BTCL records P88m profit, declares dividend
Brian Benza | Friday December 16, 2016 15:09
The state-owned telecommunications and Internet service provider said Wednesday that its profit after tax for the period grew by 19% to P88 million, providing a return on investment of seven percent.
The gross profit totalled P468 million during the period, compared to P447 million during the same reporting period last year. It also recorded growth in revenues of P32 million to P774 million during the period with the highest revenue growth achievements mainly in the areas of national telephony with nine percent growth, mobile at six percent and data services with eight percent.
According to BTC managing director, Anthony Masunga the increase in revenue comes as a result of more focus on high revenue growth areas, both in the retail and wholesale sectors.
Total costs went up by P18 million.
“The increase in costs calls for more robust cost management initiatives that will ensure long-term growth in net earnings and company value,” Masunga noted.
He said BTC balance sheet remains healthy with total assets at P2.3 billion as at September 30, 2016, adding that the corporation remains able to fund its capital expenditure from internal resources, currently with zero gearing.
BTC’s principal activities include among others, fixed and mobile voice telephony, national and international internet, data services, directory services, virtual and private networks.
Consistent with global market trends and dictates, Masunga pointed out that future growth in the telecommunications sector shall be through innovative broadband and data products and services.
“Our future focus therefore is to derive an increased proportion of our revenues from broadband and data related products and services,” he said.
He said this shall be backed by continued investments in the fixed and mobile broadband solutions, making use of new and more efficient fibre based technologies and latest Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile solutions.
In addition, he said the business product mix shall continue to include the traditional fixed and mobile voice businesses, which have showed a significant increase, during the reporting period.
This trend is expected to continue in the near future. “Our strategy continues to be premised on an increased customer focus and a journey towards seamless delivery of fixed and mobile and convergence based products and services; a journey that requires refocus and alignment of our capabilities to the changing needs of our markets as one team,” Masunga said.
He said the migration from a dual brand operation (BTC and beMOBILE) to a single consolidated BTC brand in September was one such key milestone towards the achievement of this goal. Masunga also said with increasing performance of revenue streams, both fixed and mobile, and heightened levels of cost management, the board remains confident of meeting the forecast for March 2017 outturn, which is projected to be an improvement on the previous year’s performance.
Meanwhile, the company has made a decision to pay an interim dividend of 3.6 thebe per share payable to all shareholders registered in the books of the company at close of business on December 30, 2016.