Grameenphone’s profit declined 3 per cent year-on-year to Tk 1,741 crore in January-June as it paid higher tax and amortisation resulting from spectrum purchase, the company said yesterday.
The largest mobile phone operator bought spectrum worth $378.75 million in March in an auction arranged by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to improve its services.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. The carrier said its revenue grew 2 per cent year-on-year to Tk 7,058 crore in the first half of 2021 from Tk 6,923 crore a year ago.
The company, however, posted higher revenue and profit in the second quarter of 2021. It acquired 13 lakh new subscribers in the April-June period.
“Our effort in enhancing customer experience and digitalisation resulted in more subscribers choosing Grameenphone and an increase in data usage in the second quarter,” said GP CEO Yasir Azman.
“Following the extensive expansion of 4G to all our towers in the first quarter, Grameenphone has focused on deploying the newly acquired spectrum and continued rolling out new sites.”
Data usage per customer increased by 38.6 per cent in the second quarter, while there was a 7 per cent year-on-year growth in data users. It has more than 80 million subscribers.
The company said the improving momentum from the beginning of 2021 had translated into growth in the second quarter as its subscription and traffic revenues grew by 8.5 per cent from last year.
The net profit for the period stood at Tk 851 crore, with a 23.8 per cent margin, said Jens Becker, chief financial officer of GP.
The operator announced an interim dividend of Tk 12.5.
GP shares closed 0.39 per cent higher at Tk 356.6 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.
