Grameenphone chief executive officer Rajeev Sethi gestures while presenting the financial results of the mobile phone operator at city’s Lakeshore Hotel on Monday.
Leading mobile phone operator Grameenphone on Monday announced that the company’s net profits declined by 0.51 per cent to Tk 1,970 crore in 2015 compared to that of Tk 1,980 crore in 2014.
The mobile operator announced earnings per share at Tk 14.59, and declared 140 per cent cash dividend for the year 2015.
GP said paying Tk 100 crore to resolve SIM replacement tax issue with the National Board of Revenue affected its profit for the year.
‘Otherwise, our net profit would have hit Tk 2,000 crore for the first time,’ said GP chief financial officer Dilip Pal while announcing the financial results of year at city’s Lakeshore Hotel.
GP chief executive officer Rajeev Sethi, however, said that the company passed a tremendous year and hope that the momentum would last long.
In Q4 2015, the company’s profit was Tk 508 crore which is 31 per cent higher than that of Tk 388 crore in the pervious year.
‘Grameenphone continued with the performance momentum after the challenging start of the year. Data went on to be the primary growth driver, while voice was under stress from competitive offers,’ he said.
‘Going forward we have set out an ambition of
growth and value creation by taking the position as our customers favourite partner in digital life,’ he added.
GP earned Tk 10,480 crore in gross revenue last year which is 2 per cent higher than the previous year.
GP’s data revenue grew by 66 per cent last year to Tk 850 crore and its value-added service revenue increased by 31 per cent which turned the main contributors in the year, Sethi said.
The operator earned Tk 250 crore in revenue from the data service last quarter of 2015 though the market observed a government blockade of Facebook and other social sites from November 18 to December 10.
‘At that time we lost around Tk 9 crore to Tk 10 crore,’ said Sethi.
Data subscribers grew by 45 per cent to 1.57 crore and data volume almost grew by three times during the year, he said.
‘We found significant growth last year and especially last quarter was tremendous for us,’ said Sethi.
Grameenphone invested Tk 1,930 crore during the year to further
rollout of 3G sites, 2G coverage and capacity enhancement.
Meanwhile, GP paid Tk 5,110 crore to the national exchequer during the year in the form of taxes, VAT, duties and licence fees.
Source: New Age