Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), telecom and ICT services provider, has announced its financial results for the nine months’ period ended September 30, 2019 at its Board of Directors’ meeting held in Islamabad.
PTCL Group’s revenue for the nine months has grown year-on-year (YoY) by 4.5% to Rs. 98 billion. Ufone revenue has increased 6% YoY, UBank, a microfinance banking subsidiary of PTCL, has shown significant growth of 50% in its revenue over last year. PTCL Group’s operating profit and net profit for the nine months have decreased by 15% and 32% respectively as a result of high inflation, significant devaluation of PKR against USD and higher power tariffs.
PTCL revenue of Rs. 53.8 billion for the nine months is slightly higher than last year by 0.4%. PTCL’s flagship Fixed Broadband services posted revenue growth of 5%. PTCL continues its journey to upgrade its top revenue generating exchanges under Network Transformation Project (NTP) in different parts of Pakistan. For the 95 exchanges fully transformed to date in 12 cities, YoY revenue growth is even higher at 12% and there is a 35% reduction in customer complaints. Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH), deployed in major cities with more than 100,000 lines, has received a positive response from the customers. Corporate, Wholesale and International businesses continued their growth momentum from 2018 and has achieved 7% overall revenue growth. PTCL has entered into strategic partnership with a local telecom operator for its network expansion, with edotco to enhance Pakistan’s connectivity capabilities and Irdeto for Wi-Fi management and parental control functionalities.
Wireless revenue for the period 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. PTCL has posted a Net Profit after Tax of Rs. 5.5 billion for the nine months which is 14% higher than same period of last year. Operating profit for the period remained under pressure compared to last year mainly due to increase in operating cost on account of significant hike in power tariffs and currency devaluation.
