GP sees revenue de-growth in Q2
Declares 130pc interim cash dividend
FE REPORT | Thursday, 16 July 2020
Grameenphone Ltd. reported total revenues of BDT 33.1 billion for the second quarter of 2020, registering an 8.2 per cent de-growth from the same period of last year.
Net profit after taxes (NPAT) for the second quarter was BDT 7.3 billion, with 22 per cent margin. Earnings per share (EPS) for the period stood at BDT 5.38. The operator reported 74.5 million total customers, of which 54.8 per cent, or 40.8 million, are internet customers.
"For the past four months, we have been experiencing the impact of an unprecedented global pandemic which has driven us to drastically change our way of work and how we serve our customers. In addition to COVID-19, we have experienced impact from challenging weather and regulatory scenario, all of which combined has driven us to a de-growth in our performance compared to last year." said Yasir Azman, CEO of Grameenphone Ltd.
"We worked relentlessly with our partners, stakeholders, law enforcement and local communities during severe weather conditions, resulting in fast recovery from network outage post-cyclone Amphan."
"The second quarter of 2020 has been challenging for Grameenphone as we experienced an overall slow-down of economy due to the general holidays which started to gradually recover from May," said Jens Becker, CFO of Grameenphone Ltd. "We experienced de-growth in subscription and traffic revenues, even though data revenue stayed on track. Our commitment remains to investing in the country and using our technology expertise to aide the government in battling COVID-19. We are pleased to announce that the Grameenphone Board of Directors declared interim dividend at the rate of 130 per cent of paid up capital."
The record date for entitlement of the dividend is on August 5, 2020.
Its net operating cash flow per share (NOCFPS) was Tk 6.13 for January-June 2020 as against Tk 20.94 for January-June 2019.
The net asset value (NAV) per share was Tk 37.70 as on June 30, 2020 and Tk 28.40 as on December 31, 2019.
Each share of the company, which was listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) in 2009, closed at Tk 242.10 on Wednesday, gaining 1.25 per cent over the previous day.
The GP disbursed total 130 per cent cash dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2019.
Meanwhile, four more listed companies, including three insurers, have recommended dividend for the year ended on December 31, 2019, according to separate official disclosures on Wednesday.