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Robi returns to profit

Star Business Report
Robi has bounced back from losses as it earned Tk 100 crore in net profit in the first quarter this year mainly due to an improvement in political environment.
In the October-December quarter last year, the company counted Tk 1 crore in losses.
The mobile operator's gross revenue rose 5.9 percent to Tk 1,170 crore during January-March this year from the previous quarter.
Robi logged higher earnings riding on 'disciplined cost management' and a significant growth in data usage, it said.
The loss in the last quarter of 2013 was due to a drop in EBITDA (earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation) and higher depreciation and investments in network expansion.
"The stable external environment
has helped deliver strong growth across most of the metrics," Supun Weerasinghe, chief executive of the company, said at a press conference at the Westin hotel in Dhaka yesterday.
EBITDA grew 58.7 percent to Tk 470 crore in the first quarter from Tk 290 crore in the fourth quarter last year due to growth from voice and data revenue resulting from 'the increasing popularity and acceptance of the simplified packages', it said.
The number of subscribers rose 7.1 percent to 2.39 crore till March, from 2.23 crore in the fourth quarter.
Year-on-year, gross revenue increased 8 percent in the first quarter.
EBITDA also registered a healthy year-on-year double digit growth of 13.9 percent for the same period.
Although there has been a turnaround in the quarter-on-quarter net profit, the year-on-year figure was still 7.7 percent lower than the net profit reported in the first quarter of
2013. This was due to increased depreciation resulting from network investments and amortisation of spectrum/licence fees.
Net profit in the first quarter of 2013 wasTk 113.1 crore.
The total investments (capital expenditure) made in the first quarter amounted to $63.9 million (around Tk 500 crore), 21 percent lower compared to the previous quarter.
SIM tax on every new connection and 'discriminatory corporate tax' continue to be a concern for the industry, said Mahtab Uddin Ahmed, chief operating officer of Robi.
In the first quarter, the company contributed more than Tk 430 crore, or 38 percent of its revenues, to the state coffer, Ahmed said.
Around 10 lakh Robi subscribers now use 3G services and the company plans to bring 60 percent of its users under the 3G network within this year, he said.