Grameenphone's revenue up by 11% in 9 months

Grameenphone's revenue up by 11% in 9 months
Grameenphone posted revenues of about BDT 4500 crore for the first nine months of the current year, up 11 percent from the corresponding period of last year.

Grameenphone's revenue grew by around 7 percent to about BDT 1500 crore during the third quarter of this year, compared with the corresponding period of last year.

Meanwhile, Grameenphone's IPO process remains on track albeit delayed due to the ongoing global financial crisis and other challenges. Grameenphone is now planning to make the final submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Q4'08.
"Grameenphone missed the SEC deadline during its first IPO application mainly due to the ongoing global financial crisis and its direct impact on the pre-IPO process," explained Anders Jensen, CEO of Grameenphone. "The shareholders remain committed to listing Grameenphone shares in the local capital market. We are now preparing to submit a fresh application, carefully following the global financial development with a focus on avoiding volatility in the local capital market given the size of the Grameenphone IPO."

During the third quarter of the current year, the average tariff rates were further reduced resulting in a decline in ARPU by 25 percent, compared with the corresponding period of last year, while the subscription growth was also offset due to the ongoing churning of barred non-registered SIMs during Q3'08.

The total revenue increased by a healthy 7 percent compared with the corresponding period of last year mainly due to subscription growth, which was partially offset by the declining average revenue per user (ARPU). The number of subscriptions increased by 0.5 million from second quarter and by more than 5 million compared to third quarter of last year. EBITDA margin in the third quarter of 2008 increased to 49 % compared with corresponding period of last year mainly due to lower costs of subscriber acquisition due to lower market growth and lower interconnection and advertising costs.
"The overall subscriber growth has slowed down primarily due to the existing high SIM tax, which is limiting the affordability for the customers with limited income. However, as the telephone penetration rate is still low at around 30 percent even compared with other regional countries,
there is major potential for growth going forward," observed Ander Jensen. "With the withdrawal or reduction of the SIM tax, a much larger number of people mainly in the rural areas will be able to enjoy the benefits of modern mobile technology."
Grameenphone has so far invested over BDT 1400 crore in 2008 along with fresh investments of BDT 330 crore during the third quarter, the cumulative investments now stand at over BDT 12600 crore including the largest single-year capital expenditure of BDT 3580 crore last year.
The Grameenphone network presently covers almost the entire population with more than 11300 base stations located in over 6500 sites in operation around the country. The network is also fully EDGE/GPRS enabled, allowing the customers to access high-speed internet from anywhere within its coverage area.
Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has recently decided to allocate an additional spectrum of 7.4 MHz to Grameenphone at a cost of BDT 80 crore per MHz. "The additional allocation of frequency will enable Grameenphone to further improve its network quality through a more cost-effective and efficient deployment of different network elements," the Grameenphone CEO pointed out.
Grameenphone CEO, Anders Jensen, Chief Financial Officer, Arif Al Islam and Director Public Relations, Syed Yamin Bakht attended the press briefing.
Corporate Communications DepartmentGrameenphone Ltd.Phone: 9882990email: info@grameenphone.com