bKash Limited, the country’s top mobile financial services (MFS) provider, returned to profit in the first six months (January–June) of 2023.
The subsidiary of Brac Bank posted Tk 38.22 crore in the first half of this year, against a hefty loss of Tk 42.46 crore during the same period last year, the company's unaudited half-yearly financial statements showed.
After bracing for losses in the previous three years, bKash returned to profit in 2022. The company posted Tk 17.21 crore in net profit last year, against a hefty loss of Tk 123 crore in 2021.
The leading MFS provider had been suffering consistent losses since 2019, with a loss of Tk 67 crore in 2020 and Tk 62.51 crore in 2019.
Meanwhile, the company’s revenue soared by 23.20 per cent to Tk 2,315 crore in the January–June period of 2023, compared to Tk 1,879 crore in the same period of last year.
Shamsuddin Haider Dalim, head of corporate communications at bKash, told The Business Post, “Technology-based companies have to keep investing for the development of products, services and technology.
“We have reinvested the revenue consciously for further upgradation and product diversification. That strategic investment has been made keeping future growth in mind rather than profit,” he said.
“The benefits of those investments are now apparent as bKash also made some profit last year too," Shamsuddin continued.
Brac Bank formed bKash Limited on March 1, 2010. bKash now has a large customer base of nearly 6.5 crore. The bank currently holds 51 per cent equity shares in the company.
With the consent of all existing shareholders, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF), Alipay Singapore E-Commerce Private Limited (Alipay), and SoftBank invested in bKash Limited in 2014, 2018 and 2021, respectively, in the form of convertible preference shares.
As of December 2021, out of the total 163,104 convertible preference shares, B&MGF owned 22,525 shares, Alipay 55,433 shares, and SoftBank 85,146 shares.
Over the years, bKash has built a robust network of nearly 300,000 agents and 300,000 merchants across the country. It also got integrated with banks, financial institutions and service providers to strengthen the cashless digital financial ecosystem of the country.
Brac Bank to invest in digital bank
Meanwhile, the Board of Directors of Brac Bank has decided to invest in establishing a private digital bank.
The proposed digital bank is named “bKash Digital Bank PLC”. The digital bank will be established subject to the approval of Bangladesh Bank, according to the stock exchange filing on Monday.
However, the bank did not disclose the investment amount or how much stake will be held in the proposed digital bank.
The publicly traded bank also approved its half-yearly financial statement for the January–June period at the same meeting held on Sunday.
Its consolidated earnings per share (EPS) jumped 58 per cent to Tk 1.03 in the April-June quarter this year, up from Tk 0.65 in the same quarter last year.
The bank’s half-yearly EPS also rose 41 per cent year-on-year to Tk 1.93 for January-June this year.
