Telenor warned of a hefty hit to its second quarter earnings due to problems uncovered by its Bangladesh unit Grameenphone which would see the business restate its financials from previous years.

In a statement to the Oslo Stock Exchange, the Norway-headquartered operator said net profit for the quarter would be impacted to the tune of NOK622 million ($72.9 million) and cut EBITDA expectations by NOK299 million. The reductions are a “one-time correction” it explained.

Telenor issued the warning after Grameenphone “discovered some errors related to regular commission payments for prior years”, it stated, adding the Bangladesh unit had “chosen to restate their historical financials”.

Earnings
The group is due to reveal its Q2 earnings tomorrow (16 July), however Grameenphone has already reported its figures.

Net profit of BDT9.6 billion ($114 million) was down from BDT10.4 billion in the comparable period of 2018. Revenue of BDT36 billion in the recent period was up from BDT32.6 billion. Over the first half, profit of BDT18 billion was up from BDT16.3 billion and revenue increased 10.6 per cent year-on-year to BDT70.9 billion.

In a statement, Grameenphone CEO Patrick Foley said it achieved growth in the face of “challenges in the business environment” over the first half. It focused on improving “network resilience as well as modernising and rolling out 4G, covering 62 per cent of the population”. The operator invested BDT3.8 billion in network improvements during Q2 alone, with 1,560 new 4G sites taking its total to 16,176.

Malaysia
Figures released by Telenor’s Malaysian unit digi late last week showed net profit increased 7.8 per cent year-on-year in Q2 to MYR414 million ($101 million), on revenue of MYR1.5 billion, down 4.3 per cent.

CEO Albern Murty said the business had begun executing a strategy to “deepen our customer insights capabilities” along with “digitalisation efforts to drive differentiated customer experiences”.