Grameenphone’s first quarter profit falls 17% in pandemic ‘volatility’

Grameenphone, Bangladesh’s largest mobile phone operator, has seen a 17% dip in net profits year-on-year in the first quarter.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 20 April 2021, 07:37 AM
Updated : 20 April 2021, 07:37 AM

In the January-March quarter, Grameenphone’s earnings per share fell to Tk 6.6 from Tk 7.92 a year earlier, according to a stock exchange disclosure.

The news of diminished profits caused the prices of Grameenphone shares to drop. The stock traded at Tk 336.9 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange at 11:10 am on Tuesday.

In a statement, the company reported that its total revenue fell 3.7 percent in the first quarter to Tk 34.8 billion from a year earlier.

The company faced “increased volatilities” due to the pandemic in Bangladesh, said CEO Yasir Azman.

“Our efforts will continue in devising collaborative solutions in supporting recovery from the pandemic while we continue to enrich our service positions and facilitate the country towards growth and digitisation.”

Grameenphone CFO Jens Becker said: “At the end of the quarter we reported a year over year degrowth of 3.7 percent in total revenues keeping the EBITDA margin at 62.7 percent. Net profit after tax for the period stood at Tk 8.9 billion with 25.6 percent margin.”

The company also touted acquiring 10.4 MHz of the spectrum. It also gained 1.7 million new subscribers in the first quarter, taking the total to 80.7 million, with 51.7 percent using internet services.