‘This year we have decided to pay 4% cash dividend for the shareholders. The shareholders take dividend and give us back as investment’
Although yearly profits have been handsome for years, mobile phone operator Robi is still dilly-dallying the process of being listed with the country’s stock market.
The operator was supposed to launch initial public offering in December 2014, but didn’t. Robi officials said they were looking for an “appropriate time” to start the process.
“Lots of unresolved issue are still left and we are expecting solution. Our shareholders are also looking for it,” said Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, Chief Operating Officer of Robi.
He said there was another spectrum auction ahead and SIM tax issue was not resolved yet.
Mahtab said if the shareholders gave us a decision today it would be tough for them to launch IPO by December 2015.
“We are considering to enter the stock market. But before the shareholders decide anything about it, we can’t do anything,” he added in reply to a question of Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
He said the operator was preparing for IPO and once the shareholders decided, it would start the process.
The country’s second largest mobile phone operator in terms of revenue reported 20.4% growth in profit to Tk439.60 crore in 2014 from Tk365.2 crore in 2013.
Robi earned Tk4,942.3 crore revenue in 2014 and secured 8.89% net profit of revenue, the operator told a press conference held to share annual business performance at its office in the capital yesterday.
Although Robi claimed they had been making profit since 2010, the Dhaka Tribune found the operator had made profit after tax Tk394.2 crore in 2005 out of a total revenue of Tk868.1 crore.
According to the Robi’s parent company Axiata Ltd presentation, the AKTEL (currently Robi) made Tk433.3 crore profit out of Tk1,211.1 crore revenue in 2006.
Though the after tax profit had ups and downs, the cumulative figure of net profit is Tk2,380 crore. As of 2010 the profit figure stood at Tk9,200 crore.
Of the amount, Robi shared Tk1,428 crore as cash dividend with the shareholders.
“This year we have decided to pay 4% cash dividend for the shareholders. The shareholders take dividend and give us back as investment,” said Supun Weerasinghe, managing director and CEO of Robi.
The operator said it had invested Tk2,100 crore (63.7% increase) in 3.5G expansion, bringing new areas under 2G coverage and improving service quality.
The operator has completed another successful year in data revolution earning over 120% revenue from data service. But it is not willing to make any revenue from it.
About the overall performance, Robi CEO said: “I am pleased to see the growth momentum continued in 2014 across all dimensions of our business. We are seeing good growth in data services since start of the year as we expand our 3.5G network across the country.”
Robi CEO, however, added the current political situation remained as a concern, which could impact the business growth in 2015.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
