ISLAMABAD: PTCL Group president and chief executive Hatem Bamatraf on Monday said that Ufone was not interested to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction but demanded the government not to ease the conditions.

“We have no plans to participate in the new spectrum auction but the terms and conditions should be the same as they were during the last auction,” Mr Bamatraf said while speaking at the announcement of the second quarter financial results after the PTCL group board meeting.

He also expressed concerns over the high fuel rates that led to the drop of company’s accounts in the ‘red’ despite posting higher revenues in the first six months of 2022.

He highlighted that the overall PTCL group revenues witnessed a growth of 5.7 per cent in 6MCY22 compared to the same period last year.

PTCL posts Rs5.2bn unconsolidated profit in 1HCY22

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd told investors on Monday it made a net loss of over Rs3bn in January-June on a consolidated basis as opposed to a profit of Rs2.9bn in the comparable six-month period of 2021.

In the latest three-month period, the company recorded a net loss of Rs1.5bn as opposed to a positive bottom line of Rs1.3bn a year ago.

However, unconsolidated accounts of the telecom firm showed its profit was Rs5.2bn in the first half of 2022, up 38.7 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Similarly, the unconsolidated profit for April-June amounted to Rs3.2bn, up 63.2pc on an annual basis.

Mr Khan said PTCL posted higher revenue growth due to increase in services charges, but significant rise in fuel tariff the operating loss of PTCL was 33pct amounting to Rs1.89bn in Jan-June 2022.

PTCL Group Chief Financial Officer Nadeem Khan said that PTCL Q2 results show that key revenue earner for the company was its wireline data service with Rs17.01bn, with a growth of 11pc.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2022