Mobitel rings Rs. 1 b pre-tax profit; customer base of 4.4 m

MOBITEL, the mobile arm of SLT group, recorded a profit before tax of Rs. 1 b and a net profit after tax of Rs. 778 m during the 1st half of 2011 recording growth rates of 36% and 44% respectively compared to corresponding period of the previous year.

Moreover, Mobitel recorded revenue growth of 12%, mainly contributed by the increase in subscriber base by 650,000 to exceed 4.4 m. The growth in turnover was achieved amidst an increase in competition extending beyond domestic voice services into international services resulting in significant price reduction in IDD and roaming services.

Mobitel rings...

 Mobile Broadband has also grown rapidly and its contribution to overall revenue is increasing steadily.

Further, Mobitel managed to grow EBITDA marginally to 3.27 b for the 1st half of 2011, despite an increase in costs as a result of the implementation of the interconnection regime and inability of claiming input VAT on cost items from January 2011 onwards.