Despite sluggish industrial growth, top three mobile operators' profits soar in first half of 2009
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Khaled Shams
Bangladesh's top three mobile operators -- Grameen Phone (GP), Banglalink and TMIB -- performed very well in first half of 2009. Financial details of the top three mobile operators one finally available for public. Unfortunately the rest three operators (Warid, Teletalk and Citycell) do not publish their financial details. Telenor usually reveal their numbers within three to four weeks of quarter end and much ahead of Orascom and Axiata, operating companies of Banglalink and TMIB respectively. Orascom and Axiata numbers are available in seven or eight weeks of any quarter end.
In first six months of 2009 six mobile operators added 2.57 million new subscribers whereas 9.33 million new subscribers were added in the same period of 2008, thanks to government conservative approach to throttle the growth of this sector by not withdrawing SIM tax of BDT 800, Growth will happen from marginal group at the bottom of the pyramid and segment income level is substantially low to afford the entry barrier of BDT 800 to purchase a new SIM.
Six mobile operators made whopping 825 million USD revenue or 57 billion BDT in first six months and set to make around USD 1.7 billion in 2009 that is more than 2.0 per cent of our GDP. GP's revenue were 465 million USD in first six month of 2009 as compared to 429 million USD in first half of 2008; Banglalink made 170 million USD as compared to 132 million USD and TMIB made 131 million USD as compared to 105 million USD during the same period. Top three operators made additional 100 million USD in first six months of 2009 as compared to first half of 2008.
Capex spending for all operators nose-dived heavily as compared to same period of 2008 -- a bad news for all Telco vendors. Most operators made less investment on network expansion, reduced operational cost to improve operational efficiency and many cases reduced SIM subsidy to improve bottom line result. GP's capex investment stands at 69 million USD for first six months as compared to 220 million USD in 2008 for similar period. BL capex was 50 million USD in first six months of 2009 as compared to USD 200 million in similar period of 2008 and TMIB's capex investment stood at 62 million USD as compared to 28 million in first half of 2008.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) reduced the interconnection fees to 25 paisa from 40 paisa and the benefit goes to small operators though GP got negative impact on their revenue. On the whole, 46.78 million people are connected with mobile networks at the end of June 2009 against 43.7 million people as of June, 2008 and it represents slowest growth in the region.
GP's performance in first six months as compared to first six months of 2008 (See Table 1)
Banglalink's performance in first six months of 2009 as compared to first six months of 2008 (See Table 2)
TMIB's performance in first six months of 2009 as compared to first six months of 2008 (See Table 3)
Highlights of top three operators
For the first time top three mobile operators made more than 40 per cent EBITDA margin in second quarter (April-June). TMIB's financial performance was very impressive as compared to first quarter, a huge turn around for TMIB and the company management deserves a praise for this impressive operational efficiency. GP made steady performance with average 59 per cent EBITDA in first half and Banglalink also continuously improving their financial performance since third quarter of 2008.
In general minutes of uses (MOU) in a single month for average subscriber is, increasing for most of the operators that endorses operator's effort to increase uses by offering various promotional offer.
GP's subscriber's end of Q2 stands for 21.63 million. It maintained lead not only in subscribers numbers but also in ARPU (Average revenue per user). GP made average USD 3.5 per month from single subscriber and its nearest rival Banglalink managed to make ARPU of USD 2.6 per user per month followed by AKTEL with ARPU of USD 2.2 per users.
Though operators do not reveal revenues from data services separately, revenue from data services is still less than 2.0 per cent and insignificant as compared to revenue from voice services. This is a strong weakness of our market. In case of advanced market revenue from data services usually varies from 10-20 per cent or even more. It indicates our industry needs to work collectively to increase data usages for the benefit of the industry and nation's overall growth.
Much of the growth in Bangladesh now is coming from outside the major urban centers. With the fast rising subscriber base, falling airtime rates, if our MNOs can create much needed rural thrust and prevalence of information asymmetry among a large section of population, it can make Bangladesh ideal for further growth in mobile telephony. It is obvious that mobile operators need to be chary for their investment but given the huge untapped potential in rural Bangladesh particularly by creating and educating data awareness to increase real connectivity (voice and data) efficiency and the coming of age of our information infrastructure many new things are yet to be done by our operators.
We are in the opinion that Bangladesh market is set for further growth. This sector of the economy needs fresh inputs via technology for higher growth and we are banking on our mighty operators for their due participation.
We expect operators start battling for mobile customers in rural Bangladesh and begin a planned offering that will cater to the growth in rural economy and revenue for operators. We need to take the mobility to the grassroots and make a positive difference to the lives of people in Bangladesh.
It will be able to provide relevant personalised information -- be it agriculture, education or entertainment and enable the application ecosystem for value added services based on user friendly platform.
The writer is an industry analyst and can be reached at
e-mail: khaled.shams@live.com
Bangladesh's top three mobile operators -- Grameen Phone (GP), Banglalink and TMIB -- performed very well in first half of 2009. Financial details of the top three mobile operators one finally available for public. Unfortunately the rest three operators (Warid, Teletalk and Citycell) do not publish their financial details. Telenor usually reveal their numbers within three to four weeks of quarter end and much ahead of Orascom and Axiata, operating companies of Banglalink and TMIB respectively. Orascom and Axiata numbers are available in seven or eight weeks of any quarter end.
In first six months of 2009 six mobile operators added 2.57 million new subscribers whereas 9.33 million new subscribers were added in the same period of 2008, thanks to government conservative approach to throttle the growth of this sector by not withdrawing SIM tax of BDT 800, Growth will happen from marginal group at the bottom of the pyramid and segment income level is substantially low to afford the entry barrier of BDT 800 to purchase a new SIM.
Six mobile operators made whopping 825 million USD revenue or 57 billion BDT in first six months and set to make around USD 1.7 billion in 2009 that is more than 2.0 per cent of our GDP. GP's revenue were 465 million USD in first six month of 2009 as compared to 429 million USD in first half of 2008; Banglalink made 170 million USD as compared to 132 million USD and TMIB made 131 million USD as compared to 105 million USD during the same period. Top three operators made additional 100 million USD in first six months of 2009 as compared to first half of 2008.
Capex spending for all operators nose-dived heavily as compared to same period of 2008 -- a bad news for all Telco vendors. Most operators made less investment on network expansion, reduced operational cost to improve operational efficiency and many cases reduced SIM subsidy to improve bottom line result. GP's capex investment stands at 69 million USD for first six months as compared to 220 million USD in 2008 for similar period. BL capex was 50 million USD in first six months of 2009 as compared to USD 200 million in similar period of 2008 and TMIB's capex investment stood at 62 million USD as compared to 28 million in first half of 2008.
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) reduced the interconnection fees to 25 paisa from 40 paisa and the benefit goes to small operators though GP got negative impact on their revenue. On the whole, 46.78 million people are connected with mobile networks at the end of June 2009 against 43.7 million people as of June, 2008 and it represents slowest growth in the region.
GP's performance in first six months as compared to first six months of 2008 (See Table 1)
| Q109 | Q108 | Q2 09 | Q2 08 | H1 09 | H1 08 | ||
| Revenue | BDT (mil BDT) | 16227 | 15211 | 15845 | 14432 | 32072 | 29643 |
| mil USD | 235 | 220 | 230 | 209 | 465 | 429 | |
| Subs | million | 21 | 17.81 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 20 |
| Capex | BDT (mil BDT) | 2897 | 5712 | 1897 | 5514 | 4794 | 11226 |
| mil USD | 42 | 82.7 | 27 | 80 | 69 | 163 | |
| MOU | minutes/month/sub | 327 | 259 | 301 | 319 | 314 | 289 |
| ARPU | BDT | 250 | 288 | 255 | 257 | 253 | 256 |
| USD | 3.6 | 4.2 | 3.70 | 3.72 | 3.67 | 3.71 | |
| EBITDA | BDT (mil BDT) | 9629 | 7189 | 9371 | 3971 | 19000 | 11161 |
| mil USD | 140 | 104 | 136 | 58 | 275 | 162 | |
| margin | 59% | 47% | 59% | 28% | 59% | 38% |
Banglalink's performance in first six months of 2009 as compared to first six months of 2008 (See Table 2)
| Q109 | Q108 | Q209 | Q208 | H1 09 | H108 | ||
| Revenue | BDT (mil BDT) | 5727 | 4735 | 6003 | 4390 | 11730 | 9125 |
| mil USD | 83 | 69 | 87 | 64 | 170 | 132 | |
| Subs | million | 10.83 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 9 |
| Capex | BDT (mil BDT) | 1518 | 6417 | 1932 | 7797 | 3450 | 14214 |
| mil USD | 22 | 93 | 28 | 113 | 50 | 206 | |
| MOU | minutes/month/sub | 278 | 250 | 267 | 244 | 273 | 247 |
| ARPU | BDT | 172.5 | 193 | 179 | 154 | 176 | 174 |
| USD | 2.5 | 2.8 | 2.60 | 2.20 | 2.55 | 2.52 | |
| EBITDA | BDT (mil BDT) | 1428.71 | 29.118 | 2686 | -826.21 | 4115 | -797 |
| mil USD | 20.71 | 0.422 | 38.93 | -11.97 | 60 | -12 | |
| margin | 24.90% | 0.60% | 44.6% | -18.80% | 35.0% | -8.7% |
TMIB's performance in first six months of 2009 as compared to first six months of 2008 (See Table 3)
| Q109 | Q108 | Q209 | Q208 | H1 09 | H1 08 | ||
| Revenue | BDT (mil BDT) | 4392 | 3609 | 4680 | 3629 | 9072 | 7238 |
| mil USD | 63.652174 | 52.304348 | 68 | 53 | 131 | 105 | |
| Subs | million | 8.76 | 7.45 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 8 |
| Capex | BDT (mil BDT) | 2652 | 1061 | 1624 | 890 | 4276 | 1951 |
| mil USD | 38.434783 | 15.376812 | 24 | 13 | 62 | 28 | |
| MOU | minutes/month/sub | 165 | 172 | 157 | 205 | 161 | 189 |
| ARPU | BDT | 195.27 | 248.4 | 199 | 235 | 197 | 242 |
| USD | 2.83 | 3.6 | 2.88 | 3.40 | 2.86 | 3.50 | |
| EBITDA | BDT (mil BDT) | 1399 | 1896 | 2140 | 1063 | 3539 | 2959 |
| mil USD | 20.28 | 27.48 | 32 | 15 | 52 | 43 | |
| margin | 32% | 39% | 47% | 29% | 39% | 25% |
Highlights of top three operators
For the first time top three mobile operators made more than 40 per cent EBITDA margin in second quarter (April-June). TMIB's financial performance was very impressive as compared to first quarter, a huge turn around for TMIB and the company management deserves a praise for this impressive operational efficiency. GP made steady performance with average 59 per cent EBITDA in first half and Banglalink also continuously improving their financial performance since third quarter of 2008.
In general minutes of uses (MOU) in a single month for average subscriber is, increasing for most of the operators that endorses operator's effort to increase uses by offering various promotional offer.
GP's subscriber's end of Q2 stands for 21.63 million. It maintained lead not only in subscribers numbers but also in ARPU (Average revenue per user). GP made average USD 3.5 per month from single subscriber and its nearest rival Banglalink managed to make ARPU of USD 2.6 per user per month followed by AKTEL with ARPU of USD 2.2 per users.
Though operators do not reveal revenues from data services separately, revenue from data services is still less than 2.0 per cent and insignificant as compared to revenue from voice services. This is a strong weakness of our market. In case of advanced market revenue from data services usually varies from 10-20 per cent or even more. It indicates our industry needs to work collectively to increase data usages for the benefit of the industry and nation's overall growth.
Much of the growth in Bangladesh now is coming from outside the major urban centers. With the fast rising subscriber base, falling airtime rates, if our MNOs can create much needed rural thrust and prevalence of information asymmetry among a large section of population, it can make Bangladesh ideal for further growth in mobile telephony. It is obvious that mobile operators need to be chary for their investment but given the huge untapped potential in rural Bangladesh particularly by creating and educating data awareness to increase real connectivity (voice and data) efficiency and the coming of age of our information infrastructure many new things are yet to be done by our operators.
We are in the opinion that Bangladesh market is set for further growth. This sector of the economy needs fresh inputs via technology for higher growth and we are banking on our mighty operators for their due participation.
We expect operators start battling for mobile customers in rural Bangladesh and begin a planned offering that will cater to the growth in rural economy and revenue for operators. We need to take the mobility to the grassroots and make a positive difference to the lives of people in Bangladesh.
It will be able to provide relevant personalised information -- be it agriculture, education or entertainment and enable the application ecosystem for value added services based on user friendly platform.
The writer is an industry analyst and can be reached at
e-mail: khaled.shams@live.com