Revenue increase in Q1 2009
May 5, 2009
Grameenphone CEO Oddvar Hesjedal today announced the company's first quarter (Q1) results of the current year, showing a revenue growth of 6 per cent from the same period in 2008.
The reported increase has mainly been due to growth in the company's subscriber base, and increased interconnection revenues due to the introduction of International Gateway (IGW) from the fourth quarter of 2008.
During the first quarter of this year the total revenue was BDT 1580 crore compared to BDT 1490 crore of the same period of 2008. Last year's annual revenue was BDT 6140 crore.
Along with fresh investments of BDT 280 crore during the first quarter, Grameenphone's cumulative investments now stand at BDT 14200 crore, including nearly BDT 2750 crore invested in 2008. Grameenphone experienced lower capital expenditure during this quarter, mainly due to lower traffic growth resulting from lower subscriber acquisition.
The number of subscribers added in the first quarter was 63,000; a slow-down attributable to the higher start-up price on inclusion of the SIM tax. Grameenphone subscriber market share stood at 46%.
While the EBITDA margin improved in this quarter in comparison to same quarter of last year, due to higher revenue combined with lower subscriber acquisition costs, ARPU decreased by 13% due to decreasing average prices since Q1 2008. The decrease was, however, partially offset by higher usage.
In another industry development, the telecom regulatory authority Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) lowered the interconnection rates in Bangladesh on 26 March 2009, which is expected to have a negative effect for Grameenphone.
Grameenphone filed its final application for initial public offering of USD 65 million with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January 2009, and is awaiting approval from the SEC.