PTCL’s profit falls 26pc as rupee depreciation bites

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited’s (PTCL) profit fell 26 percent to Rs3.946 billion for the nine months ended September 30 as currency devaluation bit its earnings during the period, the company said on Thursday.

The country’s leading telecommunication firm recorded Rs5.34 billion in profit during the corresponding period a year earlier. The telco didn’t announce any cash dividend. “PTCL Group’s operating profit for the period improved by 65 percent, however its net profit declined by 26 percent mainly due to adverse impact of currency devaluation of Rs1.4 billion during the current year and positive one-offs of Rs2.3 billion in last year,” the company said in a statement. “Like-for-like net profit of PTCL Group would have been higher by 27 percent compared to the last year.”

PTCL Group’s revenue grew six percent to Rs93.21 billion for the nine-month period as a result of positive contribution by all group companies. PTCL’s revenue for the nine months period has been stable at Rs52.6 billion. Its flagship fixed broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) service posted revenue growth of seven percent in January-September over the same period a year ago.

“This includes the 31 exchanges fully transformed to date where DSL growth was even higher at 15 percent,” the company said.

PTCL said its corporate business continues to perform strongly and has shown a significant growth of 14 percent, by signing new customers in managed services, cloud infrastructure services, IT and security solutions.