Economic gloom casts shadow on Robi's revenue
The economic gloom that resulted from political unrest in the first three months this year may take a toll on the revenue growth of Robi, a senior official of the mobile operator said.
The operator had a target to cross the Tk 5,000-crore mark in earnings this year, with a 9 percent growth year-on-year.
"But that will not be possible due to the revenue losses in the first quarter," Yap Wai Yip, chief financial officer of the second largest telecom operator in terms of revenue, told The Daily Star in an interview recently.
Robi, which has been in Bangladesh for the last 18 years, earned around Tk 4,940 crore in 2014.
“I can't say we will cross the Tk 5,000-crore mark as the market is not growing although the political turmoil is over,” he said.
Robi's revenue fell 9 percent to Tk 1,216 crore in the first quarter of 2015, compared to the previous quarter, he said. The revenue was, however, 4 percent higher year-on-year, the official said.
The year-on-year net profit also marked an 11.20 percent fall in the first quarter of 2015.
People were cautious and spent less on telecom services during the political turmoil, he said. But the situation is changing now, he said.
The political unrest also affected Robi's network deployment and its efforts to widen 3G coverage, said Yip, who has been serving Robi for more than a year.
He earlier worked at Robi's parent company Axiata.
The intense competition in the local market has affected the average revenue per user (ARPU) for all operators in recent years, he said.
Last year, Robi's ARPU was Tk 157 compared to Tk 161 in the previous year. It was Tk 169 in 2012 and Tk 178 in 2011. The ARPU will come down this year as well, the official said.
Despite lower revenues, Robi's profit in the January-March period this year rose slightly—2 percent—compared to October-December of last year.
Robi met the earnings targets in the past two years; but the investors said they would have got better returns had they invested in other countries, according to Yip.
Although the mobile operators play a big role in digitisation, they still have to pay high taxes, the official said. “We have long been talking with policymakers about the tax issues. But we found no positive result so far,” Yip said.
A comparative study should be conducted on the market, taking tax, investment and growth of the operators into consideration, he said.
Bangladesh has 12.59 crore active SIMs as of May and the mobile phone penetration rate is close to 80 percent.
The penetration rate would be more than 100 percent if the children and elderly—who are not regular users—are excluded, he said.
So, it will be tough for the operators to strengthen their customer base, the official said. It will also not be easy for a new operator to enter the market, he said.
The government has a plan to allow a new mobile operator to start operation.
Robi has divided the Bangladesh market into different zones, and has taken plans to improve its service quality in less-developed zones, Yip said.
“The segmentation will help us give our customers better services.”
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