowings will still be elevated despite what the its target of a gross debtebitda of 25x currently at 34x by 2025 he said apex securities research analyst lee cherng wee said the share price weakness is probably due in part to chief executive vivek sood saying during the briefing that the company expects to issue a lower dividend of myr010 per share for 2023 impacted by the merger of celcom axiata and digicom axiata declared a myr014 dividend per share last year axiatas weakerthanexpected firstquarter earnings may also be weighing on shares he said in an email axiata said thursday that its first quarter swung to net profit of myr739 million from net loss of myr43 million a year earlier mainly due to higher revenue and narrower forex losses quarterly revenue rose 79 to myr538 billion thanks to mobile operations in indonesia and cambodia