Ncell posts 11pc rise in net sales in 2013
KATHMANDU, FEB 04 -
Ncell recorded an 11.3 percent rise in net sales in 2013. TeliaSonera, the parent company of Ncell , has said that its Nepal market’s net sales amounted to 3,023 million Sw-edish kronor (SEK) which is equivalent to Rs 46.16 billion.
In 2012, Ncell had net sales of SEK 2,716 million (or Rs 41.4 billion based on Nepal Rastra Bank’s exchange rate for Monday). Releasing the year-end report for 2013, TeliaSonera said that the number of Ncell subscribers reached 10.9 million including the 1.8 million who signed up during the year. The number of new customers recorded a drop from 2012 when there were 2.6 million additions.
TeliaSonera stated that the growth in 2013 was supported by a larger number of subscriptions and sequentially stable average revenue per users. “Our Eurasian operations delivered another quarter with strong profitability, which is reassuring as we continue to form the business for the future,” said Johan Dennelind, president and CEO of TeliaSonera.
The Swedish multinational telecom company has made significant investments in telecom operations in its Eurasian market which includes Kazakhstan, Azerba-ijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Georgia, Moldova and Nepal. It has listed them as “emerging market countries”. Subscriber intake was the strongest in Nepal and Kazakhstan with gains of 1.8 million and 0.8 million to 10.9 million and 14.3 million subscribers respectively.
TeliaSonera said there were risks associated with business operation in the emerging markets that include foreign exchange restrictions which could effectively prevent it from repatriating the funds received through dividends, repayment of loans or sale of its investments.
In 2013, TeliaSonera’s net sales in 20 markets fell 3 percent to SEK 101,700 million from SEK 104,898 million in 2012. As per the telecom giant, mobile data service has become the key revenue driver in Eurasia. In Q4, Ncell ’s data revenue soared 76 percent. A report issued by the Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) shows that Ncell has 3.79 million data service users including 3G, EDGE and GPRS.
Ncell has been offering different data packages to increase its share in the data market. As of mid-November, it had secured 50 percent of the data market.
Ncell has attributed its swelling revenues to a growth in the number of smartphone users and its incentive schemes.
Similarly, state-owned Nepal Telecom has been moving ahead aggressively in the data segment with services like 3G and Sky Pro.
