The net profit of leading mobile phone operator Grameenphone increased by 29.6% in the January-March'20 period compared to the same period of last year.
According to GP’s financial statement, net profit of the company increased to Tk1,007 crore in first quarter (Q1) of 2020 compared to Tk892.61 crore during the same quarter last year.
Earnings per share (EPS) for the period stood at Tk7.92. It was Tk6.61 for January-March'19.
Grameenphone reported total revenues of Tk3,620 crore for the first quarter of 2020, registering a 3.7% growth from the same period last year.
During the period, the operator also registered a 24.6% growth in data revenue year-over-year.
In the first quarter, the company invested Tk40 crore for network coverage, and added 197 new 4G sites to their network. The total number of sites stands at 16,542. The company also paid out Tk2,460 crore equaling 68% of its total revenues, to the national exchequer in the form of taxes, VAT, duties, fees, 4G license and spectrum assignment.
Grameenphone CEO Yasir Azman said, “We continued to face challenges in the first quarter of 2020. The restrictions placed on us by our regulator by not issuing NOCs lasted until March, which impacted our planned investment in the country".
"Additionally, we were facing a scarcity of numbers from the beginning of the quarter that has negatively impacted our subscriber base. Despite the challenges, our focus remained on market execution and maintaining our network leadership position. Our reinforced drive on 4G conversion led to 14.2 million 4G users at the end of the quarter.” he said.
“Grameenphone Ltd. reported a reduced growth momentum in the first quarter of 2020,” said Jens Becker, CFO of Grameenphone “We experienced strong growth in data revenue despite challenges in our planned network rollout."
