GP profit falls in third quarter
Grameenphone's net profit slipped 6.86 percent year-on-year to Tk 534.53 crore in the July-September period, according to the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
The mobile operator saw Tk 573.94 crore in net profit in the same period last year, buoyed by the sales proceeds of Tk 100 crore that it received through the sale of 51 percent stake of Grameenphone IT, a subsidiary, to the global software company, Accenture.
The operator's revenue grew 6.10 percent to Tk 7,674 crore in the first nine months of 2014, as compared to the same period last year.
GP also reported a 48.64 percent growth in net profit to Tk 1,592 crore for the first nine months in the current year, against Tk 1,071 crore in the same period last year, mainly due to revenue growth and efficient operations, the company said.
The revenue growth came through increased voice, data, short message and content services, while growth in interconnection revenue, higher device sales, wholesale and financial services also played a role, GP said in a statement. “Competition has been intense throughout the period with some adverse externalities, which hampered the growth trajectory in some instances. Moving ahead, our segmented attitude towards the market and on the ground execution will help GP perform even better and create value for shareholders,” Vivek Sood, its chief executive officer, said at a press briefing at the Westin Dhaka.
“I am excited to inform our shareholders that GP managed to cross a monumental milestone of five crore subscriber base through its enduring commitment of offering innovative and customer centric products and services,” he said. GP acquired 42.5 lakh subscribers between July and September, taking its end-of-quarter subscription base to more than five crore, which is about 42.4 percent of the country's market. The operator invested Tk 929 crore during the period to speed up 3G rollout in all 64 district headquarters and for better 2G coverage, as well as capacity increase for other services.
GP paid Tk 4,648 crore to the state coffer as taxes, value added taxes, duties and licence fees, comprising 61 percent of the company's total revenue in the nine-month period.
Data revenue is growing faster this year following the commencement of 3G operation in the fourth quarter of 2013, BRAC-EPL said in an analysis.
In the third quarter of 2014, the company had more than 10 million active data users (as defined by minimum 150 KB usage within last 90 days) with an average monthly data ARPU (average revenue per user) of Tk 48, it said.
After few quarters of losing SIM market share, the company started more aggressive subscriber acquisition from earlier this year which helped them grow total service revenue by 6 percent with better margin driven by 60 percent on-net calls, BRAC EPL said.
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