Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the country’s dominant wireline operator, has reported its consolidated results for the second quarter of 2013, including its cellular division Mobitel and pay-TV operations. Group revenues rose by 4% year-on-year to LKR14.7 billion (USD112 million) in the three months to 30 June 2013, although costs rose by 10% to LKR10.6 billion over the same period, driving down EBITDA by 8% y-o-y to LKR4.1 billion, while operating profit (EBIT) slumped by 32% to LKR1.1 billion. Quarterly net profit dropped 10% to LKR713 million, as the group said it continued to invest in new technology to meet customer needs, while incurring forex losses as the Sri Lankan rupee fell (including LKR421 million in 2Q13). Data, enterprise and wholesale sectors delivered revenue growth but voice and international sales shrank.
During the first six months of 2013 the SLT group invested LKR9.49 billion in expanding and upgrading mobile and fixed/data infrastructure, up from LKR7.92 billion in January-June 2012, while it added that it was near to completing a migration to converged IP next generation network (NGN) backbone infrastructure.