Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has announced its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019 at its Board of Directors’ meeting on Tuesday.
PTCL’s Board of Directors has declared a final cash dividend of 5pc i.e. Rs 0.50 per share, which is in addition to the interim cash dividend of 5pc i.e. Rs 0.50 per share. The total dividend for the year thus stands at 10pc i.e. Rs 1.00 per share.
PTCL revenue has shown a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 2.1pc 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 48pc in its revenue over last year as a result of a rapid expansion in its branch network. PTCL Group posts operating profit and net profit for the year of Rs 6.7 billion and Rs 2.4 billion respectively. Decrease in profits is attributable to higher inflation, significant rupee devaluation, increase in interest rates and hike in power tariffs.
PTCL revenue of Rs 71.5 billion for the year is slightly higher than last year. PTCL’s flagship fixed broadband services posted a revenue growth of 5pc YoY. Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), deployed in 11 major cities of Pakistan, has 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. In addition to the network upgrade, PTCL also took other customer centric initiatives like experience management, implementation of customer-care systems and adoption of related best practices.
This year, PTCL 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 13pc overall revenue growth by securing new and strategic ICT and cloud projects. PTCL has successfully maintained and expanded its market leadership in the IP bandwidth business. This expansion coupled with growth in VSAT has enabled PTCL to become the sole bandwidth provider for different cellular, LDI and local loop operators.
PTCL’s operating profit for the year has decreased by 24% from last year. It remained under pressure mainly due to increase in operating cost on account of inflation, significant hike in power tariffs and currency devaluation.
PTCL has posted a Net Profit after Tax of Rs 6.3 billion for the year, which is 14.5pc lower than last year. Increase in non-operating income (net of finance cost), due to higher income on investments as a result of increase in interest rates and translation gain on forex denominated assets, has helped reduce the 24pc decrease at operating profit level to 14.5pc at the net profit level.
