Sri Lanka Telecom group during the 6 months ending June 30, 2017, reported Rs. 37.4 bn in revenue with a 2% year on year growth, while maintaining a nominal growth of 1% in operating costs.
Group EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) was reported at Rs. 11 bn with a 4% increase compared to the same period last year.The EBITDA margin remained at 29%. As a result of the continuous expansions, the group depreciation and amortization was recorded at Rs. 8.2 bn, which is a 20% year on year increase.
This increase was mainly driven by the investments of the holding Company on new technologies and customer base expansion initiatives. The decrease in group profits reflected the increase in depreciation due high investments in infrastructure. The holding company Sri Lanka Telecom (PLC), recorded Rs. 22.1 bn in revenue during the 6 months ending 30th June 2017, with a 4% increase compared to the same period last year, while managing operating costs at Rs. 16.3 bn, with only a 1% year on year increase.
The group comprises of 8 subsidiaries, including the mobile arm Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd. Kumarasinghe Sirisena, Group Chairman stated that the new Group Strategic Directional Plan will drive each segment of the group together to boost market leadership, whilst enhancing corporate values utilizing group strengths. He said that the Group would continue to simplify and streamline the business and rationalise costs as demonstrated by the ongoing performance transformation activities.
Dileepa Wijesundera, Group Chief Executive Officer, expressed his confidence in achieving better eturns through continuous investments in expansions and technological improvements.
He states that initiatives have also been taken to control costs and drive sales and believes these would significantly enhance the Company’s performance in the coming months.
Key developments in the strategic initiatives of the group included strengthening of the National Backbone Network - SLT raised its concerns with Telecom Regulatory Commission over the ROI on NBN and continuous lobbying with authorities against license violation. Raising concerns on Spectrum issues – SLT Continuously lobbied with the authorities for allocating spectrum to accelerate fixed & mobile LTE rollout.
SLT also became the First Telco to Successfully Field Test Pre-5G LTE Advanced Pro Technology in South Asia achieving 855.9 Mbps.
The Company will also be launching its newly built state-of-the-art Tier 3 Internet Data Centre in Pitipana-Homagama and officially commence SEA-ME-WE 5 -undersea cable system- with newly established cable landing station in Matara within the third quarter.
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