Net profit of Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company dropped more than 58 percent year-on-year to Tk 36 crore in 2013-14, as the state-owned internet connectivity provider lost its market share.
The company's major income comes from sales of bandwidth, which came down to 25 gigabits per second (Gbps) last fiscal year from 42 Gbps a year earlier.
“Many of our customers switched to private sector international terrestrial cable (ITC) providers that sell bandwidth at low prices,” said Monwar Hossain, managing director of the company.
“We lost revenues due to a huge gap between the government and private ITC providers in bandwidth prices.”
Submarine Cable Company has already decided in principle to reduce the bandwidth selling price to be competitive with the private sector ITC providers.
“But we will need the telecom ministry's approval and we will urge the ministry to allow us to reduce the bandwidth selling price.”
There are six private ITC providers that sell around 35 Gbps, meaning Bangladeshis use a total of 60 Gbps internet bandwidth for voice and data connectivity.
The sharp decline in Submarine Cable's net profit forced the company to announce lower dividends for fiscal 2013-14 than a year ago.
The company on Sunday declared 10 percent cash dividends for the last fiscal year, compared with 20 percent cash and 15 percent stock dividends for 2012-13.
The fall in net profit and dividends eroded investor confidence to chase for the company's stocks, which declined 8.33 percent on the trading board yesterday.
On the Dhaka Stock Exchange, each share of the company traded between Tk 160 and Tk 150, before closing at Tk 151.8.
With the sharp fall, Submarine Cable, which got listed in 2012, also became the second worst performer for the day on the premier bourse.
Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/submarine-cables-profit-falls-58pc-38686
