Dialog posts Rs 7.98bn profit in first 9 months
Dialog Telekom PLC - recorded a profit after tax of Rs. 7.98 bn up
seven per cent relative to the nine months ended September 30, 2006.
 Company earnings comprise in the main of contributions from mobile
business supplemented by earnings accruing from the company's
International Business Operations and Internet Service Provider
Operations.
Dialog Telekom PLC (DT) continued to deliver robust growth recording
a 40 per cent increase in mobile subscribers YoY and revenue, EBIDTA and
PAT growth of 24 per cent, 15 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
The performance at DT was delivered notwithstanding revenue
mitigating externalities mainly the disruption to services in the
Northern and Eastern Province of Sri Lanka during the first half of
2007.
In line with the strategic intent of securing future growth and
earnings opportunities arising from convergent technology related
business lines including but not limited to Fixed Line Telephony,
Broadband and Digital Television media, Dialog Telekom has over the past
year seeded nascent new business through acquired subsidiaries Dialog
Broadband Networks (DBN) and Dialog Television (DTV) and its
subsidiaries.
Group results of Dialog Telekom PLC, post consolidation with
subsidiary performance, recorded a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs. 7.30 bn.
for the nine months ended September 30, 2007, representing a drop by 3
per cent relative to the nine months ended September 30, 2006, due
mainly to a negative contribution of Rs. 542.56 mn from the recently
operationalised subsidiary Dialog Television (Pvt) Ltd (DTV) which had a
dilutive effect on the profit growth of 7 per cent delivered by the core
operations of DT. Dialog Television is currently in an aggressive
subscriber acquisition phase on the backdrop of the rapid expansion of
channel (content) portfolios.
The month of September witnessed the soft launch of the SET Plans
scheme. The SET plans scheme is designed to provide subscribers with the
flexibility to customise their Channel bouquet to suit their personal
preference.
The Direct to home (DTH) Pay TV business operated by DTV is
characterised by a substantial fixed cost base (comprising of satellite
capacity costs, minimum payments to content providers and other
operation specific fixed costs).
Contribution from operations is determined in the main by the extent
to which the fixed costs could be recovered against revenue generated by
the growing subscriber base. The company is moving aggressively towards
achieving a critical mass of subscribers required to fully amortise
fixed costs.
The negative contribution from Dialog Broadband Networks (DBN)
accrues largely from costs arising from capacity building ahead of
demand and revenue realisation from recently established CDMA and WiMaX
Network infrastructures.
The company is moving rapidly towards a reversal of the latter
position with the commercial launch of CDMA services in July 2007 and
the full commercialisation of WiMaX based Wireless Broadband services in
the last quarter.
The company added over 1.1 mn net subscribers over the past 12
months, and accordingly the Company's cellular subscriber base increased
by 40 per cent to reach 3.96 mn subscribers by September 30, 2007.
The prepaid segment increased by 46 per cent from 2.36 mn to 3.44 mn.
In parallel, the postpaid subscriber base witnessed a growth of 10 per
cent from 0.48 mn to 0.52 mn. The subscriber mix for the nine months
ended 30 September 2006 and 2007 is presented in the table.
Value added services (VAS) revenues accounted for close to 10 per
cent of total revenues.
Peer-to-Peer SMS revenue continued to represent the largest component
of non-voice revenue accounting for 6 per cent of total revenue.
Revenue from international termination increased from Rs. 1,649 mn to
Rs. 2,280 mn representing an increase of 38 per cent.
Subscriber base Units Sep-06 Mix Sep-07 Mix Growth%
Postpaid 000 475 17 523 13 10
Prepaid 000 2,359 83 3,441 87 46
Total active
subscriber base 000 2,835 100 3,963 100 40 |
