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SLT experiences a 31% fall in Q3′08 net profits (Sri Lanka)

  • November 28th, 2008
  • 1:28 pm

Sri Lanka Telecom reports a fall of 31% in its Q3′08 net profits on a y-o-y basis, driven by inflation and higher costs. The Sri Lankan operator says that its ended Q3′08 with a net income of $11.2 million, dip by $0.016 million since 2007, even the Q3 revenues grew by 4% since last year to $0.106 million. ‘High costs, led by high inflation in the third quarter, was the main reason for the fall in net profit,’ said Upali Mahamithawa, head of investor relations at SLT.

   

Mobitel makes a move towards expansion (Sri Lanka)

  • September 22nd, 2008
  • 5:24 am

A local media reports that Mobitel, the cellular division of Sri Lankan fixed line incumbent Sri Lanka Telecom will increase its customer base by around 300,000 by the year-end to 2.4 million users, helped by a new package aimed at public sector workers. Mobitel’s CEO Suren Amarasekera said the firm is connecting over 10,000 new users a day following the recent launch of its ‘Upahara’ package targeting civil servants. China’s Huawei Technologies has been contracted for the expansion of the network capacity under Mobitel’s ‘phase four’ plan to increase the cellco’s number of GSM base stations to 2,000 from the current total of around 1,500 therefore lifting up capacity by 650,000 users to a maximum of 2.75 million, as well as expanding coverage to 90% of the population. The company anticipates to start ‘phase five’ of its nationwide network launch as early as January 2009 hoping to raise capacity to 4million from 2.75 million.

NTT to give up full stake in Sri Lanka Telecom to Maxis (Japan)

  • March 11th, 2008
  • 9:27 am

Japan’s NTT is to sell its entire stake in Sri Lanka Telecom to Malaysia’s Maxis Communications after a long legal battle.

The Reuters report quoted Sri Lanka Telecom head of investor relations Upali Mahamithawa as saying that “Maxis has agreed to buy the whole NTT holding,” soon after a court ruling that allowed a sale to proceed.

The 35.19 % stake would be worth about $214 million at current share prices, the report said.

The last condition is for transparency and prior public notice in the event of a management agreement, the report said.

NTT had planned to sell mobile network operator Maxis 25.3% of Sri Lanka Telecom early last year, but the deal was temporarily blocked by the country’s Supreme Court in June after an opposition member of parliament opposed it, the report.

This week, the court allowed NTT to proceed with a sale.

The government has a 49.5% stake in Sri Lanka Telecom. The rest is held by the public.

Analysts said the court ruling and NTT’s decision to sell the entire stake would boost the market.

   

SLT stake sale postponed until November at least (Sri Lanka)

  • September 18th, 2007
  • 8:06 am

Following a Supreme Court decision in June 2007 barring any further action on the proposed purchase of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) shares by Malaysian cellco Maxis Communications, the case has been postponed until 22 November. It had originally been set to return to court this week, but all parties failed to submit legal objections and counter-objections, which must now be submitted by mid-October. The original court ruling prevented Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation from selling a 25.3% stake in SLT to Maxis (which would lower the Japanese firm’s interest to 9.9% and cancel its management contract), on the grounds of a lack of transparency. The Sri Lankan government owns 49.5% of SLT.