KARACHI (October 01 2002) : The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has earned highest so far revenue of Rs 66.4 billion and declared a dividend of 27.5 percent for the year ended on June 30, 2002.
The audited accounts of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) for the year ended June 30, 2002, were approved by the Board of Directors of the Company in a meeting held on Monday.
The Board of Directors has recommended a final cash dividend of 27.5 percent (Rs 2.75 per share), subject to the approval of the shareholders in the coming annual general meeting of PTCL. A total sum of Rs 14 billion will be distributed among the shareholders.
Akhtar Ahmed Bajwa, Chairman, PTCL, presided over the meeting.
The total revenue of the Company increased by Rs 4.4 billion, or 7 percent, from last year's Rs 62.0 billion to Rs 66.4 billion in 2001-02.
The Company has earned an impressive after tax profit of Rs 19.8 billion during the year and achieved earnings growth of 9 percent over last year's figure of Rs 18.2 billion.
Out of the total revenue of Rs 66.4 billion, the domestic revenue was Rs 47.3 billion and the international revenue was Rs 19.1 billion.
PTCL's dependence on international revenue decreased from last year's 31 percent to 29 percent in the current year while the domestic revenue showed an appreciable growth of 10 percent over last year's figure of Rs 43.1 billion.
The international revenue for the year at Rs 19.1 billion showed a slight increase of Rs 0.2 billion, or 1 percent, over last year's figure of Rs 18.9 billion. The turnover from international operations was sustained through higher traffic volume by better management of international circuits and routing despite declining trend of settlement rates and currency conversion.
The increase in domestic revenue by Rs 4.3 billion over previous year is a commendable achievement of PTCL despite delayed implementation of tariff rationalisation measures and low level of business activities in the country.
It is mainly attributable to expansion/digitalisation of PTCL network and the improvements in the operation support systems, value-added services, increase in traffic due to improved marketing efforts, price reductions and overall growth of Internet and cellular businesses.
The Company brought about considerable improvement in financial control and information system as an Oracle-based FIS that was introduced by the Company last year has been made fully operational during the current year. PTCL plans to introduce integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to further gear up the Company towards cost control and competition.
During the year, the number of working connections increased from 3.34 million to 3.65 million, an increase of 9.4 percent, whereas the total capacity increased from 4.08 million to 4.33 million, showing a growth of 6 percent.
PTCL also expanded the outside plant (OSP) network for better utilisation of spare switching capacity. Direct dialling NWD facilities were extended to 98 new stations expanding to NWD facilities to 1741 stations covering almost the whole of Pakistan, whereas Internet Dialup connectivity was extended to 407 new stations as total number of cities/towns having Internet Dialup facility rose to 807 stations.
On the international telecommunications side, the Company opened 2786 new circuits and activated 156 Mb of IP bandwidth during the year, taking the total IP bandwidth utilisation from 76 Mbps to 232 Mbps. Another landmark achieved during the year was full utilisation of STMI (155 Mbps) capacity acquired by the Company through an agreement with Singtel to ensure Pakistan's high-speed direct connectivity to the Internet Backbone.
The company is finalising the acquisition of additional STM1 capacity, which would be commissioned this year. The annual general meeting (AGM) of the Company is schedule to be held on December 28, 2002.
