Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata has announced its consolidated financial results for the year ended 31 December 2017, with revenues rising 9% year-on-year to LKR94.2 billion (USD611.1 million) thanks to strong performance across all key business segments. The group said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew 16% y-o-y to LKR33.9 billion in FY 2017, underpinned by ‘disciplined cost management and operational efficiencies’, and net profit stood at LKR10.8 billion (+19%), driven by improved EBITDA and lower non-cash translational forex losses of LKR400 million, compared to LKR800 million in FY 2016. Dialog Axiata’s full year capital expenditure totalled LKR27.3 billion in 2017, up 18% on an annualised basis, with a CAPEX to revenue ratio of 29%. The telco said the monies were directed in the main to investments in high speed 4G and fixed LTE broadband infrastructure, as mobile LTE coverage reached 43% of the population at end-2017, while TD-LTE coverage was 53%. The operator also noted the launch of NB-IoT technology in 4Q17, a first for South Asia, enabling seamless connectivity amongst devices using Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technology.
At end-2017 the company reported a total of 12.797 million mobile subscribers, up 8% y-o-y from 11.825 million, with mobile revenue up 6% to LKR77.6 billion. Mobile blended ARPU declined to LKR392 in 4Q17 from LKR393 in 4Q16, and MOU declined to 118 minutes from 128 in the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile its Dialog Broadband Networks (DBN) unit recorded revenue growth of 33% to LKR12.4 billion in FY 2017, supported by the telco’s TD-LTE Fixed Home Broadband business. DBN EBITDA grew 74% y-o-y to LKR6.9 billion. Elsewhere, Dialog’s pay-TV unit, Dialog Television (DTV), continued to consolidate its number one position in the digital pay-TV space with the subscriber base growing 17% y-o-y to over 980,000 at 31 December 2017.