Grameenphone Ltd reported a rise in its revenue by 21.3 percent in the first quarter of 2011 from the same time last year.
The telecom operator recorded revenue of Tk 2,067 crore for the first quarter of 2011 — a Tk 363 crore rise from first quarter of 2010, Grameenphone declared at a press conference in Dhaka yesterday.
The growth was mainly from voice, data and interconnection traffic, driven by a 33.8 percent rise in subscription base as well as revenue from the sale of mobile devices.
The increment in revenue was Tk 109 crore, or 5.5 percent, from the fourth quarter of 2010.
Grameenphone reached out to the rural market by expanding its distribution coverage to over 186,000 retail points, while customised products and service innovation, such as dynamic pricing, location-based discount offers on tariff, and Bangla content on low-cost handsets, helped the rural people benefit from the mobile technology.
The number of internet users during the first quarter of 2011 grew by 61 percent compared to a year ago, which indicates market preparedness for 3G technology, said Raihan Shamsi, chief financial officer of Grameenphone.
During the quarter, the operator added 20 lakh subscriptions and ended with a close to 3.2 crore subscription base, serving 43.8 percent of the mobile market.
Net profit after taxes for the first quarter of 2011 was Tk 287 crore, with a 13.9 percent margin, against a Tk 316 crore rise with 18.5 percent margin in the first quarter of last year.
Despite revenue growth, the fall in margin was mainly due to a heavy subsidy of Tk 209 crore in the first quarter of 2011, compared to Tk 81 crore at the same time last year. This has also placed EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) margins down at 47.8 percent for the first quarter of 2011 compared to 55.4 percent in the same quarter of 2010.
As a result, the earnings per share was Tk 2.12, compared to Tk 2.34 in the first quarter of 2011.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
