Flat Profits

July 26, 2007 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka's largest celco saw consolidated net profits dip by a marginal 3 percent in the June quarter as start-up costs of a new pay TV division dragged the group bottom line down. "DBN will expand its fixed wireless operation into four more districts including Colombo, during the second half of the year," Dialog said. Group net profits fell to 2.44 billion rupees in the three months ended June 2007 from 2.53 billion last year while revenues surged 24 percent to 7.8 billion rupees, it quarterly results released Thursday showed.

The firm, a subsidiary of Malaysia Telekom said lower roaming revenues as well as service disruptions in the northern and eastern areas of the island affected mobile performance.

Dialog is expecting better performance in eastern Sri Lanka after the government cleared most of the area.

It said 15.54 billion raised from a rights issue will boosts infrastructure and subscribers and also cut interest costs in the future, the company said.

In the past year Dialog had added one million new users taking the subscriber base to 3.66 million by June 30. The prepaid segment had increased 50 per cent from 2.09 million to 3.14 million while post paid