GP's half-yearly net profit doubles

Grameenphone's net profit more than doubled to Tk 1,060 crore between January and June from the same period a year ago, thanks to healthy revenue growth from 3G data services.

The company's revenue from 3G, high-speed internet services launched in October last year, was Tk 50 crore in the second quarter of 2014.

The astronomical earnings by the country's largest mobile phone operator were helped by subscriber growth and revenue from 2G data, SMS and content services.

GP's revenue in the first six months of this year was Tk 5,110 crore, up 7.8 percent from the same period last year. Service revenue grew by 7.5 percent year-on-year along with 14.3 percent growth in device and other revenues.

The net profit in the second quarter went up by almost 10 times to Tk 544 crore, from Tk 56 crore during April-June period of last year.

“GP managed another growth quarter as indicated last time, giving the first half a solid base to finish 2014 with a healthy performance,” said Vivek Sood, chief executive officer of Grameenphone.

“Stable political environment, improving economic activities and GP's strong traction in the market contributed to this elevated performance,” he said.

“Its strategic ambition of internet for all and enabling position on mobile financial services has been well executed.”

However, the telecom industry is challenged by high VoIP (voice over internet protocol) traffic via some operators, he said.The half-yearly earnings per share of the country's lone listed mobile operator more than doubled to Tk 7.85 from the same period a year ago.

The healthy earnings prompted GP to announce 95 percent interim cash dividends for shareholders for this year.

“This reinforces GP's commitment towards creating value for shareholders,” Sood said.

The earnings news gained the company's stock 1.55 percent, pushing it to Tk 293.50 per share on the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.

GP started the second quarter in the stockmarket with significant buy pressure from foreign investors, consequently creating a strong rally. After that, it performed flat in the middle of the quarter with some momentum injected by healthy earnings.

Between April and June, GP added 60 lakh subscribers to take the tally to 4.92 crore, which is approximately 42.1 percent of the total market share.

The company invested Tk 650 crore in the first six months of this year for 3G rollout in all 64 district headquarters, 2G coverage and capacity and efficiency enhancement.