5. Dialog Axiata

VIEWS (3573)

Dialog Axiata moves up in the ranking to number five. As a leader in the telecommunication sector of Sri Lanka, Dialog Axiata has an immense role to play with the country moving towards becoming a digitised nation. To be on par with other countries Sri Lanka needs to develop further in terms of connectivity and speed. The implementation of new technologies in this sphere will be of utmost importance.

The revenue recorded was 73.98 billion rupees, which was a ten per cent increase from the previous year.The Group's net profit after tax saw contraction of 15 per cent, which amounted to 5.2 billion rupees. This was due to the non-cash foreign exchange translation cost that occurred through the devaluation of the Sri Lankan rupee relative to the US dollar.

Total contribution to the Government from the operations of Dialog Axiata was 27.6 billion rupees, which included 12.7 billion rupees in taxes, fees and levies. The Group consolidated its position as the market leader in the connectivity sector of the country, mobile telecommunications sector, digital pay television and tele-infrastructure sectors.

In terms of investment the group continues to invest in the ICT infrastructure of the country. Investment and development focus spanned both the mobile and fixed telecommunications sectors featuring 3G, 4G-LTE and Fibre Optic networks. The Bay of Bengal Gateway Submarine Optical Fibre Cable project is nearing completion. Through such investments Dialog Axiata will enable the single largest provision of international bandwidth to Sri Lanka.

The mobile, international and infrastructure businesses continued to contribute a major share of Group revenue (84 per cent). Revenue was recorded at 62.9 billion rupees. Dialog Broadband Networks that include fixed telecommunications and broadband business recorded a revenue of 7.3 billion rupees.