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Bangladesh’s second-largest telecom operator Robi Axiata reported a net profit loss of Tk 12.2 crore for the second quarter of this year, a drop of 126.18 per cent year-on-year.
The figure was Tk 46.6 crore in the same period a year ago, said the operator in a statement on Thursday.
“Robi lost Tk 172 crore in Q2 ‘22 due to devaluation of taka against the US dollar,” said the mobile phone operator.
However, the total revenue surged 3.67 per cent year-on-year to Tk 2,105.4 crore during the quarter ended June 2022. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, it also surged 4.28 per cent.
Its earnings per share (EPS) in Q2 ‘22 was negative Tk 0.02. Had it not been for the Forex changes, Robi’s EPS for Q2 ‘22 would have been Tk 0.16 taka, and the EPS for the first six months of 2022 would have been Tk 0.25 taka.
Despite solid revenue growth and steady rise in subscriber base, drastic changes in forex has undone Robi’s sound performance in Q2 ‘22.
Robi Acting CEO and CFO M Riyaaz Rasheed said, “Losing hard-earned profit to the devaluation of taka against US dollar is very painful. Since we rely on the international market to source telecom equipment, forex volatility is a major concern for us at the moment.”
“We are also suffering due to the absence of a comprehensive mechanism for price regulation. We strongly believe that there is a win-win opportunity for the customers, the operators, as well as the regulator, with regards to devising a comprehensive price regulation regime,” he added.
The data subscriber base grew by 0.8 per cent compared to last quarter to reach 5.45 crore. Compared to the same quarter last year, the data subscriber base grew by 2.0 per cent and 48.3 per cent of total subscribers were 4G users.
Listed in 2020, Robi paid 1,475.3 crore taka to the government exchequer in Q2 ‘22, accounting for 70.1 per cent of the total revenue for the quarter.
On Thursday, its stocks declined 1.69 per cent to Tk 29 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange.
