PTCL Q3 profit down 18pc to Rs1.366 billion

KARACHI: Profit of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the country’s leading telecom and ICT services provider, declined 18 percent to Rs1.366 billion in the third quarter of 2020, translating into earnings per share (EPS) of Re0.27, a bourse filing said on Wednesday.

The company earned Rs1.673 billion with EPS of Rs0.33 in the quarter ended September 30, last year. The company did not announce any cash dividends.

PTCL’s gross profit took a hit of 6 percent to clock in at Rs3.906 billion, down from Rs4.161 billion in the same quarter last year, on account of cost of services, which went up two percent to Rs14.135 from Rs13.841 in July-September 2019. Revenues improved slightly to reach Rs18.041 billion in Q3 from Rs18.002 in the same quarter last year.

The PTCL Group in its statement reported revenue of Rs96 billion for the nine months ended September 2020. “When normalised for the impact of COVID-19 and certain regulatory changes affecting Ufone, Group revenue is 4.2 percent higher than 2019 on a like-for-like basis,” it said. UBank continued its growth momentum and has achieved a double digit growth in its revenue over last year.

As the post-COVID situation got better and the markets opened up after the lockdowns, PTCL Group performance showed signs of improvement.

The Q32020 consolidated revenue went up 3.4 percent to Rs32.744 billion from Rs31.660 billion in the same quarter of last year.

During Q3, PTCL wireline segment showed positive trends. The company recorded the highest ever sale in broadband for any quarter since Q42014. “Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) continues to grow with consistent growth in subscriber base during the period with a promising outlook,” it stated.

Wireless (CharJi) segment continued with subscriber base increasing by 21 percent on YoY basis. Retail business recorded six percent growth in revenue between Q32020 versus Q22020.

Corporate and wholesale businesses continued their growth momentum as well and achieved a six percent overall revenue growth YoY.