PTCL profit declines 14.5 percent in 2019

LAHORE: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) profit declined 14.5 percent to Rs6.347 billion translating into earnings per share (EPS) of Rs1.24 for the period ended December 31, 2019, a bourse filing said on Tuesday.

PTCL earned Rs7.422 billion with EPS of Rs1.46 during the period ended December 31, 2018, notice to the Pakistan Stock Exchange said. The country’s leading telecom and ICT services provider has declared a final cash dividend of Re0.50/share ie 50 percent and similar amount as interim cash dividend, which brings the total dividend for the year to Re1/share at 10 percent.

The company’s non-operating income (net of finance cost) increased due to higher income on investments as a result of increase in interest rates and translation gain on foreign exchange denominated assets, a company statement said. PTCL Group’s revenue also shows a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 2.1 percent to reach Rs 129.5 billion.

All Group companies have contributed positively towards this growth. “Ufone continued its acquisition drive in 2019 to cross 23 million subscribers resulting in an improved market share. U Bank, a microfinance banking subsidiary of PTCL, has shown significant growth of 48 percent in its revenue over last year as a result of a rapid expansion in its branch network,” the statement noted.

PTCL’s operating profit for the year decreased 24 percent from last year. It remained under pressure mainly due to increase in operating cost on account of inflation, significant hike in power tariffs, increase in interest rates, and currency devaluation.

PTCL revenue of Rs71.5 billion for the year was slightly higher than last year. Its flagship fixed broadband services posted a revenue growth of 5.0 percent YoY. Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH), deployed in 11 major cities of Pakistan, enhanced the value proposition of PTCL brand.

“The recent upgrade in its fixed line network infrastructure has enabled PTCL to significantly reduce customer complaints and offer high speed internet packages to its customers.”

The company said that in addition to the network upgrade, it also took other customer centric initiatives like “experience management, implementation of customer-care systems and adoption of related best practices”.

This year, the telecom company has been recognised for its customer services at the 14th annual CEM Telecom Awards during the Telecom Global Summit held in London. Corporate and Wholesale businesses continued their growth momentum from 2018 and have achieved 13 percent overall revenue growth by securing new and strategic ICT and cloud projects. Wireless revenue for the year has declined on YoY basis due to strong competition by the cellular companies providing wireless data services.

“There is continued decline in voice revenues due to continued conversion of subscribers to OTT, cellular services and illegal/grey traffic termination resulting in declining voice traffic volumes,” the statement said.