PTCL Group, the country’s leading telecom and ICT services provider, has
announced its financial results for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, at its Board of Directors’
meeting held in UAE on October 13, 2022.
PTCL Group remained on the growth trajectory during the third quarter as its fixed and wireless streams
continued to perform positively.
PTCL Group Financial Performance
Revenue has increased by 8% to PKR 110.5 billion YoY, mainly driven by strong performance in the
consumer segment led by fixed broadband, mobile data, and wholesale & business solutions, along with
microfinance services.
The Group’s profitability remained under pressure due to significant hike in power and fuel tariffs,
devaluation of the Pak Rupee against USD, higher interest rates, and other costs associated with the
acquisition of 4G spectrum and related network rollout. The Group has posted a net loss of Rs 5.6 billion.
PTCL continued its growth momentum by posting 6.7% YoY revenue growth.
PTML’s (Ufone) revenue grew by 5.4% as compared to the same period of last year.
U Bank has achieved a 29.8% growth in its revenue over the same period of last year.
PTCL Financial Performance
PTCL’s revenue of Rs 61.1 billion for the period is 6.7% higher than 2021, mainly driven by growth in
broadband and wholesale & business solutions segments.
The company has posted an operating profit of Rs 3.2 billion, which remained under pressure compared to
last year mainly due to increase in operating costs on account of significant hike in power and fuel tariffs.
Net Profit of Rs 8.2 billion for the period is 45.2% higher as compared to the same period of last year.
Increase in non-operating income, due to translation gain on the Company’s forex denominated assets,
dividend income from a subsidiary and gain on disposal of obsolete assets due to upgrade and fiberization
of network, has helped turn the 12.4% decrease at operating profit level to a 45.2% increase at the net
profit level.
PTCL Consumer Business
During the first 3 quarters, the company’s fixed broadband business grew by 11.7% YoY. Within the
broadband business, revenues from Flash Fiber, the company's premium FTTH service, showed significant
growth of 98.7%. IPTV also showed 8.6% growth YoY. Voice revenue stream has seen a decline due to lower
voice traffic and continued conversion of customers to OTT services.
PTCL continues to perform consistently with enhanced customer experience through the company’s seamless
fixed broadband, including the fastest internet service in Pakistan through the Flash Fiber brand. PTCL has
expanded its FTTH services in 35 cities, and the subscriber base has doubled on a YoY basis as the company
continues to tap into the demand for growing internet and data services.
PTCL Business Solutions
While continuing momentum with overall YoY revenue growth of 8.8%, the business solutions segment
sustained its market leadership in IP bandwidth, Cloud, Data Center, and other ICT services. PTCL’s corporate
business grew by 13.0% as compared to last year. Within the wholesale business segment, carrier revenue
grew by 16.2% but the overall wholesale segment revenue has declined as a result of closure of certain
Page 2 of 2
international IP leased circuits. International revenue, helped by the favorable impact of currency
devaluation, has increased by 13.9% over last year.
PTML (Ufone) Financial Performance
PTML’s (Ufone) revenue grew by 5.4% as compared to the same period of last year.
Data remains the main driver of growth for Ufone through continued investment to expand 4G
coverage and conversion of customer base to 4G. As a result, Ufone achieved 3.5 million 4G net adds
this year.
Ufone has posted topline growth despite the challenges of increase in Advance Income Tax (AIT) and
reduction in Mobile Termination Rates (MTR) and recent floods in the country.
External factors like the devaluation of Pak Rupee, rising interest rates and hike in power / fuel tariffs have
adversely impacted Ufone’s bottom-line.
During the second quarter, VIS Credit Rating Company has assigned initial entity ratings of ‘AA-/A-1’
(Double A Minus/A-One) to Ufone with outlook on the assigned ratings as ‘Stable’. This acknowledges the
financial strength of Ufone through an independent rating exercise which also denotes high credit quality
and good fundamental protection factors and is a testimony of stakeholders’ confidence in Ufone.
U Bank Highlights
UBank, the microfinance and branchless banking subsidiary of PTCL, continued its growth trajectory and
achieved 29.8% growth in its revenue over last year by deepening its advances and investment portfolio,
despite the challenging macro-economic situation, further exacerbated by the recent flood. The balance sheet
footing of the bank reached Rs 122 billion as the bank continued to diversify its asset classes and funding
streams while ensuring positive bottom-line impact. As the six business canvases of the bank, namely: Rural
Retail Banking, Corporate Finance & Investment Banking, Islamic Banking, Urban Retail Banking, Corporate
Banking and Digital Banking take their distinct forms and structures, this year will witness Ubank emerging as
a Retail Challenger Bank aiming to extend banking services in accordance with the unique needs of its diverse
and heterogenous clientele. With the core mission of microfinance at its heart, the business model of the
bank is evolving to capture new segments and customer classes to include more of Pakistan into the banking
net and further its ambition of financial and social inclusion.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Being a national carrier and a Pakistani company, PTCL Group during the recent floods has contributed
significantly towards the relief and rehabilitation of flood-affected communities across Pakistan. PTCL Group
has taken multiple initiatives including donation to PM’s Flood Relief Fund, collaboration with NGOs, PTCL
opening the doors of its medical centers nationwide to provide emergency health and care to the affected
communities and Ufone 4G offering free calls to help people stay in touch with their friends and family.
