Data is no more a thing of the future, rather it is very much shaping our present day- Robi’s financial performance in the second quarter (Q2) of the year (April-June, 2023) offers a robust testimony to that.
These observations were made at a press conference held today at Robi Corporate Office in Gulshan to announce Robi’s financial results for Q2’23.
Moderated by Chief Corporate and Regulatory Officer, Shahed Alam, the press conference was attended by Robi’s Chief Executive Officer, Rajeev Sethi, Chief Commercial Officer, Shihab Ahmad, Chief Financial Officer, M. Riyaaz Rasheed, Chief Information Officer, Varinder Paul Singla, Acting Chief Human Resources Officer, Mohammad Maruful Alam Chowdhury along with other high officials.
With 2,539.9 crore taka revenue, Robi ended Q2’23 with 24.4 crore taka profit after tax (PAT). The company made capex investment of 762.2 crore taka in Q2’23 to further bolster its 4G network.
Earnings Before Income Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) stood at 1,065.5 crore taka with 42.0% margin. Earnings Per Share (EPS) was 0.05 taka at the end of Q2’23. Robi contributed 1,684 crore taka to the Government exchequer in Q2’23, which was 66.3% of the total revenue for the quarter.
The company added eight lakhs subscribers in Q2’23, which raised its subscriber base to 5 crore 64 lakhs, representing 30% of subscriber market share. A total of 10 lakhs data users were added to Robi network in Q2’23, which raised its data user base to 4 crore 31 lakhs; 76.5% of Robi’s subscribers were data users at the end of Q2’23.
Having added 16 lakhs 4G users in its network, Robi’s 4G user base reached 3 crore 24 lakhs; 57% of total subscribers were 4G users and 75% of data user were 4G users at the end of Q2’23. Robi ensured 98.5% 4G population coverage with more than 16,000 4G sites across the country. Its data subscribers consumed 6.43GB data every month on an average in Q2’23.
The company had close to 1 crore 60 lakhs self-care app users (My Robi and My Airtel). At the end of Q2’23, 65% of Robi’s subscribers were using smartphones, out of which, 45% of smartphone users were self-care app users. In Q2’23, 40.5% of the total recharge was done digitally in Robi.
CEO’s Comment: Commenting on Robi’s financial performance, the company’s CEO, Rajeev Sethi said: “Given the macro-economic challenges, we are very happy with the overall performance of Robi. We are very proud to note that 39% of our revenue in Q2’23 came from the data business- clearly demonstrating that our digital vision is producing concrete results. In fact, the data revenue was one of the key drivers in pushing up profitability for the quarter.
Unfortunately, the growth momentum, to a large extent, was undone by the hefty payment we had to make to the Government exchequer- around 67% of our revenue for the quarter. Unless we address this bottleneck, we are always going to struggle to match up to our full potential as a leading digital service provider of the country.”
First Six Months (January-June) of 2023: In the first half (January-June, 2023) of this year (1H’23), Robi’s revenue, EBITDA reached 4,887.6 crore taka, and 2,117.1 crore taka respectively. Including 24.4 crore taka PAT in Q1’23, PAT reached 66.4 crore taka at the end of 1H’23; EPS for 1H was 0.13 taka.
Including 215.9 crore taka CAPEX investment in Q1’23, Robi made a total of 978.2 crore taka CAPEX investment in 1H’23. Having paid 1,103.8 crore taka in Q1’23, Robi’s total payment to the Government exchequer reached 2,788.1 crore taka at the end of 1H’23, which was 57.0% of the company’s revenue for the same period. In 1H’23, 38.9% of the total recharge was done digitally in Robi.
Q2’23 Vs Q1’23: Compared to last quarter (Q1’23), Robi’s revenue in Q2’23 increased significantly by 8.2%. Data revenue grew by a whopping 14.4% compared to last quarter. EBITDA, on the other hand, grew by 1.3% compared to the last quarter. Meanwhile, data consumption grew steadily by 3.2% compared to Q1’23.
Q2’23 Vs Q2’22: Compared to the same quarter last year (Q2’22), Robi’s revenue grew by 20.6%, data revenue saw a massive rise of 29.6%, EBITDA grew by 10.2%, and data consumption grew by 25.4% in Q2’23.
