Telenor Pakistan reported a negative first quarter with 11 percent dip in total revenues as the Norwegian company reported NOK 1,555 million or PKR 25.5 billion in revenues during first quarter of 2020, down from NOK 1744 million or PKR 28.26 billion revenue during same period last year.
Telenor said that dent in revenue was mainly due to declining subscription and traffic revenues, “but we were partly able to mitigate the revenue decline through reduced costs as a result of modernisation initiatives”, said the financial release issued by the company.
Telenor’s subscription and traffic revenues declined by 11% in the quarter. This double digit decline is said to be due to lower ARPU, disallowance of the service fee, compounded by the impact of COVID-19 from mid-March.
The number of mobile subscriptions increased by 1 million during the quarter, taking the total subscription base to 46.5 million, which is 5% higher than last year.
EBITDA dropped by 9% due to the decreased top line, partly offset by a solid opex reduction of 8% resulting from multiple cost optimisation and modernisation measures. Capex was mainly driven by site roll-out, investments in network stability and battery replacement.
The renewal of Telenor Pakistan’s GSM license, which expired on 25 May 2019, is still not concluded. A hearing was scheduled for 9 April 2020, however the hearing has been postponed for the time being due to the COVID-19 situation.
Below are the financial highlights from the quarter:
