Bangladesh’s leading mobile operator Grameenphone’s profit fell sharply by over 47% to Tk5.1bn in the first half of this year as compared to Tk9.7bn of the corresponding period of last year.
The company witnessed the slump in profit despite its revenue increasing by 2.2% to Tk47.4bn from Tk46.4bn up to June 30 last year.
As the company results were published on the DSE website, the share price dropped by Tk34.5 or about 15% to Tk198 each.
“The increased corporate tax in the budget has an impact on the profitability,” Fridtjof Rusten, chief financial officer of Grameenphone, told a press briefing at a hotel in Dhaka yesterday.
“We have to adjust Tk4bn for last 18 months earnings, which brings down our profit.”
He said the real profit of the first half is Tk9.1bn, but after reducing the Tk4bn tax net profit stands at only Tk5.1bn.
The company made profit of Tk4.5bn in the first quarter and only Tk600m in the second quarter.
“GP managed to turn around in the market with geared up growth momentum, which got stalled during 2012,” said Vivek Sood, CEO of Grameenphone Ltd.
“Customer centric and value-driven market initiatives in accordance with enthusiastic and strong field presence helped GP in our achievements. We now have regained the strong foothold and are positioned to stay competitive in the coming periods.”
The company, however, declared an interim cash dividend for its shareholders at90% or Tk9 for each share of Tk10 for first half of the year. Record date for entitlement of interim dividend is July 29. The dividend is similar to what they announced for the same period last year.
Replying to a question, Fridtjof Rusten said they declared more dividends as compared to earnings due to shareholders’ demand.
The company took the dividend decision at a meeting in Bangkok on Wednesday night.
The earnings per share for the period stood at Tk3.78, NAV per share Tk25.04 and NOCFPS Tk11.18 as the information posted on the Dhaka Stock Exchange website. The EPS was Tk7.16 at the same period of last year.
Grameenphone said they managed to deliver this growth amid intense market competition, political unrest and inclement weather across the country.
The growth is attributed to attractive campaign-driven usage, continued increase in non-voice revenues, higher device sales, adjacent business and one-time recognition of deferred SIM replacement revenue.
The company’s total revenue for the second quarter of 2013 was TK23.9bn, up by 3.2% from the same period of 2012.
During the quarter, Grameenphone added 2.2 million subscriptions, taking the quarter-end subscription base to 43.9m, representing approximately 42% of market share.