Despite solid revenue growth and steady rise in subscriber base, drastic changes in foreign exchange rate of foreign currency has undone Robi’s sound performance in Q2’22, a press release said Thursday.
In total, Robi lost 172 crore taka in Q2’22 due to devaluation of taka against the US dollar. Robi disclosed this information while releasing its financial results for Q2’22.
Robi secured 2,105.4 crore taka revenue in Q2’22, but due to changes in forex, ended up losing 12.2 crore taka. Had it not been for the Forex changes, Robi’s PAT for Q2’22 would have been 86.13 crore taka. On the other hand, including Q2’22, Robi’s revenue for the first six months of 2022 reached 4,124 crore taka and profit after tax (PAT) reached 28 crore taka. Were it not for the losses induced by the forex changes, Robi’s PAT figure for the first six months would have been 131.88 crore taka.
Compared to last quarter, the company’s revenue increased by 4.3 percent. Compared to the same quarter last year, revenue grew by 3.7 percent. Voice revenue increased by 4.6 percent compared to last quarter and by 11.8 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Data revenue grew by 3.7 percent compared to last quarter, while the same declined by 4.5 percent compared to same quarter last year.
Robi’s subscriber base grew by 0.8 percent compared to last quarter to reach 5 crore 45 lakhs at the end of Q2’22. Compared to the same quarter last year, subscriber base grew by 5.2 percent. Data subscriber base grew by 2.0 percent compared to last quarter to reach 4 crore 5 lakhs. Compared to the same quarter last year, data subscriber base grew by 7.8 percent.
Robi maintained its 4G leadership in Q2’22 with 48.3 percent of its total subscribers being 4G users. Around 74.2 percent of Robi’s subscriber base were internet subscribers in Q2’22, which was the highest in the industry, and 65.1 percent of data users were 4G users. Robi ensured 98.2 percent population coverage of its 4G network with 14,961 4G sites.
At the end of Q2’22, the company had 2 crore 63 lakhs 4G subscribers. Compared to last quarter, Robi’s 4G subscribers grew by 6.1 percent, and compared to the same quarter last year, 4G subscribers grew by 32.4 percent.
In Q2’22, each Robi data subscriber consumed 5.1GB data every month on an average. Compared to the same quarter last year, data usage per subscriber, per month, increased by 31.3 percent.
EBITDA in Q2’22 grew by 13.6 percent compared to the last quarter to reach 967 crore taka with 45.9 percent margin. Compared to the same quarter last year, EBITDA grew by 13.2 percent. EBITDA margin grew by 3.8 percentage point compared to last quarter, while compared to the same quarter last year, the margin grew by 3.9 percentage point.
The company’s earnings per share (EPS) in Q2’22 was (-) 0.02 taka. Had it not been for the Forex changes, Robi’s EPS for Q2’22 would have been 0.16 taka, and the EPS for the first six months of 2022 would have been 0.25 taka.
Robi paid 1,475.3 crore taka to the Government exchequer in Q2’22, which was 70.1percent of the total revenue for the quarter. The company made capex investment of 483.4 crore taka in the same quarter.
Robi’s acting CEO and CFO, M. Riyaaz Rasheed said: “Losing our hard-earned profit to the devaluation of taka against US dollar is very painful. Since we rely on international market to source telecom equipment, forex volatility is a major concern for us at the moment.”
