Grameenphone Ltd. reported BDT 8,906 crore revenues for the year 2011 with 19.2% increase from 2010. The growth was mainly from voice as well as interconnection revenues driven by subscription growth, revenues from data, roaming and wholesale business. Total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2011 was BDT 2,283 crore, up by 16.6% from the fourth quarter of 2010.

 “I am happy to inform our Shareholders that we have retained our market leadership and secured a solid financial result consistently over the year”, said Tore Johnsen, CEO of Grameenphone Ltd. He added, “Amidst strained global and local economic condition and critical regulatory environment rolled out to legal confrontations, we, as a company, kept our focus in delivering services committed to our valued subscribers and demonstrated our resilience in acquiring the fair share of the market growth”.

Customer centric offerings and outreach in the deep rural through distribution network expansion enabled GP to acquire 65 lakh new subscribers during the year and concluded with 3.65 crore subscribers with approximately 43% market share. In the data arena, GP was active in the field with‘Internet Utshob’ and introduced convenient data mini-packs for small screen users. In addition to this, revamping products with lucrative features helped GP to ensure its position as the preferred service provider.

In December of 2011, GP completed its network modernization through network swap. This mammoth task translates GP's commitment towards customers to stay close and enjoy even better service with readiness for the next generation technology.

The audited financial statements have been endorsed by the Board of Directors on 7th Feb’12. Net profit after taxes for 2011 was BDT 1,889 crores with 21.2% margin compared to BDT 1,071 crores with 14.3% margin of 2010. Higher profit for this period was mainly due to consistent revenue growth and efficient cost management, which was partly offset by higher income tax expenses. EBITDA margin for the year 2011 was 53.5%, which also has increased by 3.9 percentage points compared to 49.5% of 2010.

As a result, Earnings per share (EPS) for the year 2011 stood at BDT 13.99 compared to BDT 7.93 of 2010. For the fourth quarter of 2011, EPS was BDT 4.81 compared to BDT 2.20 for the same period of 2010.

GP invested BDT 1,296 crores during 2011 for network modernization, capacity and quality enhancement. With this, GP's cumulative investment since inception now stands at BDT 17,093 crores. Meanwhile, GP, the largest taxpayer of the country, paid BDT 4,665 crores to the national exchequer during the year 2011 in the form of taxes, VAT and duties and BDT 1,350 crores as the first installment of 2G renewal and spectrum fees. This sum up GP's accumulated contribution to the national exchequer to BDT 24,517 crores since its inception. 

On 10 November 2011, GP, along with three other mobile operators’ 2G license has expired. GP challenged the payment conditions given by the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) for renewal regarding VAT deductibility from 2G renewal and spectrum fees and Market Competition Factor (MCF) on spectrums purchased in 2008 in the High Court whereby the Supreme Court ordered continuation of GP's operation without any hindrance. The BTRC also issued a letter to GP on 11 November 2011 to continue its operations until finalization of renewal decision by the Regulator upon Court's verdict on the pending High Court issues concerning VAT deductibility and MCF on 2008 spectrum. On the other hand, BTRC claim referring to the audit carried out from April 2011, High Court Division of the Supreme Court directed both GP and BTRC to maintain‘status quo’ with an extension of 6 months starting from 7 December 2011.

The Board of Directors of Grameenphone Ltd. have recommended final dividend for the year 2011 in cash at the rate of 65% of the paid up capital (i.e. BDT 6.5 per share of BDT 10 each) based on the decision taken at the Board Meeting held on 7 February 2012. With this, the total cash dividend stands at 205% of paid up capital (i.e. BDT 20.5 per share of BDT 10 each) for the year 2011 (including 140% interim cash dividend i.e. BDT 14 per share that was paid in July 2011). The Shareholders as of the record date of 19 February 2012 will be entitled for this final dividend while the date of AGM has been fixed on 10 April 2011.

Corporate Communications, Grameenphone Ltd.
Phone: 9882990
Detail Financial Statements are available at: http://investor-relations.grameenphone.com