GP revenue sees marginal rise

Grameenphone reported revenue of Tk 25.2 billion for the first quarter (Q1) of 2015, up marginally by 1 per cent against the corresponding period last year.
“We’ve had a rough start to the year due to political turmoil and intense competition. However, we stood strong and committed to our ambition against this headwind and we have seen signs of improvement in the later part of the period”, Rajeev Sethi, GP’s chief executive officer (CEO) said Monday.
According the financial report, in comparison with last quarter of 2014, GP experienced de-growth of 2.9 per cent. Service revenue grew by 0.8 per cent (YoY) along with 5.2 per cent (YoY) growth in customer equipment and other revenues.
Growth in service revenue was mainly driven by Data and VAS. Data revenue grew by 67.9 per cent along with 37.2 per cent growth of VAS.
During the quarter, GP acquired 0.5 million new subscriptions, taking the year-end subscription base to 52 million. This constitutes 6.8 per cent subscription growth (YoY) with SIM market share of 42.0 per cent. Data subscriber no stood at 11.08 million.
He added, “We are optimistic regarding our ongoing initiatives under usability experience and network superiority in revitalizing the business performance.”
However, despite the challenging first quarter, Grameenphone has pressed on with its ‘Internet for All’ ambition through simplification of its internet portfolio. Moreover the company introduced its first time sustainability report highlighting economic, environmental, social, and governance performance to ensure greater transparency and accountability in its operations.
Report says net profit after taxes for the quarter was Tk 5.4 billion with 21.3 per cent margin compared to Tk 5.2 billion with 20.7 per cent margin of the corresponding period of 2014.
Efficiency in operating expenditure management resulted in higher growth in EBITDA (before other items) of 2 per cent compared to revenue. EBITDA margin also saw an improvement to 54.2 per cent. Earnings per share (EPS) for the period stood at Tk 3.96 compared to Tk 3.82 of 1st quarter of 2014.
“With our prudent granular level efficiency initiatives we have managed to extract profitable growth during the quarter. Our operating cash flow position also stands at a healthy level despite higher amount of capital expenditure”, said Dilip Pal, CFO of the company.
GP invested Tk 3.7 billion during the quarter for further rollout of 3G sites, 2G coverage, capacity enhancement for catering higher volume of data and voice as well as flexibility of IT infrastructure for better product and service offerings.
Meanwhile, GP paid Tk 12.1 billion to the national exchequer, comprising 48 per cent of the total revenue to the national exchequer during the period in the form of taxes, VAT, duties and license fees.
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