Submarine Cable Company records lowest profit

Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd's net profit sank 77 percent to Tk 7.33 crore in fiscal 2017-18 despite logging in record revenue thanks to repayment of a loan taken to launch the country's second undersea link.

Last year, it borrowed $39 million from the Islamic Development Bank to bear the cost of launching the country's second submarine cable, which connected Bangladesh with South East Asia and Western Europe via the Middle East.

For the next ten years it has to pay Tk 33 crore in instalment to the Jeddah-based lender. Accordingly, Tk 33 crore was kept as provisioning from last fiscal year's earnings.

“Actually we are not doing badly, but as the company is repaying the loan, the profit has declined,” said Mashiur Rahman, managing director of BSCCL.

The profit was the lowest yet for the country's lone submarine cable company, although revenue earnings surged 35.53 percent year-on-year to Tk 140.50 crore during the course of the fiscal year, according to the company's annual report.

The record revenue came on the back of increased data use across the country. The previous highest revenue was recorded in fiscal 2012-13: Tk 124.83 crore.

BSCCL officials said though it has brought down the bandwidth price drastically its earnings increased as digitalisation is taking place across the country and data consumption has accelerated.

In fiscal 2017-18, the company declared 5 percent cash dividend, the lowest since its listing in 2012. A year earlier, it distributed 12 percent in cash dividend.

The company mulled over not declaring any dividend for last fiscal year because of the drop in profit, Rahman said, adding that BSCCL would perform better in the coming days. Currently, BSCCL is meeting the need of 525 Gbps bandwidth of the country's total demand of 800 Gbps. It supplies 275 Gbps from the first cable and 250 Gbps from the second one, said officials.

The second cable has a capacity of 1,500 Gbps bandwidth.

“It will take a few years to reap the potential return from the second cable.”

The BSCCL was separated from Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Ltd in 2008 and was listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange in 2012.

The government owns 73.84 percent stake in the company, institutional investors 11.26 percent, foreign investors 0.73 percent and general public 14.17 percent.

BSCCL's earnings per share declined 77.20 percent year-on-year to Tk 0.44 during the fiscal year.

Each BSCCL share closed yesterday at Tk 80.10, the same as the previous day.