Haque Specialized Group's News

The country's second largest mobile operator Robi has incurred a net loss of Tk 3.89 billion in 2016 mainly due to heavy costs lingering from its recent merger with Airtel. Data coming from its parent company Axiata shows that although the mobile operator has been able to maintain very thin profit margins in the first three quarters of last year, it succumbed to a net loss of Tk 4.27 billion in the last quarter as the merger process approached the network integration stage. This is in stark contrast with Robi's financial results in recent years. Back in 2012, the company posted a net profit of Tk 919 million which catapulted to Tk 3.65 billion in 2013 and Tk 4.39 billion in 2014. Even in 2015, the company's net profit stood at Tk 4.04 billion. Meanwhile, although Robi's quarter on quarter revenue registered a meagre 5.0 per cent growth to reach Tk 14.6 billion amidst intense price competition, its operating profit (EBITDA) margin in 2016 was 27.2 per cent which is 9.2 percentage point lower than the previous year. Robi officials have attributed this trend to very marginal revenue growth, higher network operating expenses from continued network investments as well as one-off merger fees and charges. Robi and Indian mobile operator Airtel started talks about merging their Bangladesh operations back in September 2015. In January last year, the companies signed a merger deal in Kuala Lumpur. Afterwards, in August, the High Court cleared the way for the Robi-Airtel merger. Later on November 20, Robi paid nearly Tk 3.19 billion of its Tk 4.27 billion fees to the telecom regulator while the remaining nearly Tk 1.09 billion is expected to be paid in two instalments. According to Robi's parent company Axiata, "profitability was negatively impacted mainly by one-off merger fees, VRS and accelerated depreciation charges from network swap". Meanwhile, Robi's year on year subscriber base increased by 19.5 per cent in 2016, mainly thanks to the merger and has reached 33.8 million by the yearend. This gave the operator an estimated 26.9 per cent share of the total subscriber base of the country and also made it the second largest operator in the country after Grameenphone. "The merger will ensure enhanced value for consumers and benefit the entire industry," Robi Managing Director and CEO Mahtab Uddin Ahmed said. "We are now creating the number one network which will deliver the widest mobile network coverage and superior mobile services experience to our subscribers," he added. In the previous year, Robi also made a CAPEX investment of Tk 20.3 billion to expand 2.5G/3.5G network, according to the mobile operator. Total CAPEX investment made by Robi since its inception amounted to Tk 182.6 billion-- out of which, Tk 7.4 billion CAPEX investment was made in the fourth quarter of last year. In the fourth quarter of last year, the company contributed Tk 8.5 billion to the government exchequer, representing 58.7 per cent of company's revenue. Since its inception in 1997, Robi has paid more than Tk 178.8 billion to the government exchequer while remitting Tk 2.9 billion dividends to its shareholders.   "Year 2016 started with a very challenging environment arising from SIM biometric re-registration compliance imposed by regulator," Robi said in a statement on Thursday, adding, "Impact of this regulation slowed down new activation and subscriber growth had been stagnant". "The stagnant situation got exacerbated while regulator ordained to deactivate unregistered biometric non-compliant SIMs," it added further.     mehdi.finexpress@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-02-25 00:00:05

Caitlyn Jenner is not happy with President Donald Trump for his administration's reversal of President Barack Obama's directive on transgender access to public school bathrooms. Jenner addressed Trump in a video posted Thursday night on Twitter saying, "From one Republican to another, this is a disaster." The Trump White House has ended a directive that told public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms of their chosen gender. Jenner, who came out as a transgender woman in 2015, is particularly critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, saying, "Apparently even becoming attorney general isn't enough to cure some people of their insecurities." Addressing Trump, the former Olympic champion says: "You made a promise to protect the LGBTQ community. Call me." Meanwhile, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the president would be happy to meet with singer Jackie Evancho and her sister, Juliet, who is transgender. Evancho sang the National Anthem at Trump's inauguration, where many other performers declined to participate. "Yeah, I think the president would be welcome to meet with her," Spicer said during a press conference Thursday. Evancho tweeted Wednesday she was "disappointed" in Trump and asked him to meet with her and her sister to discuss transgender issues. -    Fox News  ....

Published at: 2017-02-25 00:00:05

Jose Mourinho turned up for his press conference ahead of Sunday’s League Cup final wearing a shirt emblazoned with Claudio Ranieri’s initials and then proceeded to launch a scathing attack on the “selfish” Leicester City players who failed the Italian. In a staunch defence of Ranieri, who was sacked as Leicester manager on Thursday night just 298 days after leading the club to an extraordinary Premier League title success, the Manchester United manager said: “I think it’s Claudio’s fault because last season instead of being champion had he finished 12th he’d still be in job because Leicester would play not to be relegated. “It’s his fault because he’s paying for his success. The season started with typical selfishness of others, people thinking about new contracts, people thinking about leaving, people thinking about more money, people forgetting who helped them to reach a certain level. “But this is a bit of our world now, some principles are going away a little but I’ really sorry about it. When I was sacked as champion [by Chelsea] it was a giant negative thing but now it’s peanuts [compared to Ranieri]. So my Instagram is a little homage [to him], and my shirt is another one. [My situation] was peanuts compared to dimension of Ranieri. But no one can delete the history.” Mourinho added Ranieri deserved the stadium to be named after him for leading the club to a 5,000/1 Premier League title. Roberto Mancini was an early favourite to take over from Ranieri, but there were later reports he does not want the job.   -telegraph.co.uk  ....

Published at: 2017-02-25 00:00:05

The mandatory use of jute in packaging is not happening in the case of most of the products listed for the purpose. Sector insiders held some factors, including the short supply of jute for making bags, lack of monitoring and apathy of importers to use of such bags, responsible for the lax compliance with the law. A total of 17 essential commodities have so far come under the Mandatory Jute Packaging Act (MJPA 2010). The sluggish implementation of the MJPA hampers the government's plan to ensure maximum use of raw jute domestically to encourage farmers to cultivate jute, say sector insiders. Initially the use of jute sacks was made mandatory for packaging six items-rice, paddy, wheat, maize, fertiliser and sugar-in 2013 under the MJPA, according to the Department of Jute (DoJ). Later on January 24, 2017 the government brought 11 more essentials under the MJPA. The items are onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, coriander, chilli, pulse, potato, flour, atta and paddy husk. The number of products now under the mandatory jute packaging law totals 17. After visiting some major wholesale and adjacent retail markets in the city, the FE correspondent found rice, wheat and potato traders following the law partially. But in packaging most of the other products jute was not still being used. The FE correspondent found only few shops with onion and other spices in jute sacks in the wholesale markets like Karwan Bazar and Shyambazar in the city. Almost all onion and ginger were packaged in plastic nets which are not biodegradable. Md Abdul Kayum, an onion trader at Karwan Bazar, has told the FE that onion in the market is now imported. The big importers in Chittagong and Shyambazar in Dhaka do not use local jute sacks in packaging the imported products, he has said. Same is the case with other import-dependent products like garlic, ginger, coriander and pulses, he has said. The government should ensure the mandatory use of jute sacks in packaging at the import level, he has suggested. One of the leading importers at the city's Shyambazar wholesale market Narayan Chandra Saha told the FE that some of the businesses started packaging onion in jute sacks. But he said traders were not interested as it could cause a surge in prices of the products. He said onion traders would need nearly 20 million sacks annually for packaging 2.2 million tonnes of products.  Md Abul Bashar Munshi, a leading spice trader in Faridpur region, said farmers and traders at the village level in the country were not yet aware of the law. "On the other hand, many traders are not getting sacks despite offering higher prices as rice traders are grabbing most of those," he said. The traders would use jute sacks if they get these at government-fixed rates (Tk 50 and Tk 70 per piece), he said. According to the DoJ, the annual demand for jute sacks was 800 million pieces in 2016. Of them, rice and paddy packaging required 350 million. The demand surged by 275 million pieces to 1,075 million in 2017 after inclusion of 11 more products in the list, an official at the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) told the FE. He said 10.0 million tonnes of onion, pulse, flour and atta are traded and at least 150 million sacks are required annually for them. However, he said though potato was not under the law earlier, 80 per cent of the item was still being packaged in jute sacks. He said state-run jute mills and private mills under Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) have a capacity to deliver maximum 65 million pieces per month. "We have now a supply shortage after inclusion of newer products in the list," he said. He said productivity of 220 jute mills should be raised at least by 10 per cent to meet the demand, he said. BJMA Chairman Shams-uz Zoha said the government monitoring should be strengthened to ensure proper implementation of the law. He said raw jute export to India and other countries should be restricted to ensure smooth supply of the natural fibre to local mills.  Poultry and fish feed should also be brought under the MJPA to increase the use of jute in packaging, he said. Jute millers, who make sacks, will need 4.5 million bales (180 kg=1 bale) of raw jute annually, when only 3.5 million bales were available in 2016, he said. However, the country produces 7.5 million bales of jute annually, of which the spinners consume 3.8-4.0 million bales. According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, the country fetched US $919 million from jute and jute goods exports in the fiscal year 2015-16 with a growth of 6.0 per cent over its previous fiscal. tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-02-25 00:00:05

Ekushey Boimela (book-fair) drew a large number of visitors on Friday, the last weekend before the month-long fair comes to an end on Tuesday. The participating publishers were also satisfied with their sales and overall business outcome. Book-lovers thronged the fair at Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan, after the gates were opened at 11.00 am, while the number of visitors increased manifold since afternoon. Publishers said the visitors bought more books during the last several days comparing to the earlier days of the fair, which was at its peak on the day. "Usually, many book-lovers wait for the fair's concluding days to collect their desired books," said stall in-charge of Chandrabati Academy Shamsul Alam. The publishing house is satisfied with its sales so far. The response from the readers is slightly higher than that of the previous year, he informed. "We take part in the fair with the primary aim of promoting our books. Besides, we have sold a good number of books till today," said Mr Alam. However, Jagriti Prokashon's Razia Rahman said they could not sell books to a satisfactory level. "Our stall is located in an inappropriate area. Consequently many visitors remain unaware of us." The publishing house unveiled 20 new books in the fair, less than last year's 32 books, she informed. Shikha Prokashoni's owner Najrul Islam Bahar said people of all ages took a look at his stall in Suhrawardy Udyan. "Most book-lovers are opting for novel, science fiction and travelogue, and many of them collected their favourite books on the day," he added. Like other holidays, a good number of children came to the fair with their parents or relatives. One of such kids, Anjum, visited the fair with his father Jahirul Islam. "I am looking for fairy tales," the six-year-old kid said. She also said it is difficult to find favourite books amid huge crowd in the stalls. As part of the special events for children, the final round of music competition was held on Bangla Academy premises. Bangla Academy Director General Professor Shamsuzzaman Khan chaired the competition's award-giving ceremony. According to Bangla Academy records, a total of 3,045 books have been unveiled in the fair till date. Of which, 146 hit the stalls on Friday. Out of the total books, poetry books led the tally with 927 new books, followed by 488 novels, and 413 story books. The fair has been arranged in two segments this year for accommodating more publishers. Some 549 stalls are allotted position at Suhrawardy Udyan, while 114 on Bangla Academy premises. The fair remains open for all from 3.00 pm to 8.30 pm every day and from 11.00 am to 8.30 pm on the holidays.     saif.febd@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-02-25 00:00:05