Bangladesh-based Grameenphone recorded higher profitability on one-off items in Q3, with growth in subscribers and data revenue.

CEO Yasir Azman said there was recovery in its top-line as economic activity in the country gradually resumed following months of Covid-19 (coronavirus) restrictions. He added it focused on driving subscriber additions and 4G conversion, delivering a 4.1 per cent increase in total customers from the previous quarter.

Net profit jumped 22.4 per cent over Q3 2019 to BDT8.9 billion ($105 million), attributed to lower taxes resulting from a one-off adjustment in the recent quarter. Revenue fell 2.8 per cent to BDT35.6 billion, due in part to a reduction in the mobile termination rate.

Jens Becker, CFO, highlighted “a promising recovery in the third quarter”, following an 8.1 per cent year-on-year decline in revenue in Q2.

Mobile subscribers increased 2.5 per cent to 77.6 million, with data users up 3.4 per cent to 42 million. Data revenue increased 11.4 per cent to BDT8.7 billon. ARPU dropped 3.4 per cent to BDT153.

Becker noted the growth in data revenue and users followed additional investments to strengthen it network.

Capex rose 52.4 per cent to BDT3.2 billion. The operator added 1,070 LTE sites, taking its total to 11,421 and achieving 83.3 per cent population coverage.