The prolonged internet shutdown and the devastating flash flood dealt a heavy blow to Robi’s revenue for the third quarter (July-Sept) of the year (Q3’24), as the company’s revenue declined by 5% from last quarter.
The company reported a revenue of 2,474.4 crore taka for Q3’24, reflecting a year-on-year (YoY) decrease of 2.7%. For the first nine months of the year, total revenue reached 7,594.6 crore taka, marking a 2.2% growth from the same period last year.
In Q3’24, voice revenue increased by 3.7%, while data revenue saw a significant decline of 15.5% compared to the previous quarter. YoY voice revenue grew by 3.9%, while data revenue decreased by 10.3%.
Robi shared this information in a press release today. The Company’s active subscribers base decreased to 5 crore 79 lakhs due to the overall downturn in the economy. Out of the active subscriber base, 4 crore 43 lakhs were internet users, and 3 crore 70 lakhs were 4G users.
In relation to the total active subscribers’ base, 76.5% were internet users, and 64% were 4G users. Despite losing one million data subscribers, Robi continued to have the highest proportion of its active subscriber base as data users in the industry.
With 249 new sites, Robi’s total 4G site count reached close to 18,000 by the end of Q3’24 ensuring 98.96% population coverage.
Robi’s profit after tax (PAT) for Q3’24 stood at 188.7 crore taka. In total, the company’s PAT for the first nine months (Jan-Sept) reached 402.8 crore taka, which is 134% higher than the same period of last year. Earnings Per Share (EPS) for Q3’24 stood at 0.36 taka following a growth of 75.5% from last quarter.
Robi’s steadfast focus on structured efficiency programs induced greater agility which contributed significantly across all the profitability parameters.
Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) reached 1,340.1 crore taka in Q3’24 with 54.2% margin, while the same for the first nine months reached 3783.4 crore taka with 49.8% margin. Compared to last quarter, EBITDA grew by 9.6%, and the EBITDA margin performance improved by 7.2 percentage points.
YoY EBITDA grew by 12.6%, indicating the strength of the company’s operational efficiency despite low revenue performance on account of political and economic upheaval.
Including 149.2 crore taka Capital investment in Q3’24, Capital investment for the first nine months reached 1192.3 crore taka. Robi paid 1,346.1 crore taka to the Government exchequer in Q3’24 which corresponds to 54% of the revenue earned by the company. The company’s total payment to the Government exchequer for the first nine months reached 4,640.8 crore taka, which represents a staggering 61% of revenue earned during the period.
Commenting on Robi’s financial performance, Robi’s Managing Director and CEO, Rajeev Sethi, said: "We have passed unprecedented time during the July-Sept period by all accounts. Eleven days of internet shutdown during the people’s uprising followed by the onslaught of flash flood of unforeseen proportion really shook the economy hard. Naturally this impacted our revenue negatively as a large number of data users left our network. In the end, it was our cost efficiency program that helped us to end the quarter on a happy note with some profit.”
Rajeev was also very upbeat about the recent reform drives initiated by the telecom regulator to have a fresh look at the telecom eco-system. He pledged to fully cooperate with the regulator to devise a win-win way forward to chart the path for executing the reform agenda to reshape the telecom ecosystem in Bangladesh.
Alluding to the taxation regime, he highlighted that Robi paid 61% of its revenue for the Jan-Sept period to the Government. He stressed that such a heavy taxation regime is hurting company’s financial strength to continue its investment in building the best data network of the country.