Robi profit drops

Mobile operator Robi's net profit fell 9 percent year-on-year to Tk 130 crore in the July-September quarter, its officials said yesterday.

The slump was due to amortisation charge arising from large capital investment to support license acquisition and countrywide 3G network rollout.

However, net profit in the quarter was 14.6 percent higher than in the previous quarter, due to increased income from data business through 3G.

Supun Weerasinghe, managing director and chief executive officer of the third largest operator, said: “We have been seeing good growth in data services since the start of the year as we expand our 3.5G network across the country. We are investing significantly towards expanding our 3.5G network and to support growth in data usage."

However, imposition of an additional surcharge on customer talk time may hinder voice revenue growth, which is already slow, Weerasinghe said at a press briefing at Cirdap auditorium in the capital.

The CEO said their 3G network now covers all the 64 districts. The operator also reported that its profit after tax dropped 4.9 percent to Tk 350 crore in the first nine months of the current year, compared to the same time a year ago.

Revenues in the January-September period were Tk 3,601 crore, 5.8 percent lower than that in the same period last year.

Yap Wai Yip, chief financial officer of the operator, said the overall revenue was impacted by an intense price war and investment for network development.

Robi added 26 lakh new subscribers in the first nine months to reach 2.5 crore, which represents 21 percent subscriber market share, according to a statement.

The total capital investment made in the third quarter of 2014 amounted to Tk 450 crore, while the company's total investment in the first nine months was Tk 1,450 crore.

Matiul Islam Nowshad, chief people and regulatory affairs officer of Robi, also spoke.