Robi incurs losses in second quarter
Mobile phone operator Robi witnessed a Tk 3.42 crore net loss in April-June, after nine quarters of continuous profit, mainly due to accelerated asset depreciation from network modernisation in the Chittagong and Comilla regions.
A tax hike in some segments was also another factor for the loss; its normalised profit was Tk 98.5 crore in the second quarter this year.
Robi posted a Tk 93.9 crore net profit in the second quarter of 2015, the operator's Malaysia-based parent company Axiata Group said in its quarterly report on its website yesterday.
The last time Robi saw a loss was in October-December of 2013; it had recorded a loss of Tk 1.15, according to a previous presentation of the company.
The third largest operator's revenue also declined 3.99 percent year-on-year to Tk 1,243.5 crore in April-June.
Of the total revenue, 12 percent came from the data segment, which was around 10 percent in the same period last year.
Robi, which is awaiting a possible merger with Airtel, continued investing aggressively to fast-track its 3.5G network expansion and improving its 2.5G customer experience both in voice and data services.
It invested Tk 560 crore to expand its 2.5G and 3.5G network coverage nationwide.
“We experienced stable mobile revenue during the second quarter of 2016. However, the biometric re-registration initiative negatively impacted the growth momentum,” said Supun Weerasinghe, managing director of Robi.
“Nevertheless, we are continuing to invest towards expansion and modernisation of the 2.5G/3.5G networks across the country to provide a superior experience to our subscribers,” he added.
The company has network coverage in all 64 districts in Bangladesh through more than 8,700 sites, of which over 4,600 are 3.5G sites.
Challenging business conditions resulting from biometric re-registration of SIMs, an additional 1 percent surcharge and 2 percentage points of additional supplementary duty on all mobile services impacted the growth momentum of the business, said the operator.
Though Robi was the third largest operator by subscribers and second in terms of revenue in the last couple of years, this setback pushed them back to third position in revenue, after Banglalink and Grameenphone.
Robi's gross revenue stood at Tk 2,427 crore with Tk 3.63 crore net profit for the first half of the year. Banglalink recorded Tk 2,450 crore in revenue in the same period although it did not mention its profitability position.
Grameenphone earned Tk 5,560 crore in revenue in the January-June period, with Tk 1,070 crore in net profits, according to the operator's quarterly report.
Despite some challenging conditions, Robi was able to maintain its subscriber base of 2.74 crore, representing 20.9 percent of industry subscriber market share.
Axiata's report showed that the operator's average revenue per user every month declined compared to the immediate past quarter. However, their smartphone penetration increased.
The operator's average monthly income against every subscriber was Tk 135 in the second quarter this year, dropping from Tk 144 in the same quarter last year. Both prepaid and postpaid subscriber spending also declined, according to the report.
The operator's smartphone penetration stood at 24 percent after June, which was 16 percent last year in the same period. Customers' average phone use a month also declined drastically for Robi, standing at 124 minutes in the second quarter compared to 139 minutes just one year ago.
In this quarter, the company contributed Tk 310 crore to the state coffer, representing 24.6 percent of company revenue.
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