Robi Axiata Ltd, the country's second-largest mobile phone operator in terms of subscribers, has recorded a massive 153 percent jump in profit on the back of strong data revenue and reduced cost of sales.

The telecom operator made Tk 106.7 crore profit in the January-March quarter of 2024, up from Tk 42 crore in the same period a year ago, according to its unaudited financial statement published today.

The first quarter earnings result comes after Robi's profit rose 75.7 percent year-on-year to Tk 321 crore in 2023.

Robi said it could generate profit thanks to strong data-led growth momentum, despite macroeconomic challenges, including high inflation, a highly competitive market landscape and stagnant smartphone penetration growth.

Its earnings per share rose to Tk 0.2 in January-March quarter from Tk 0.08 in the same period previous year.

Robi's revenue rose 7 percent year-on-year to Tk 2,516 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year.

At the same time, it was able to reduce its cost of revenue, which stood at 58 percent of the total revenue, the lowest in four years.

"What is particularly noteworthy is that this improvement was achieved by ensuring consistent data speed across the network and country-wide coverage. Similarly, our call drop rate has improved remarkably over the last year," said Robi's Managing Director and CEO Rajeev Sethi.

Robi, which closed 1.49 percent lower to Tk 26.4 yesterday on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), said its data revenue shot up by 25.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

The company's active subscriber base rose to 5.81 crore at the end of the first quarter of this year.

Robi said 4.36 crore or over 75 percent of its active subscribers are data users, the highest in the industry.

Moreover, over 81 percent of its data customers are 4G users, which is also the highest in the industry.

"Within the last one year, we have increased our average data speed by over 100 percent," said Sethi.

The operator said it has added 577 new 4G sites in January-March quarter and the 4G adoption rate is providing Robi a competitive edge in the industry.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), an alternative measure of a company's overall financial performance, went up by 16 percent over the last year to reach Tk 1,220 crore in the January-March quarter of this financial year with a margin of 48.5 percent.

The EBITDA margin measures a company's operating profit as a percentage of its revenue, revealing how much operating cash is generated for each dollar of revenue earned, according to Investopedia.

Sethi said Robi is confident that sustained focus on enhancing quality of services will only make its data-led growth model more effective in the market.

Listed in 2020 at the DSE, Malaysia-based Axiata Group Berhad holds the majority stake of 61.8 percent in Robi while New Delhi-based telecom giant Bharti Airtel holds 28.18 percent.

General and institutional investors hold 10 percent stakes in the company.