GP revenue rises 18pc in Q3

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FE Report Grameenphone's revenue grew by 18 per cent to Tk 22.83 billion in the the third quarter (Q3) of 2011, an increase of Tk 3.49 billion from the same period last year, the country's biggest cellphone company said. The company, majority owned by Norway's Telenor Group, recorded Tk 95 million incremental revenues, compared to the high growth performance in the second quarter of the year. The year on year revenue growth mainly came through contribution from subscription and traffic revenues fuelled by steady subscription growth and contributions from data, roaming and wholesale businesses, company officials said. GP's subscription base now stands at 35.2 million with approximately 44 per cent market share. "I am happy to inform our honourable shareholders that the company has been able to uplift the business growth momentum even in a daunting regulatory environment", said Tore Johnsen, CEO of GP. He also noted that GP, as a company, stayed put and did not lose focus on delivering the best telecommunication services towards the remotest corner of the country as well as creating maximum value for shareholders' money. Towards the commitment of further expanding the rural horizon, GP has managed to add 32,000 more retailers into its robust distribution network during the quarter taking the total retail outlets close to 300,000. Capitalising on this reinforcement, 1.4 million new users were added, posting a growth of 23 per cent from the same period of 2010. Net profit after taxes for the third quarter of 2011 was Tk 5.63 billion with 24.7 per cent margin compared to Tk 2.91 billion with 15.0 per cent margin of the third quarter of 2010. Higher profit for this period was mainly due to consistent revenue growth and improvement in relative performance in cost areas, which was partly offset by higher income tax expenses. EBITDA margin for the third quarter of 2011 was 57.8 per cent, which also has increased by 5.9 percentage points compared to the third quarter of 2010. As a result, Earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter of 2011 stood at Tk 4.17 compared to Tk 2.15 of the same period of 2010. For the first nine months of 2011, EPS was Tk 9.18 compared to Tk 5.73 for the same period of 2010. GP invested Tk 4.49 billion during the third quarter of 2011 for network modernisation, capacity and quality enhancement. With this, GP's cumulative investment since inception now stands at Tk 16.797 billion, the company said in a statement. GP, the largest taxpayer of the country, paid Tk 13.08 billion to the national exchequer during the third quarter of 2011 in the form of taxes, VAT and duties, which sums up the accumulated contribution to the national exchequer to Tk 22.15 billion since its inception. Grameenphone has submitted its application for renewal of 2G license in the prescribed form along with necessary documents on 10 October 2011, the statement said. The submission was done following the final regulatory and licensing guidelines of cellular mobile phone operator license published by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) on 11 September 2011. Grameenphone has received a claim of Tk 30.34 billion from Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) referring to findings of the audit that the regulator carried out during the last few months starting from April 2011. Grameenphone has, during and after the audit, through discussion and formal letters, contended and clarified to BTRC and the auditor that the acceptable audit norms and practices have not been followed during and after the audit and the claims made remains unfounded, unsubstantiated and without merit. Telenor shares Grameenphone's view that the claims are unsubstantiated and expects that the licence renewal process will run unaffected by this dispute.