SLT group ends 2025 strong as 4Q profit rises on efficiency gains

SLT Group Chairman Dr. Mothilal de Silva

SLT-Mobitel CEO Riyaaz Rasheed

The SLT group closed 2025 with a markedly stronger December quarter, as tighter cost controls and easing finance costs lifted the operating profit, despite only a marginal revenue growth.

For the three months ended December 31, the group revenue edged up 1.6 percent year-on-year to Rs.29.5 billion, from Rs.29.1 billion. Direct costs were largely flat at Rs.16.1 billion, enabling gross profit to improve to Rs.13.4 billion, from an implied Rs.12.9 billion a year earlier.

Operating profit surged 66 percent to Rs.4.0 billion, from Rs.2.4 billion in the corresponding quarter, whereas profit before tax rose to Rs.3.1 billion, from Rs.1.9 billion.

Net profit for the quarter stood at Rs.2.35 billion, compared with Rs.3.55 billion a year earlier, while total comprehensive income climbed to Rs.3.4 billion, from Rs.2.3 billion. 

Within the group, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC continued to anchor performance. Its fourth-quarter revenue grew 4.4 percent to Rs.19.1 billion, driven primarily by broadband expansion on the back of fibre-to-the-home subscriber additions. Profit after tax at the fixed-line arm rose 139 percent year-on-year to Rs.2.2 billion, supported largely by lower interest costs, as borrowings and vendor financing obligations were pared down.

Mobile subsidiary Mobitel reported fourth-quarter revenue of Rs.12.5 billion, up one percent from a year earlier. Profit after tax increased 14 percent to Rs.1.4 billion, aided in part by a tax gain recognised during the quarter.

For the full year ended December 31, the group reported revenue of Rs.114.2 billion, up 3 percent year-on-year, with fixed-line revenue rising 2 percent to Rs.73 billion and mobile revenue increasing 5 percent to Rs.47.9 billion. Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortisation, were contained at Rs.72 billion at group level, resulting in a 5.5 percent improvement in EBITDA to Rs.42.2 billion and a 26.9 percent rise in operating profit to Rs.14.2 billion.

A most pronounced shift was in bottom-line performance with group profit after tax surging 221 percent to Rs.10 billion, from Rs.3.1 billion in 2024, while profit before tax rose 88 percent to Rs.11.3 billion. Finance costs fell 21 percent to Rs.7.05 billion, reflecting debt reduction and lower interest rates, particularly at SLT PLC.

At company level, SLT PLC reported a 196 percent increase in annual profit after tax to Rs.6.2 billion, largely supported by lower finance costs.

Mobitel delivered a sharper turnaround, with profit after tax climbing to Rs.3.1 billion, from Rs.139 million a year earlier, helped by a shift from revenue-based taxation in 2024 to profit-based taxation in 2025, alongside first-year allowances from recent investments.