Dialog Dec. quarter reports solid operational level performance

Strong operational level performance helped Dialog Axiata PLC report some solid financial performance for the three months ended in December 2024 as the group consolidated both its  operations and financial performance with acquisition partner Bharti Airtel Lanka Private Limited.

The company reported revenues of Rs.45.79 billion for the October – December quarter, up 8.6 percent from the same period in 2023 but decline in direct costs by 5.80 percent helped the company expand its gross profit by an outsize 29.9 percent to Rs.22.08 billion.

The top-line consisted of the revenues from the consolidation of the financial performance of Bharti Airtel Lanka for the six months from July 01, 2024 onwards.

At the operating level too, the company reported a profit of Rs.9.19 billion, up by a robust 32.6 percent from the same period in 2023.

The company attributed this strong operating level performance to cost re-scaling initiatives which yielded the desired results.

Meanwhile, the company reported earnings of 74 cents a share or Rs.6.77 billion compared to 64 cents a share or Rs.5.27 billion in the year earlier period.

Even though the lower finance costs helped the company’s full year results, the finance cost was seen more than doubling in the final quarter to Rs. 1.75 billion, up from Rs.828.51 million a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the company also turned a net exchange gain of Rs.58.80 million from a loss of Rs.469.59 million in the year earlier period.

Despite the stronger earnings at the quarter level, at the full year level, earnings were sharply down to Rs.1.43 a share or Rs.12.46 billion compared to Rs.2.44 a share or Rs.20.12 billion.

This was mainly due to the sharply higher foreign exchange gains. In 2023, the company reported foreign exchange gains of Rs.10.21 billion whereas in 2024 it came down to Rs. 3.79 billion.

There was some weakness seen at the top-line level too where the consolidated revenue came down by 5.81 percent to Rs.171.17 billion. This was because the conscious scaling down of low margin international wholesale business amounting to Rs. 24.3 billion in 2024.

In fact this was seen in the revenues generated by the fixed telephony and broadband operations which was reported at Rs.42.96 billion in 2024 compared to Rs.67.89 billion in 2023.

The company also said they spent capital expenditure amounting to Rs.30.3 billion in 2024 which came to 18 percent of the revenue and said that such expenditure mainly went to investments in high-speed broadband infrastructure and also to support the integration of the Airtel network.

Meanwhile, the group’s largest mobile operations segment reported revenues of Rs. 115.78 billion for the full year, up from Rs. 101.58 billion in 2023.

The television operation of the group, being the leader in the digital pay television business with a 1.6 million subscriber base, reported revenues of Rs. 12.42 billion, up slightly from Rs.12.25 billion in 2023.
Axiata Investments (Labuan) Limited in Malaysia held the controlling stake of 73.75 percent in Dialog Axiata followed by 10.36 percent by Bharti Airtel Limited and 2.58 percent by the Employees Provident Fund.