Grameenphone’s quarterly profit drops 3.8% despite revenue growth

Highlights

• Total subscribers at the end of September 8.36 crore
• Customers use GP Internet 4.61 crore
• 55% Y-o-Y growth in 4G data users
• 52.4% Y-o-Y growth in data usages

Grameenphone Ltd registered 1.8% year-on-year revenue growth in the July-September period or the third quarter of this year as it secured more subscribers and data users.

The revenue growth to Tk3,621 crore for the July-September and to Tk10,678 crore for the January-July period, however, seem not to have been enough to offset the moderate hike in many costs including operational ones and taxes.

The company's quarterly earnings per share (EPS) declined by 3.8% to Tk6.34, while the EPS for the nine months dropped 3.32% to Tk19.23.

Over the third quarter, the top-line growth was a result of improving customer experience driven by network rollout and spectrum deployment, the company said in a statement on Thursday.  

Over the three months, the company acquired 16 lakh new subscribers to make the total 8.36 crore at the end of September, 7.7% higher than where it was a year ago.

Growth in data users and usage 

Now, 4.61 crore or 55.1% of its subscribers are using Internet services, the company said.

"Grameenphone remains committed to meeting customers' demand for high-speed Internet connectivity and improving customer experience, continuing with network rollout and spectrum deployment in the third quarter," said Yasir Azman, chief executive officer (CEO) of the company.

"In addition, our drive on market execution and providing tailored offers to our customers resulted in more subscribers choosing Grameenphone as their preferred network," he added.

Adding 24 lakh data users over the quarter, GP registered a 9.7% year-on-year growth in the number.

"As we also continue to focus on driving bundle packs of voice and data to our customers, we see a higher conversion from voice to data users leading to 55% year on year growth in 4G data users and 52.4% increase in data usage from last year," said Yasir Azman.

"The beginning of the third quarter was negatively impacted by the stricter lockdown, but as the rates of Covid-19 started to decline, many restrictions were also eased. Despite this, we continued our network operations with our partners, which remains a key factor behind our continued growth momentum," said Jens Becker, chief financial officer of the company.

During the third quarter of 2021, Grameenphone invested Tk190 crore for improving its network coverage, the company disclosed.