Jazz’s quarterly revenues totaled Rs45.4 billion, down 7 percent year-on-year. The hit mainly came from the fact cellular operators, effective July 2029, couldn’t deduct 10 percent of customer re-charge as upfront service/administrative/maintenance fees. Compliance with court rulings played a key part in 14 percent year-on-year decline in the average revenue per user (ARPU) per month during 3QCY19.

While the core service revenues dipped due to loss of assured 10 percent service fee, the saving grace has been ‘mobile data’. During the quarter under review, Jazz improved its data revenues by 25 percent year-on-year to Rs14.3 billion, as per Veon’s latest report. As a result, mobile broadband accounted for 31 percent of the topline in the quarter, up from 23 percent in the same period last year.

Mobile broadband is the star revenue segment for the entire cellular sector. But Jazz is doing particularly well. Compared to 3QCY18, its mobile broadband users had increased by 15 percent to 38.3 million, as Jazz focuses on acquiring high-value subscribers. Meanwhile, data usage increased by a solid 73 percent year-on-year. Network expansion is also at work, something that is visible in the double-digit growth in capex spending seen during the quarter.

Another positive for Jazz is the significant growth seen in the ‘financial services’ segment, which has come to account for 7 percent of the topline. Under this umbrella, this segment, headed by JazzCash, grew the quarterly topline by 43 percent year-on-year to reach Rs3 billion. As per Veon, JazzCash’s “30-day active wallet subscriber base” had increased to 6.2 million as of September end.

Still, there was a 6 percent decline in quarterly Ebitda, attributable to the regulatory changes in the period under review. However, the decline was proportionally less than the topline decline, in what can be interpreted as somewhat controlled costs and expenses. As a result, there was a slight improvement in Ebitda margin to 49 percent.

While the quarter showed a mixed trend, Jazz’s cumulative 9MCY19 financial performance is marked by growth in rupee terms. However, in USD terms, the revenues and Ebitda have both taken a hit this calendar year, on account of PKR devaluation. Veon has interpreted these results as operationally robust but affected negatively by regulatory changes, in the backdrop of litigation over Warid’s license renewal.

While those regulatory changes look set to smooth out over time, there are no predictions for continued stability in PKR value. Additionally, it is unclear if rupee ARPU would recover in the ongoing quarter, considering the economic headwinds. However, given its scale in the sector, Jazz has a higher likelihood of weathering the economic storm better than the rest of the operators.