PTCL posts Rs2.7bln 1H profit

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) on Wednesday said it earned a net profit of Rs 2.7 billion for the half-year ended June 30, 2020, which was lower than last year’s, mainly because of COVID-19, high operating costs, and network upgrade expenses.

The telecom firm said PTCL group’s revenue for the six-month period stood at Rs62.9 billion, which was 5 percent lower as compared to the same period of last year.

“If normalised for the impact of COVID-19 and certain regulatory changes affecting Ufone, PTCL group’s revenue was 2.5 percent higher than 2019 on a like-for-like basis,” the company said. It added that U Bank, a microfinance banking subsidiary of PTCL, continued its growth momentum and has achieved a 45 percent growth in its revenue over last year. “The group’s operating profit and bottom line have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and rupee devaluation,” it said. PTCL’s revenue for the half-year reached Rs35.3 billion, 1 percent lower than last year.

The company said its corporate and wholesale businesses maintained its growth momentum and achieved 8 percent overall revenue growth year-on-year. Similarly, international revenue has also improved 6 percent compared to the same period last year. “However, increase in non-operating income on account of disposal of obsolete assets that had become redundant due to upgrade of legacy exchanges and fiberisation of access network, has helped lessen the gap at the bottom-line level with comparative period,” the company said.