SLT Group posts Rs 5.4b PAT

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT)released its company and group financial performance for the financial year 2013, and for the 4th quarter of 2013 recently.

The SLT group comprises the holding Company Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT) and six subsidiaries including the group mobile arm Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd. During 2013, the group reported Rs. 60.1 billion revenue with 5.9% growth when compared to the previous year. The growth of revenue was mainly driven by the revenue increases of SLT, the holding company and Mobitel.

The group managed its operational costs at Rs. 41.2 billion with a sustainable increase of 6.2% compared to the previous year. The group reported Rs.18.9 billion Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) for 2013.

Healthy revenue growth coupled with operating cost management, increased EBITDA by 5.3% when compared to the previous year. The EBITDA margin remained at 31.5%. The increase in EBITDA and favourable outcome of non-operational affairs resulted in an impressive 25.9% Year-on-Year (YoY) growth of Group Net Profit Before Tax (NPBT) of the year under review to Rs. 7.4 billion.

The Group Net Profit After Tax (NPAT) increased to Rs. 5.4 billion with 38.2% growth YoY while the group NPAT for the 4Q2013 dropped by 3.1% QoQ to Rs 1.5 billion due to taxes.

Comparative data of the previous year has been restated to comply with guidance of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka on bringing back the fully depreciated assets into the Statement of Financial Position which are used to derive economic benefits.

Accordingly Rs.1.5 billion accumulated Depreciation applicable to such assets was reversed to the retained earnings, which impacted to increase written down value of assets by the same amount. The impact of this adjustment on the group financial performance was additional depreciation charge that arose due to the above adjustment.

The holding company, Sri Lanka Telecom (PLC), recorded Rs. 36.8 billion revenue during 2013 with 5.9% growth compared to the year before while reporting 5.8% QoQ growth with Rs. 9.9 billion in revenue gained during the 4Q 2013.

The revenue growth was driven by outstanding performance of non-voice services including Broadband and PEO TV, despite negative growth of voice and international service sectors - a worldwide trend.

The company EBITDA grew by 7.3% to Rs.10.0 billion YoY, while the EBITDA margin slightly improved to 27.1%.

The revenue increase and prudent operating cost management at 5.5% YoY increase to Rs.26.8 billion has resulted in improvements to the EBITDA.