Mobilink’s Revenues Slip 6% During Q4 2013

Mobilink’s revenue decreased 6% YoY to PKR 26 billion during fourth quarter of FY2013, down from Rs. 27.2 billion during the same duration last year.

Company said that this negative growth is mainly because of unstable security situation, higher withholding taxes and government requested network shutdowns during religious events.

Company’s revenues for entire FY2013 stood at Rs. 108 billion, slightly up from Rs. 106 billion it generated an year ago.

Mobilink’s EBITDA during Q4 FY 2013 fell 18 percent to Rs. 10 billion from Rs. 12 billion during the same duration last year. EBITDA margin was down 5.8 percentage points at 37.2 percent.

Financial report released by VimpelCom – the parent group of Mobilink – said that regulatory measures increased costs related to new sales, power outages and lower interconnect charges due to increased focus on on-net deals impacted the overall EBITDA.

Due to network modernization project going on, CAPEX in FY13 increased by 10% to USD 190 million. With this investment, Mobilink expects not only to further enhance the data and voice services it provides to its customers, but also to pave the way to introducing 3G services as soon as these are licensed.

Due to increased on-net call offerings, company’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for Q4FY2013 declined to Rs. 219 from Rs. 243 during an year ago quarter.

Average minutes consumed per user on Mobilink were recorded at 222, up from 215 minutes per user month during Q4 2012.

Mobilink’s customers grew 4% YoY to 38 million at the end of 2013.