Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 at its Board of Directors' meeting held here on Wednesday.
The PTCL Group's revenue for the quarter has grown YoY by 11 percent to Rs 33.5 billion as a result of an accelerated growth in the Ufone and Ubank revenues. Ufone revenue has increased to double digits in percentage terms on YoY, Ubank, a microfinance banking subsidiary of the PTCL, has shown significant growth of 53 percent in its quarterly revenue over last year. The PTCL Group's operating profit and net profit for the quarter have improved by 34 percent and 95 percent respectively as a result of the revenue growth.
The PTCL revenue of Rs 17.9 billion for the quarter is slightly lower than the last year. The PTCL's flagship fixed broadband services posted revenue growth of 5.8 percent over the last year. The PTCL continues its journey to upgrade top 100 exchanges under Network Transformation Project (NTP) in different parts of Pakistan. For the 76 exchanges fully transformed to date in 12 cities, YoY revenue growth is even higher at 12 percent and there is 40 percent reduction in customer complaints.
Corporate business continued its growth momentum from a strong 2018 and has achieved a double digit growth YoY. Growth drivers for corporate business are cloud infrastructure, IT, security and managed services projects.
Wireless revenue for the quarter has declined on year-on-year basis due to strong competition by the cellular companies providing wireless data services. There is continued decline in domestic and international voice revenues due to illegal/grey traffic termination, continued conversion of subscribers to OTT and cellular services resulting in declining voice traffic volumes.
The PTCL posted a net profit after tax which is 10 percent higher than the last year. Operating profit for the quarter remained under pressure compared to the last year mainly due to increase in operating cost on account of significant hike in power tariffs. However, non-operating income has increased due to higher income on investments as a result of significant increase in benchmark interest rates by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The PTCL has undertaken various initiatives for climate change and environmental preservation such as collaborating with the Ministry of Climate Change to support the Clean Green Pakistan drive by planting 200,000 trees on the company sites. Further, the PTCL being an environment friendly company, has also launched campaign for its customers to opt for e-billing, instead of receiving monthly paper bills.