Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the country’s leading telecom and ICT services provider, has announced its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, at its Board of Directors’ meeting held in Islamabad.
During the first quarter of 2022, PTCL Group successfully managed to keep the topline growth momentum, which has further strengthened its market standing as an integrated telecom services provider in Pakistan. Growth in revenue is mainly driven by strong performance in the consumer segment led by Fixed Broadband, Mobile Data, Business Solutions, and Microfinance services that supported the Group in achieving 3.2% growth in revenues over the comparative period despite the challenges of increase in Advance Income Tax (AIT) and reduction in Mobile Termination Rates (MTR).
PTCL Group Highlights
- PTCL Group’s revenue of Rs 35.1 billion in Q1, 2022 is 3.2% higher as compared to the same period of last year.
- The Group’s profitability remained under pressure due to significant hike in power tariffs, devaluation of the Pak Rupee against USD, higher interest rates, and other factors like upfront costs associated with the acquisition of 4G spectrum and related network rollout. The Group has posted a net loss of Rs 1.6 billion.
- PTCL continued its growth by posting 3.5% YoY revenue growth in Q1, 2022.
- PTML’s (Ufone) revenue grew by 1% YoY as compared to Q1, 2021.
- U Bank continued its growth momentum and has achieved a 13% growth in its quarterly revenue over the same period of last year.
PTCL Highlights
- PTCL’s revenue of Rs 19.6 billion for the quarter is 3.5% higher than Q1 2021, mainly driven by growth in Broadband and Corporate revenue segments.
- The company has posted an operating profit of Rs 1 billion for the quarter. Operating profit for the period remained under pressure compared to last year mainly due to increase in operating costs on account of significant hike in power tariffs.
- Net Profit of Rs 1.9 billion for the quarter is 10% higher as compared to the same period of last year. Increase in non-operating income, due to translation gain on the Company’s forex denominated assets, dividend income from a subsidiary and gain on disposal of obsolete assets due to upgrade and fiberization of network, has helped turn the 39% decrease at operating profit level to a 10% increase at the net profit level.
During the past quarters, PTCL mainly focused on enhancing customer experience by providing the fastest and most reliable internet services under its flagship ‘Flash Fiber’ Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) brand. Through an aggressive and robust commercial strategy, PTCL managed to expand its FTTH services in 27 cities with capacity enhancement for 125,000 new lines during the past year. The rapid rollout of FTTH and strong performance in corporate segment ensured PTCL’s topline growth.
PTCL Consumer Business: Steady Performance
During 2022, the company’s Fixed Broadband business grew by 10.4% YoY, whereas IPTV segment also showed a 9.3% growth YoY. Within the Broadband business, Flash Fiber, the company’s premium FTTH service, showed significant growth of 86.6%. The Company achieved the highest ever Fixed Broadband sales in Q1, 2022 since 2015. Voice revenue stream has seen a decline due to lower voice traffic and continued conversion of customers to OTT services.
PTCL Business Services:
Business services segment continued its momentum and sustained its market leadership in IP Bandwidth, Cloud, Data Center, and other ICT services segments. PTCL’s Corporate business grew by 14.0% as compared to last year. Within the Wholesale business segment, carrier revenue grew by 6.6% but the overall Wholesale segment revenue has declined as a result of closure of certain international IP leased circuits. International revenue, helped by the favorable impact of currency devaluation, has increased by 13.7% over last year.
PTCL Business Solutions wing strives to provide innovative enterprise solutions to accelerate growth through a robust telecommunication infrastructure and a diverse portfolio of services with enhanced customer experience.
PTML – Ufone Highlights:
- Ufone posted a YoY growth of 1% in topline in Q1 2022 despite challenges of increase in Advance Income Tax (AIT) and reduction in Mobile Termination Rates (MTR). Excluding the impact of these factors, the normalized growth is 5.3% as compared to the same period of last year.
- Significant network modernization activity and rollout of new sites has been carried out in Q1 2022.
- UPower, a flagship customer-centric product, was launched during the first quarter and has registered tremendous response from the customers.
With the acquisition of 4G spectrum, Ufone’s performance in data segment has improved considerably, achieving the highest number of total data subscribers in the industry during the first two months of 2022 and continues to increase its share of new 4G subscriber acquisitions in the industry. With better data speeds, Ufone has been able to improve customer experience for its users across the country. The recent ‘Mobile Networks Benchmark Report for 2022’ by PTA also declared Ufone as Pakistan’s best quality Voice and Data Network. Attracting significant attention of mobile users across Pakistan, the launch of UPower has resulted in substantial subscriptions to the product. UPower gives its users the freedom to choose from various voice and data bundles tailored to their needs.
U Bank Highlights:
U Bank, the microfinance and branchless banking subsidiary of PTCL, continued its growth trajectory and has achieved 13% growth in its revenue. The bank grew its funding book to Rs 90 billion by leveraging its deposit and corporate finance arms, which is in line with the bank’s ambition to maintain its superior liquidity position. Major strategic initiatives undertaken by the bank include venturing into the low-cost housing loans, Islamic Banking space, and international remittance. The bank plans to invest in technology to make the most of the opportunities available on the digital banking front.
Corporate Social Responsibility:
As part of an effort to build a greener Pakistan, PTCL Group, in collaboration with CDA, arranged a tree plantation drive by engaging its employee volunteer force – PTCL Razakaar. In addition to the benefits associated with the environment, this drive provided an opportunity for PTCL employees to contribute towards the fight against climate change. The same drive was carried out nationwide across North, South and Central Zones, where employees from various cities also planted trees to help support the initiative.
