Robi logs highest ever half-yearly profit

With a staggering 223% growth in profit, Robi Axiata posted its highest-ever profit in the first half of 2024 amid growing macroeconomic and regulatory challenges.

The consolidated net profit of the country's second-largest mobile network operator surpassed Tk200 crore, with a 4.75% increase in revenue, according to its unaudited quarterly reports.

Additionally, its profit jumped by 341% year-on-year to Tk107 crore in the April-June quarter.

Rajeev Sethi, managing director and CEO of Robi, said, "Despite the economic woes and the mounting regulatory challenges, we are happy to see Robi continuing on its growth trajectory. We have continued to invest heavily in our network to ensure a quality experience for our customers' rapidly growing data consumption."

"Unfortunately, the significant taka devaluation that took place due to the introduction of the crawling peg method for currency exchange rate adjustment and the rising borrowing costs knocked off a large chunk of our profit for the quarter, despite a razor-sharp focus on efficient cost management," he added.

The company reported revenue of Tk5,120 crore in the January-June period, including revenue from contracts with customers and lease revenue, according to its statements.

Of the revenue from contracted customers, over 93%, or Tk4,759 crore, was contributed by mobile services, which includes voice, non-voice tariff, data, subscription, and connection fees.

Interconnect services, sales of devices, and other revenues, which include commission, IT professional services, and digital services, contributed Tk331 crore to its revenue, the statements show.

The telecom operator reached a new milestone in terms of subscribers, as its total subscribers increased to 5.95 crore, with 14 lakh new subscribers added in the April–June period. Of the total subscribers, 4.54 crore were internet users, and 3.76 crore were 4G users. In relation to the total active subscriber base, 76.3% were internet users, and 63% were 4G users.

Having added 325 new 4G sites, Robi's total 4G site count reached 17,715 by the end of Q2 2024, ensuring 98.93% population coverage, according to a press release issued to the media.

A press release issued on Monday (29 July), showed that in the April-June quarter, voice and data revenue grew by 7.7% and 2.5%, respectively, compared to the previous quarter.

Robi invested Tk1,043 crore in the first half of the year.

Speaking on the ongoing drive for quality of services (QoS) from the regulator, Rajeev Sethi said, "We welcome the closer scrutiny from the regulator on improving QoS for our subscribers. I am happy to note that Robi is consistently offering better quality than what is expected as per the QoS regulation."

"As a customer-centric company, we are fully committed to collaborating with the regulator to ensure world-class quality for our customers in light of the existing QoS regulation," he added.

Robi commenced operations in 1997 as Telekom Malaysia International (Bangladesh) with the brand name "Aktel." In 2010, it was rebranded as Robi, and the company changed its name to Robi Axiata Limited. The company also merged with Airtel.

The mobile network operator raised Tk523 crore from the stock market through an initial public offering in 2020. Axiata Group Berhad owns 61.82% of Robi, Bharti Airtel of India owns 28.18%, and the general public holds the remaining 10%.

On Monday, its share price closed at Tk23.4 each at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), which is 2.50% lower than the previous trading session.