Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) Group revenue for the year 2018 has grown year-on-year by 8 percent to Rs 126.2 billion compared to Rs 117.02 billion during the same period of 2017. The financial results for the year ended December 31, 2018 were announced at its Board of Directors meeting, which were later shared with media here Tuesday.
However, negating the claims of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication regarding controlling grey trafficking in the country, the PTCL officials said that it as well as OTT proliferation caused 6 percent decline in voice services. They further said that PTC Group suffered loss of one billion rupees loss on account depreciation of local currency.
Addressing a press conference, President & CEO of PTCL Group Dr Daniel Ritz said that as a result of positive contribution by all group companies, the growth in revenue was made possible. He further said that no force can beat PTCL as well as Pakistan as there is huge potential in this country as well as PTCL.
He said that fundamentals are strong and key prerequisites for success are firmly in place. He said that fixed broad band penetration is less than 5 percent of household in the country offering huge potential. PTCL CFO Nadeem Khan while sharing the figures said that PTCL Group's revenue for the year 2018 has grown year-on-year by 8 percent to Rs 126.2 billion as a result of positive contribution by all group companies.
PTCL Group's revenue growth in the fourth quarter accelerated to 13 percent YoY. Ufone revenue has increased by 13 percent YoY, UBank, a microfinance banking subsidiary of PTCL, has shown significant growth of 64% in its revenue over last year, he added.
PTCL Group's operating profit and net profit for the year have improved by 198 percent and 32 percent respectively. Like-for-like, net profit of PTCL Group is higher by 22 percent compared to last year. He further said that PTCL revenue of Rs 70.1 billion for the year is 0.7 percent higher than last year, with quarter 4 showing an accelerated growth of 3.4 percent YoY. In 2018, PTCL's revenue has registered YoY growth for the first time since 2014.
In 2018, three quarters of PTCL's revenue base has shown a growth over last year. PTCL's flagship fixed broadband services posted revenue growth of 6.5 percent over 2017. For the 51 exchanges fully transformed to date under the network transformation program YoY revenue growth is even higher at 12.4 percent.
The PTCL official said investment in transformation of network exchanges has resulted in enhancing customer experience by reducing network faults by 36 percent and repeat faults by 50 percent, along with providing higher bandwidths beyond 100Mbps, bundled with triple play services. To further enrich the product and services portfolio, PTCL has partnered with the global OTT players like Netflix, STARZ Play, icflix, etc. The PTCL has also been recognised by Brand Finance as the 'Fastest Growing Brand in Pakistan'.
The PTCL official said that corporate business continues to perform strongly and has shown significant growth of 13% over last year by signing new customers in Managed Services and Cloud Infrastructure Services resulting in 154% and 188% growth respectively in these two segments.
Conversion of EVO customers to Charji/LTE have yielded positive results with YoY revenue growth in double digits, however, it has also resulted in higher subscriber acquisition cost as compared to last year. There is continued decline in domestic and international voice revenues due to increase in illegal/grey traffic termination, continued conversion of subscribers to OTT and cellular services, resulting in declining voice traffic volumes.
The PTCL's operating profit for the year is lower by 9 percent, compared to 2017 mainly due to increase in operating cost on account of currency depreciation and higher subscriber acquisition cost. Further, non-operating income has also declined due to reduced funds as compared to last year. Net Profit for the year is Rs 7.4 billion which is 11 percent lower compared to last year as reported (and 8% lower if adjusted for one-offs), driven by lower operating profit and lower non-operating income.
In 2018, the financial strength of PTCL was acknowledged through an independent rating exercise as a result of which JCR-VIS has assigned PTCL a long-term rating of AAA which will enhance all stakeholders' confidence in the long-term sustainability of the company.
This year yet again, PTCL has inducted top 100 young engineers and business graduates under Summit Programme 2018 from top institutions and universities across Pakistan, which would help in building future leadership. Thanks to its sustained high growth, Ubank has created more than 650 new positions during 2018, increasing its employee base from 1,321 to 1,980, where women are 9 percent of the total workforce, they added.
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