...Welcome to the third quarter earnings call for the year twenty twenty-four. I'm Chowdhury Tazrian Israt from Investor Relations. We're joining today from Grameenphone's head office in Dhaka. Joining me on this call are our CEO, Mr. Yasir Azman , and our CFO, Mr. Otto Risbakk . In consideration of our local guidelines, we'll not be providing any forward-looking statements during the call. Our earnings release, financial report, and other documents related to our results can be found in the Quarterly Section Results of the Investor Relations portal.
Participants are now all invited to begin posting questions, and we shall address them at the end of the presentation. In case you're unable to post questions on the portal, please feel free to reach me out via email or text message, and we'll address them at the end. With that, now let's get it over to our CEO, Mr. Yasir Azman, to tell us more about our results.
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our Quarter Three 2024 earnings call. I'm Yasir Azman, Chief Executive Officer of Grameenphone. As per our regulators' report, as of August 2024, there has been a decline in subscribers for the telecommunication industry in Bangladesh, with 192.43 million subscribers reported for the month, decreasing by 3.7 million subscribers from June 2024. During the same time frame, mobile data users decreased by 2.2 million, reaching 126.97 million in August 2024.
Let's now move on to some of our key business highlights for this quarter. We faced extremely challenging operating condition and unprecedented political uncertainty this quarter. Still, we remain deeply committed to our customers and adopted our product and services to keep them connected and informed. We went all out to ensure our customers are connected and can use our services in need.
We guided our customers to recharge their phones, access emergency balances, and receive vital information about available services, helping them to navigate through these challenging circumstances in the country. We stayed true to our ideals through strengthening our value proposition in our core markets. Although the macroeconomic headwinds continued to challenge us, we remained focused on our strategy and forged ahead with our investment plans. We did full CapEx of BDT 3.9 billion of this quarter to support our growth opportunities.
Our technology leadership journey is further being enriched as we are continually striving towards the future with cutting-edge technologies, including secure and energy-efficient data centers, AI-powered capabilities, and cloud solutions. Our focus on innovation and expanding beyond core business strategies has been instrumental in sustaining growth even during adverse times. Our digitalization journey has further progressed in this quarter with double-digit growth in digital revenue despite internet shutdown.
We are also working on many new generation technologies and co-creating several IoT solutions with both enterprise and government clients, such as Directorate of Primary Education, to transform business models and digitize the economy. Our business segment has contributed to 8.1% growth year on year this quarter, despite difficult macroeconomic and business environment. I will now invite our Chief Business Officer, Asif, to brief us on the B2B updates.
I'm Asif Naimur Rashid , the Chief Business Officer of Grameenphone, and I'm heading the business division in Grameenphone. So if we look at the business of business division or the enterprise segment, as a whole, we can see that this business is actually on a growth momentum. So when we compare the B2C and the B2B streams of businesses, we can clearly see that the enterprise segment is riding on a new wave of potential, aided by all the solutions that we are also bringing for our customers.
If we look at 2024, YTD basis, we can see that the business division growth has been almost double-digit, and it has been coming on a back-to-back fantastic year of 2023. So that gives a huge confidence to the team to do even better in the coming days.
We can also see that not only voice and data are doing good for the enterprise segments, there is a plethora of new solutions that we are trying to position in the market for our enterprise segments, and the best part about it is that we are doing many of the solutions in-house, and we are being able to tailor-make the solutions for matching them to the industry needs as a whole, so that is giving us good results.
If we can look back to quarter three, we see that the entire IoT portfolio that we have developed in-house with twenty-plus products and nine-plus products in commercial use are doing very good, so these products are now being adopted not only by enterprises, but also consumers. Also, the growth of ApTech business, the growth of software-as-a-service cloud business, are picking up as well in some of the enterprise segments. The best part about getting an industry solution into place is that we can see that others are being interested as well.
They are coming to us, and they are trying to pilot the solutions just to see if there are values for them in trying those solutions in commercial use. So we believe that this is the way to diversify the portfolio for Grameenphone and create a better impact for the enterprise market of Bangladesh. Thank you.
We all know that we are facing a turbulent economic landscape going toward significant reforms. The pressure of dollar crisis has been there for a while due to strained foreign exchange reserves. We successfully faced off these macro challenges by executing a well-planned strategy and secured the foreign currency for interim as well as our final dividends. The success of our approach is a testament to our resilience and ability to navigate through challenging economic conditions, ensuring shareholder satisfaction. Let me touch upon some of the key macroeconomic updates.
Increase of supplementary duty in telecom service from 15%- 20%, an increase of SIM tax from BDT 200- 300 , burdening customers with heavy tax. Point-to-point inflation is around 10.5% as prices of goods and services stayed high and is straining the purchasing power of our customers.
The central bank increased the band of the crawling peg, where settlement rate has changed to BDT 120 per USD from BDT 170 last quarter. As per HSBC Global Research Asia, Bangladesh's GDP growth rate for fiscal year 2024/2025 has been revised to 4.5%, with further prediction of recovering the following year to 7.1%. As per central bank data, the foreign exchange reserve of Bangladesh stand at 19.76 billion as of September 2024. Now, let's delve into the detail aspect of our business update for this quarter, quarter three 2024. Our resilient way of operating in this market.
I will now touch upon stories that highlights our ingenuity and resilience as a company, positioning us for the success despite difficult circumstances. As the situation began to stabilize, Grameenphone supported its customers to recover from the challenges of the internet blackout. To restore connectivity, we offered 5G free data to 50 million customers and additionally provided free internet access for two days during the weekend.
We were the only from our industry to expand the validity of our, the packages that had expired during the internet shutdown, allowing our customers to fully benefit from the previously purchased services. We are a customer-centric organization.
Recognizing the difficulties in recharging during this period, the increased emergency balance limits for prepaid customers and credit limits for postpaid customers, ensuring their connectivity was maintained. We connected our proprietary distribution channels, recharge channels, and MyGP to our internet, utilizing 100% sovereignty of GP's IT infrastructure and capabilities, and made them widely accessible even without mainstream internet access. These elicited a positive response from our users.
During the blackout period, the voice calls were the only means of communication, and its usage increased by 29%, and it was challenging to manage such big traffic voice with just 2G network. We swiftly have taken several interventions to provide right customer experience. It is important they are able to use our service in need. We advanced in our digital innovation through AI and analytics. This quarter marked a significant step forward in personalization by analyzing various factors such as payment ability, price sensitivity, and consistency in usage.
We developed a fully personalized portfolio within our MyGP app for our every customer. Congratulations to our team for bringing AI-powered, hyper-personalized offers for our customers and also for winning Asian Technology Excellence Award for the best self-care app in Bangladesh in this quarter. MyGP has been equipped with the capability of auto recharging for our customers from preferred payment method to ensure uninterrupted service. It will now automatically top up any GP number on a preferred schedule, ensuring account stays balanced without manual recharge.
It also has a feature where customers will receive alerts when balance drops below BDT 10 after a call, allowing customers to top up proactively. We have partnered with bKash, the largest mobile financial service provider in the country, for enabling our customers to seamlessly open bKash accounts directly within the MyGP app. We believe this integration will encourage more GP customers to avail top up and pack purchase in MyGP via bKash payments, which will have a positive impact on our customers' engagement, experience, and usage.
Grameenphone has achieved a significant milestone in the telecom industry this quarter by deploying the world's largest mediation system with Ericsson EM24 software solution. With the deployment of this powerful system, we are now able to handle 6 billion CDRs per day. With real-time analytics on usage and context, as well as AI-based insights, this system has set the foundation for faster AI-based hyper-personalization while prioritizing utmost protection of our user data. We are advancing to the advanced solutions to provide the right experience to the customers.
By deploying one of the world's largest voice charging control node in geo-redundancy, we have greatly enhanced the resiliency of our charging system. This guarantees the seamless connectivity for all customers and showcases our commitment to staying on par with advanced technological advancements. As a company, we prioritize driving operational efficiencies, and we are making strides towards that goal.
Thanks to the advanced technology of proactive AI-based alert monitoring solution, our customers and businesses now experience near to zero impactful incidences and a significantly faster turnaround in problem identification and resolution. Additionally, with AI-powered anomaly detection on the key performance indicators, we are able to stay ahead of potential issues before they even arise... We are registering quite a surge in interest and uptake for our new service, GPFi, our fixed wireless access solution. And it is still early stage right now, but it is encouraging.
We have adopted a phased approach for our rollout and strategically targeted specific locations, understanding that some customers prioritize dedicated speeds, while others seek affordability. We have designed a multi-pack portfolio, which is competitive with traditional Wi-Fi prices. Now, our vision of sustainability extends beyond just environmental responsibility and encompasses social and economic aspects as well.
We have marked our place as a sustainable leader with high ESG score among all the Bangladeshi firm as per Bloomberg last year, and we continue our commitment to building a sustainable future and making a positive difference in the communities we serve. Our company's sustainable procurement strategy is not only limited to promoting sustainability within our own operation, but also extend to our supply chain as a partner with businesses that share a similar vision and actively implement sustainable practices.
As of September 2024 , a staggering 72% of our total spend towards our suppliers are with companies we commit to reduce carbon footprint. Grameenphone aims to pave the way to access green electricity for business by advocating for the implementation of CPPA, Corporate Power Purchase Agreement policies in Bangladesh, thereby significantly reducing our carbon footprint.
A significant step towards CPPA policy advocacy was taken this quarter with the submission of an expression of interest to the Power Division for the procurement of up to 150 GWh of renewable electricity directly from partners as the first pilot for demonstration of the CPPA policy. I will now invite Farhana from our sustainability team to give a brief update on this issue.
[Foreign language] Assalamu alaikum. I'm Farha Naz Zaman , Head of ESG. Grameenphone is committed to a very ambitious climate target of reducing carbon footprint emissions by 50% by 2030, from our baseline of 2019. To achieve this ambitious goal, we are actively driving the green transition. Already, we have deployed solarization at 1,014 towers. Further, we are working to deploy at 4,000 more sites wherever it is feasible.
But to reach this ambitious target that we have, it is important that we are able to procure renewable energy at scale directly from the power producers and transmit it through the grid to our points of consumption. Currently, in Bangladesh, this is very difficult as a supporting policy does not exist, and Grameenphone is at the forefront of driving this policy change. We are actively pursuing the corporate power purchase agreement policy, the CPPA policy, so that we are able to actually procure this power from the power producers.
Grameenphone has submitted the EOI, expressing the interest to procure up to 150 GW hours of electricity directly from the power producers through the CPPA framework. This is intended to demonstrate the success of the CPPA policy in Bangladesh. A corporate power purchase policy in Bangladesh will not only support Grameenphone to reach its ambitious climate goals, but also allow more green investments to come in and support Bangladesh to achieve its national climate ambitions.
We are proud to announce that our company has been recognized as the SDG Brand Champion in climate and environment category for our solar powered network towers. Online safety program has always remained a key priority in our effort to build an inclusive digital future. The digital inclusion project has empowered over 2 million individuals from eight marginalized communities across 28 districts and 3,000 plus unions, with a significant focus on female population, equipping them with essential digital skills and online safety.
We want to spread the benefit of the digital society to more people, and in this pursuit, we are offering data pack bundles with Nokia smartphones to accelerate the smartphones adoption rates among rural women. Our efforts to create a sustainable future for women through increased internet access received an honorary mention at the SDG Brand Champion Awards as well. Grameenphone is always committed to playing a significant role in enhancing the skills of the youth to discover smart entrepreneurs at regional level and develop potential of young entrepreneurs.
Grameenphone Startup Innovation Platform, GP Accelerator, has organized a nationwide boot camp titled Jelay Jelay Smart Uddokta at 10 different cities till now. The enthusiastic response from young entrepreneurs to this initiative was promising and would helpful to serve as a guiding force for their progress. The eastern part of Bangladesh was struck by heavy flooding this quarter, severely affecting the infrastructure, including electricity transmission and distribution system in the region. All our base stations in that area were facing commercial power outage due to national grid line being down.
Our dedicated network teams worked tirelessly alongside Bangladesh Army to reach these sites and restore service as quickly as possible, ensuring that all network towers were operational at the earliest opportunity. Recognizing the severity of the situation, we immediately implemented our pre-approved intervention plan and swiftly responded to the situations. We provided clean drinking water, set up medical camps to provide consultations and medications, and distributed relief to 10,000 families in partnership with Bangladesh Red Crescent Society.
We utilize our social media platforms to rally broader support for the flood-affected communities. Our campaign inspired over 7,000 individuals to make direct contribution to the flood victims through Bangladesh Red Crescent Society. Additionally, Grameenphone employees also came forward to support the flood-affected families. We informed customers in the affected regions on USSD service for accessing emergency balance and recharge options through SMS notification, and disseminated information about national emergency services, ensuring that those in need were well informed.
We also uplifted the emergency balance for our customers in the affected regions. We have utilized our communication channels for community support and helped track location of missing individuals to help save lives. Additionally, we offered free minutes and data for forty-eight hours to flood victims in affected areas. Customers from any mobile operator in these areas could also charge their phones for free at Grameenphone network towers. I will now welcome our Chief Financial Officer, Otto Risbakk, to take you through our financial performance for the quarter three, twenty twenty-four.
Thank you, Azman. I will now go through the slides of the third quarter presentation. Before this special quarter, we have had thirteen consecutive quarters of top line and EBITDA growth. This quarter, we have been able to test the resilience of the business. Q3 started with a good trend, but sixteen days of unrest and internet shutdowns, unprecedented floods in several locations of the country, as well as the effect from the Remal cyclone and tax increases at the end of Q2, has obviously impacted the economy in general and our business as well.
In spite of all these events, revenue declined only 3.8% to BDT 39.5 billion, whereas EBITDA reached a solid BDT 23.2 billion, down 8.7%. Although I'm never happy to see a decline, I believe it's remarkable that we, in this challenging environment, are able to achieve an EBITDA margin of close to 59% and a cash flow margin of almost 50%. Net profits of BDT 7.6 billion were up 1% and reached a healthy margin of 19%. This translates into a result of 5.6 taka per share. On a year-to-date basis, revenue of BDT 121 billion is up 2.2%, and EBITDA of BDT 72 billion is at par with 2023.
I believe, the result of this quarter, with an EBITDA margin of 59% and a net profit margin of 19% in a quarter with unprecedented challenges, shows the resilience of our business and the quality of our employees and partners, capable of performing beyond expectation in a challenging environment. We pride ourselves of having a workforce that is adaptable, resilient, proud, and prepared for obstacles that may come in its way. As a reflection, I also believe that we have learned a lot in this crisis, and that we are coming out even stronger.
The million-dollar question is: How does the economy develop going forward? I'm not able to give you that answer now, but we are very optimistic about the future of Bangladesh, and we have a balance sheet and capability to continue to invest with a long-term mindset to deliver on our sustainable long-term growth strategy. I will now take you through the development of the key value drivers, and I will start with the subscriber base. After the good trend in recent quarters, we saw a slight QoQ subscriber base decline in the third quarter.
The total base remains close to 8 5 million subscribers, and almost 50 million of those, representing 58% of the subscriber base, are active data users. The slower overall subscriber development this quarter is due to the effect from the unrest and floods and to an economy which still has not recovered fully. Consumers have been more careful with their spending this quarter. If I look at the mobile market from a macro perspective, we see that the mobile market in Bangladesh is still not fully penetrated, and smartphone penetration has just reached about 50%.
We therefore believe that the overall market growth will resume, but it's difficult to know exactly when the trend will turn back to growth. It's more a question of time. On a year-on-year basis, we are seeing a healthy 3% growth, both on total base and data users. Now, a few words about ARPU and data usage. On this slide, you can see that the unrest had a significant impact on ARPU and data usage. The overall ARPU declined BDT 12- BDT 153, a drop of 7.5%. The ARPU decline is mainly explained by a sharp drop in usage.
As you can see in the graph in the middle, data usage declined from 7.6 GB per users, down to only 6 GB, a decline of 17%. I cannot recall having ever seen such a sharp drop in a quarter. The ARPU drop is mainly explained by the impact from the internet shutdown on data usage, but also to a general lower usage after the events, as consumers have remained careful with their spending in a slower economy. Voice remained strong during the internet shutdown, as this was the only open channel for communication, and has been resilient throughout the quarter.
Like I said on the previous slide, Bangladesh is far behind other Southeast Asian markets when it comes to data usage and smartphone penetration, and we believe the drop is temporary, and that data consumption will start growing again in line with other Southeast Asian markets. Perhaps even more, as Bangladesh needs to catch up with its neighbors. On the next slide, we will see how the subscriber and ARPU development impacted revenue. On this slide, the graph on the left side shows total revenue, and the graph on the right side shows subs and traffic revenue.
On a year-on-year basis, the 3.1% subscriber growth was more than offset by the 7.5% ARPU decline I talked about in the previous slide, and which was due to unrest and harsh weather conditions, leading to a decline of 3.8% of total revenue and a 3.3% drop of subs and traffic revenue. The limited revenue decline in such environment shows the strong resilience of our data and voice services in a quarter with unprecedented challenges.
We share the fundamental positive view of many economists that the current downturn is more a reset than a crisis, and that the economy will get back to higher growth once the reforms start working. Now, OpEx and EBITDA. On this slide, you can see that we have been quite successful in containing the impact of the external factors, protecting our industry-leading margins.
The graph on the right side shows the EBITDA development, and it's gratifying to see that we have managed to maintain a commendable EBITDA margin just short of 60% in such an adverse environment, offsetting revenue decline and increased cost from running the business during the unrest period. We also had extraordinary cost to quickly reestablish our leading network in affected flood areas. Our ability to manage cost, both short term and longer term, through relentless operating efficiency initiatives, automation, and strict prioritization, is one of our trademarks that I'm very proud of.
You will see on the next slide that the strong operational performance and the BDT 23 billion of EBITDA also translate into strong, a strong bottom line, and allows us to maintain a solid profitability and industry-leading cash flows supporting our balance sheet. So this slide shows the net profit after tax and EPS. Due to our strong balance sheet and low debt, the strong resilience and solid operational performance flows directly down to the bottom line, allowing us to reach an impressive 19% net profit after tax margin.
Due to the low debt, we are not affected by the recent interest rate hikes. It's a good situation to be in. On a reported basis, the BDT 70.6 billion profit is up 1% year-on-year, but if I adjust for a one-off tax provision booked in Q3 last year, the net profit is down 16%, and this is due to the unrest and flood impact that I have described earlier in this presentation. The graph on the right side shows the corresponding EPS, reaching 5.6 taka this quarter.
The solid margins and strong resilience that we have seen at work this quarter is a result of a strict capital allocation process and a customer-centric investment approach, combined with our relentless OpEx focus, maintained over a long time. Although we probably are one of the most efficient operators in the world, I still see attractive potential to improve operations and products further through AI and continued investment in our leading network, supported by our dedicated workforce. Now the last slide that I will show you today.
The graph on the left side shows how we are maintaining operating free cash flow around 50% and BDT 20 billion cash flow each quarter. The graph on the right side shows our strong balance sheet and enviable leverage at only 0.1%... 0.1x EBITDA.
The strong balance sheet allows us to continue to invest with a long-term view and also provides the basis for an attractive and predictable dividend policy. The BDT 16 interim dividend that we declared in Q2 was paid this month. We will revert to the full year dividend at the Q4 presentation. With these words, I hand over to Yasir Azman for some concluding remarks. Thank you.
Our company has built an inclusive and skill-centric workplace, and thanks to our international and diverse leadership team. In our commitment of gender equality, we have around 20% representation of our women in the organization, with 12.7% in leadership roles. As a responsible business, all employees have access to online courses on occupational health, safety, and well-being. This workforce is highly experienced and well-equipped to handle the rapid growth in the telecom sector, capable of performing at their best, even in a very challenging environment.
We understand the need for robust cybersecurity defenses across the company, for which we continue strengthening our defenses against the evolving cyber threats. Insider threat detection time has been reduced by half using AI-based cybersecurity monitoring capability, which significantly lowered the potential of data leakage. As we all know, that this was a tough quarter for us, and our resilience was put on test in all aspects, whether economically, politically, or through natural disaster. Despite these challenges, we have learned a lot in this crisis and came out stronger.
We have proven our business's resilience in the face of these headwinds. We are delivering solid margins around 59% in EBITDA and 19.1% in NPAT, and maintaining investment in strategic growth areas with a strong cash flow. We are optimistic about the future of Bangladesh. We have the balance sheet and profitability to continue to invest in the long-term view. We are providing ongoing support to all stakeholders to contribute to economic recovery.
Our service is fundamental, and as an industry leader, we need to work closely with government institutions and policymakers to establish a more sustainable pro-investment environment that encourages innovation, addresses customer needs, and ensures we are able to compete fairly and effectively in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Thank you very much for listening. With that, I will turn it over to Tazrian for Q&A session. Thank you once again.
Everyone for joining with us on this call. We've already received a few questions, so we will begin the Q&A session right now. I would also request all the participants, our investors, and analysts, to start posting questions if you have not yet. In case you're facing issues with login, you can directly send me the question on my mail address or on my phone. So let's start with the first question. This is for our CEO. Any update on the litigations related to BTRC audit case?
Thank you, Tazrian. There is no development on the merit of the BTRC case in this quarter. The next date in the original title suit is set on seventh July, 2025, for statutory mediation, which means on that day, the parties need to inform the court whether they would like to explore mediation or not. In case of any dispute, while GP relies on the court system as the last resort for judicial jurisdiction, GP encourages exploring the avenues for amicable resolution in a transparent manner, always.
Yeah. There is another question for you. It's a little big. With regards to the recent audit, nineteen ninety-seven to two thousand and fourteen, the original title suit was fixed on twenty-ninth September 2024 for mediation. Hearing of which was adjourned on that day, and the next date has been fixed on seventh July 2025. What is your view on the litigation, given good governance in the country within this interim government?
Question. GP respects the law of the country and the judicial system. As the matter is sub judice, we are unable to actually comment on this issue. However, our service is fundamental, and as an industry leader, we need to work closely with government institutions and regulators to establish a more sustainable pro-investment environment that encourages, of course, innovation, addresses customer needs, and ensure we are able to compete fairly. The fair business environment is always good for business. Thank you very much.
Okay, so we have question on the financial part, so Otto, maybe you can take that. During the internet shutdown, people made more phone calls than usual, yet there is only a 1% growth in Q3 2024. Shouldn't it be higher?
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that question. So if I look at our revenue, which was down 3.3%, this quarter. Behind that, as you point out, voice was quite resilient and had a slight positive growth in the quarter. However, data was profoundly affected by the internet shutdowns. As you know, we had many days without any revenue because simply the whole network was shut down. So that is obviously impacting our the quarter as in total. So the volume, as we reported also, the average consumption of data went down by 16%, down from 7 GB- 5.8 GB per sub.
That precedent, the growth of usage, data usage, and that is why we only see a 1% increase in net profit. We do expect obviously data consumption to go up again, like I said in my presentation. That is the trend globally, the data consumption is going up, and here in Bangladesh, we have a tremendous potential since smartphone penetration is just above 50%, compared to advanced nations approaching 100%. We are positive in the long term, and now we just have to see it may take a little bit of time before it's picking up, but it will pick up.
Thank you, Otto. We have another one. GP subscriber base is going down. What is GP doing to increase the number of mobile internet subscribers?
Oh, that's. We are working on that every day, every hour. So we obviously have a very, very strong brand as serving about half of the country. And so we have attractive products. We have the absolutely best network in the country, attractive product. And I think we have seen a temporary slowdown now due to the economy.
As you know, the growth, as reported by macroeconomists, the growth has come down in the country after the events, but the fundamentals are stronger. So again, I think it's a time before we will see the growth resume again. And then, I'm very convinced that our strong brand, the best network in the country, will help us to get back on the growth track.
Great. Thank you, Otto. Let's wait for a few more seconds if there are more questions from the investor and analysts. Okay, we have one more. Grameenphone has received extra 2.6 GHz spectrum this year. Has this been considered in this quarter's report? Azman Vai, would you like to take that?
Yes. Good. It needs actually a little more clarification. This is not reported in the quarter and financials as the assigned spectrum actually conditional upon the payment of demanded first installment which is yet to be made. Besides, the spectrum will be effective from July 2025. However, we are in the discussion with the regulator on the payment plan and other relevant issues pertaining to spectrum deployment. Hopefully, we'll be able to conclude this within some timeline soon.
Okay. So we will now wait for a few seconds if there are more questions. I'm receiving questions both on my email address and the investor relations number.