Islamabad: PTCL Group, Pakistan’s leading telecom and ICT services provider has achieved a double-digit revenue growth of 10.2% during the financial year 2022. Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), posted 8.6% growth in its revenues, owing to its strong performance in both retail and business segments, whereas Ufone achieved 7.1% growth in its revenues. The Group’s subsidiary, U Microfinance Bank, kept a strong momentum and posted 35.4% revenue growth during 2022.
The company announced its annual financial results for the year 2022 at its Board of Directors’ meeting held in Islamabad.
Major Highlights of Financial Performance
PTCL Group
• PTCL Group’s revenue has increased by 10.2% YoY to Rs 151.6 billion, mainly driven by strong performance in the consumer segment led by fixed broadband, mobile data, and wholesale & business solutions, along with microfinance services.
• The Group’s profitability remained under pressure due to significant hike in power and fuel tariffs, devaluation of the Pak Rupee against USD, higher interest rates, and other costs associated with the acquisition of 4G spectrum and related network rollout. The Group has posted a net loss of Rs 7.8 billion.
PTCL
• PTCL continued its strong performance throughout 2022. PTCL’s revenue of Rs 83.4 billion for the year 2022, highest ever in its history, is 8.6% higher than 2021, mainly driven by growth in broadband and wholesale & business solutions segments.
• Flash Fiber, PTCL’s premium Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) service, showed tremendous growth with highest Net adds within FTTH market in 2022.
• The company has posted operating profit of Rs 4.9 billion, which is 17% higher as compared to 2021.
• Net profit of Rs 9 billion, highest since 2013, is 31.7% higher as compared to last year.
PTCL continued to upgrade its existing infrastructure and network, besides expanding its premium FTTH internet Flash Fiber across the country to offer seamless connectivity for greater customer experience. Prompt deployment of FTTH and strong performance in Corporate and Wholesale segments are the cornerstone in PTCL’s topline growth, which along with focus on cost optimization program, has significantly increased the company’s profitability.
PTCL Consumer Business:
PTCL fixed broadband business has shown 12.2% YoY growth propelled by the aggressive FTTH expansion. Flash Fiber showed unprecedented growth of 102.7%, taking lion’s share of the market’s net adds, whereas PTCL IPTV segment also grew by 8.1% YoY. Voice and wireless broadband segments witnessed decline due to conversion of customers to OTT services and competition from cellular operators.
PTCL has recently launched Pakistan’s largest OTT Streaming platform ‘SHOQ’ to provide premium entertainment, sports, and news content to all data users. As internet penetration has increased manifolds during the last few years, Pakistan needed a high-quality local OTT service that offers affordable entertainment.
Business Services:
Business services segment continued its momentum sustaining market leadership in IP Bandwidth, Cloud, Data Center, and other ICT services segments. PTCL’s Enterprise business grew by 18.8% as compared to last year, while Carrier and Wholesale business continued its growth momentum and achieved 11% overall revenue growth. International voice revenue has increased by 8.5% as compared to last year. Overall Business Solutions revenue has grown by 12.5% on year-on-year basis.
Being the national telecom carrier and connectivity backbone in Pakistan, PTCL Group strives to provide innovative solutions to accelerate growth for a ‘Digital Pakistan’ through robust telecommunication infrastructure and a diverse portfolio of services with enhanced customer experience.
PTML – Ufone:
• In the year 2022, Ufone has recorded positive Net Adds with 3.9% YoY growth in subscriber base and has gained market share within the industry.
• Since the acquisition of spectrum, Ufone has grown from strength to strength registering 7.1% YoY revenue growth in 2022 despite the challenges of increase in Advance Income Tax (AIT) and reduction in Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) and recent floods in the country.
• This growth has been achieved through investment in network, aggressive product offering focusing on data and regional play.
• Year 2022 was marked with a prime focus on data portfolio enrichment. An array of new offerings was launched targeting data-savvy younger segment resulting in more than 40% growth in data revenue.
Owing to its infrastructure modernization and fast deployment of 4G services across the country, the company has set a higher bar in voice and data service quality. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), in its nationwide service quality benchmarking during 2022, declared Ufone the No. 01 voice and data network.
Ufone 4G has officially partnered with Islamabad United, the most successful franchise in HBL PSL history and the winner of the first and third editions of the tournament. The company will be the official telecommunications partner for the franchise for PSL 8.
During the second quarter, VIS Credit Rating Company has assigned initial entity ratings of ‘AA-/A-1’ (Double A Minus/A-One) to Ufone with outlook on the assigned ratings as ‘Stable’. This acknowledges the financial strength of Ufone through an independent rating exercise which also denotes high credit quality and good fundamental protection factors and is a testimony of stakeholders’ confidence in Ufone.
U Bank
U Bank, the microfinance and branchless banking subsidiary of PTCL, continued its growth trajectory and achieved 35.4% growth in its revenue over last year by deepening its advances and investment portfolio, despite the challenging macro-economic situation, further exacerbated by the recent flood. The balance sheet footing of the bank reached Rs 221 billion as the bank continued to diversify its asset classes and funding streams while ensuring positive bottom-line impact. As the six business canvases of the bank, namely: Rural Retail Banking, Corporate Finance & Investment Banking, Islamic Banking, Urban Retail Banking, Corporate Banking and Digital Banking take their distinct forms and structures, the Bank is working towards becoming a Retail Challenger Bank aiming to extend banking services in accordance with the unique needs of its diverse and heterogenous clientele. With the core mission of microfinance at its heart, the business model of the bank is evolving to capture new segments and customer classes to include more of Pakistan into the banking net and further its ambition of financial and social inclusion.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
PTCL Group was at the forefront of relief activities in the wake of one of the most devastating floods in the country. PTCL and Ufone announced free calls to aid rescue services and opened the doors of their medical centers across the country for treatment of sick and injured flood affectees. In addition to the donation made to PM’s Flood Relief Fund, PTCL Group worked with Akhuwat Foundation and Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to provide clean and safe drinking water and food to affected communities in Sindh and Balochistan. To further support the flood affectees, PTCL Group also donated winter jackets to the impacted communities in areas of Quetta, Pishin and Killa Saifullah.
During 2022, PTCL ran the third cohort of its flagship internship program ‘Justuju’ for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in collaboration with ‘Network of Organizations Working with Persons with Disabilities, Pakistan’ (NOWPDP) and DeafTawk. Ufone also donated ‘Blaze’ devices to the participants of the KP Women Civic Internship program. Furthermore, PTCL Group in tandem with the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) initiated a women empowerment program to promote financial inclusion of women in KP.
PTCL and Ufone provided life jackets to the fishermen communities in Karachi to ensure their safety out in the sea. Ufone also provided food stalls and carts to the local people in Murree to help them earn a livelihood. The Group undertook a series of activities on and off the premises to raise awareness regarding early detection and treatment of breast cancer and our efforts were recognized by the first lady Mrs. Samina Arif Alvi. Moreover, PTCL volunteer force carried out its annual tree plantation drive to contribute to environmental sustainability in the country.
PTCL also provided free calls services to families of Pakistanis stranded in and around Ukraine in the wake of Russian Ukraine conflict.
PTCL Group is playing a key role in supporting Universal Service Fund’s (USF) efforts for the development of telecommunication services in un-served and under-served areas of the country. PTCL signed an agreement for deployment of optic fiber cable in interior Sindh, including Dadu, Jamshoro, Hyderabad and Larkana. During the year, the Group completed network deployment in the far-flung areas of Lasbela, Panjgur, Kech, Qilla Saifullah, Mastung, Bolan and Gawadar.
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