Sri Lanka’s Dialog Axiata boosted its net profit for FY16 by 74% year-on-year to 9 billion rupees ($59.4 million), recording strong growth across all its business segments.
The operator reported total revenue of 86.7 billion rupees, up 17% year-on-year, with revenue from its core business increasing 16% to 73 billion. Mobile customers increased to 11.8 million.
Dialog Broadband Networks revenue grew 28% to 9.3 billion rupees, but the division’s net loss more than doubled to 385 million rupees due to higher depreciation and finance costs.
Dialog Television revenue meanwhile grew 5% to 6.1 billion rupees, but its net loss also more than doubled to 644 million rupees.
The group’s total capex for the year reached 23.2 billion rupees, representing a capex to revenue ratio of 27%. The bulk of spending went towards investments in high speed broadband infrastructure aimed at strengthening Dialog’s position in Sri Lanka’s broadband sector.
For the fourth quarter, Dialog reported a 5% increase in revenue growth to 7.4 billion rupees. The company attributed the slower growth to the reintroduction of Sri Lanka’s value added tax at the start of November.
Net profit for the quarter meanwhile declined 56% quarter-on-quarter to 1.3 billion rupees, due to lower pre-tax earnings, increased depreciation and higher non-cash forex losses.