Lahore (NUT-Technology)

Pakistan’s leading mobile network operator (MNO) has had yet another strong quarter. Topline at Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (‘Jazz’) increased by 21 percent year-on-year to cross Rs57 billion in the quarter ended June 30, 2021, as per latest financial results posted by its parent Veon earlier this week. Ebitda grew by 14.5 percent year-on-year in 2QCY21 to reach Rs25 billion, yielding a 43 percent margin. Size and strategy seem to be keeping Jazz in a well-assured position of market leader.

The pace of yearly growth in operating revenues last quarter was the highest than in any quarter since 1QCY19. The key indicator – Average Revenue per User (ARPU) – has perked up to Rs249 per month in the latest quarter, growing by 8 percent over the ARPU during 2QCY20. Both the core mobile services and data revenues have shown handsome growth, with the data business especially prominent. However, ARPU has some way to climb before catching up with the recent peak of Rs272 per month (1QCY19).

Buoyed by strong growth in data subscriptions as well as higher data usage, data revenues at Jazz reached almost Rs21 billion in 2QCY21, showing a 31 percent yearly growth and accounting for 37 percent of overall operating revenues. As of June end, there were over 48 million data customers with Jazz, which is an 18 percent expansion compared to June 2020. Overall ARPU is improving in tandem. Data growth has come in the midst of an active pandemic, as more and more people find it essential to use digital means for the purpose of work, commerce, social interactions, education and remote health. Within the Jazz data user base, the number of 4G users stood at nearly 31 million as of June 2021, recording a massive jump of 61 percent since June 2020.

The corporate strategy is to improve concentration of 4G users in the subscription pie, as data services stand a much more favorable chance of monetization compared to voice and text services. Investments are being made accordingly, as the MNO spent roughly Rs16 billion on capital expenditure during the quarter (10% YoY growth), mainly to expand 4G networks. It is financing its capital expenditures mainly from local credit facilities.

The investment shows in growing 4G coverage, which has increased for Jazz from 56 percent of population area in June last year to 64 percent in June 2021. The “scale” that Jazz has amassed over the years after acquiring Warid and expanding its data networks allows it to better manage the headwinds of low revenue growth and rising operating expenditures that are proving challenging for other operators.

At the close of half-year, Jazz is on a strong footing. Revenues have grown by 16.5 percent to Rs112 billion in 1HCY21, with strong growth in data revenues and double-digit hike in mobile service revenues as well. Ebitda growth in the period was a bit lower at 11 percent to Rs50 billion, as the MNO is making high marketing investments in its brands, mainly JazzCash, which is showing a significant increase in its monthly active users. Let’s see what kind of firepower Jazz brings to the spectrum auction in a few weeks.

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Adviser to Prime Minister for Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said that the number of mobile phones manufactured locally has surpassed the number of devices imported during the period between January and July 2021.The production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants has surpassed the number of mobile phones imports in the country. During Jan-July 2021, the production of mobile phones by local manufacturing plants was 12.27 million and imported mobile phones recorded at 8.29 million.

This trend reflects a positive uptake on PTA’s Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Authorisation regulatory regime whereby local manufacturing within the first year of regime introduction has resulted in production of 12.27 million phones in a short span of seven months including 4.87 million 4G smartphones.

The successful implementation of Device Identification Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) along with conducive government policies including the mobile manufacturing policy has created a favourable environment for mobile device manufacturing in Pakistan.

It has also contributed positively to the mobile ecosystem of Pakistan by eliminating counterfeit device market providing a level playing field for commercial entities and has created trust amongst consumers due to the formulation of standardised legal channels for all sorts of device imports.

It is important to highlight that the government of Pakistan introduced a comprehensive mobile manufacturing policy to encourage and attract manufacturers to establish their units in Pakistan. PTA in light of the policy issued Mobile Device Manufacturing (MDM) Regulations on January 28, 2021. Till now, 26 companies have been issued MDM authorisation enabling them to manufacture mobile devices in Pakistan.

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

The Pakistan Prosperity Index (PPI), after taking a hit in April and May, grew by 13% in June due to the post-lockdown commercial activities.

A recent report by the Policy Research Institute of Market Economy (PRIME) said that the PPI had grown to an all-time high of 135.9 in June, driven by a surge in post-lockdown business activities.  The PPI is an agglomeration of trade volume, lending to the private sector, purchasing power and manufacturing output indices.

The trade volume increased Rs548 billion year-on-year (YoY) and Rs360 billion month-on-month (MoM) with the resumption of business activities and reopening of international markets.

Subsidized borrowing rates by commercial banks showed that the private sector had taken on a lot of credit as well, while, long-term financing facility stood at an all-time high of Rs390.8 billion in June 2021.

In the context of purchasing power, the YoY inflation was reported at 9.7%, while the MoM one clocked in at a negative 0.3%, a manifestation of improvement in purchasing power. The prevalent high levels of inflation are mostly because of a hike in food and energy prices.

Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) increased by 4.36% MoM. This increase can be attributed to the higher demand emanating from the ease in lockdown, mass vaccination and opening up of business.

In addition, higher production costs fueled by higher energy prices, and supply-side disruptions of raw material all had a fair share in restricting LSM’s output. Notwithstanding, the overall economic outlook, as measured by PPI, seems to be encouraging.

The performance of the economy indicated by PPI is consistent with the latest Business Confidence Survey 2021 by Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI), which also illustrated the strengthening of business confidence and augmented growth prospects owing to an uptick in the business activities.

With the ease in lockdown restrictions and a mass vaccination drive, the overall state of the economy appeared encouraging and on a right track, the PRIME report said.The report, however, stressed that Pakistan needed to bring down inflation to increase purchasing power/real income of the masses and also to decrease the input cost of the LSM.

The study stressed that addressing the supply-side shocks of basic food items was pertinent to lower food inflation, which was the main cause of rising overall inflation in the economy. These supply-side shocks called for more liberal trade measures and elimination of state intervention in the market, the report added.

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Tech giant Facebook is planning to launch a digital wallet this year to allow users to store cryptocurrencies, a senior company executive said in a recent interview. David Marcus, head of Facebook´s crypto unit, told The Information news site that company leaders “feel pretty committed” to launch digital wallet Novi this year.

Marcus said he would have preferred to release Novi alongside Diem, a digital currency tied to the dollar that the company is also developing, but Diem’s timing was uncertain. “In theory, Novi could launch before Diem, but it would mean launching without Diem and that is not necessarily something that we want to do,” Marcus told The Information.

“It all depends on how long it is going to take for Diem to actually go live and that´s not something I’m personally looking after.”

In 2019, Facebook had said it planned to introduce a cryptocurrency that at the time was called Libra. The project, however, faced regulatory resistance over concerns about security and reliability. In December 2020 Libra changed its name to Diem and moved its operations from Switzerland to the United States as part of a “strategic shift.”

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Canada’s e-commerce giant Shopify Inc said on Tuesday it was partnering with TikTok to work on a feature that would let shoppers buy directly from the social media app.

Shopify merchants who have a TikTok business account would soon be able to add a shopping tab to their profiles for the first time ever, the company revealed in a blog post.

The pilot version is currently available to users in the U.S. and UK and the company will launch in additional regions in the coming months. Social media giants including Facebook Inc, Alphabet’s YouTube and Twitter have recently been investing heavily in shopping features to drive sales growth.

The companies are vying for a piece of the so-called social commerce industry, which relies on users’ ability to discover and buy products through social media apps and is expected to balloon to $50 billion from $36 billion in annual sales by 2023 in the United States according to research firm eMarketer.

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp’s (1810.HK) second-quarter revenue rose a record 64% from a year earlier, it said on Wednesday, announcing the purchase of an autonomous driving startup as it prepares to expand into the competitive market.

Sales reached 87.8 billion yuan ($13.56 billion), up from 53.54 billion a year earlier and beating analyst expectations of 84.53 billion yuan as the company grew its share of the global smartphone market and expanded its ‘IoT’ product footprint.

Net income reached 6.32 billion yuan, up 87.4% year on year and above analyst expectations.Global smartphone shipments ranking rose to No.2, firmly establishing the Xiaomi brand in the premium smartphone market with its products.

According to the details , Xiaomi saw its second-quarter revenue rise a record 64% from a year earlier, it said on Wednesday, In the second quarter of 2021, Xiaomi’s total revenue amounted to RMB87.8 billion, representing an increase of 64.0% year-over-year; adjusted net profit for the period was RMB6.3 billion, an increase of 87.4% year-over-year. Total revenue and adjusted net profit both reached record highs in the quarter demonstrating the excellence of the business model and the robustness of its operations.

Mi’s smartphone business continued to exhibit significant growth in the second quarter of 2021, highlighted by record-breaking smartphone revenue and shipments. Smartphone revenue amounted to RMB59.1 billion in the reporting period representing an increase of 86.8% year-over-year. The Group’s global smartphone shipments reached 52.9 million units representing an increase of 86.8% year-over-year. According to Canalys, Xiaomi’s global smartphone shipments ranked No. 2 for the first time in the second quarter with a market share of 16.7%.

Meanwhile, the Group’s smartphone shipments in mainland China market also grew rapidly. According to Canalys, in the second quarter of 2021, our smartphone market share in mainland China rose to 16.8% from 10.3% in the second quarter of 2020, ranking third with a 35.1% year-over-year increase in smartphone shipments, the highest growth rate among major players in the market.

According to third party data, in the second quarter of 2021, the market share of Xiaomi’s smartphones in mainland China with prices between RMB3,000 and RMB4,000, RMB4,000 and RMB5,000, and above RMB5,000, witnessed a year-over-year increase. In the first half of 2021, the global shipments of our smartphones with retail prices at or above RMB3,000 in mainland China and EUR300 or equivalent in overseas markets exceeded 12 million units, surpassing the total of around 10 million units shipped in 2020.

Revenue from internet services reached record high, user base in key overseas markets continued to expand. Xiaomi’s internet services segment maintained its growth momentum. In the second quarter of 2021, revenue from internet services amounted to RMB7.0 billion, reaching a record high and representing an increase of 19.1% year-over-year.

The Group also continued to leverage its online channels overseas. In the first half of 2021, it sold more than 10 million smartphones via online channels in overseas markets, excluding India, representing an increase of over 60% year-over-year. Robust growth underpinned by relentless focus on technological innovation and talent development

Xiaomi remain steadfast in its pursuit of technology advancement which strengthens the backbone of its business. In the second quarter of 2021, Xiaomi recorded RMB3.1 billion in research and development expenses representing a year-over-year increase of 56.5%.

Lahore (NUT-Desk)

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has announced today that it will launch a new data portal SBP Asaan Adaad (SAAD) focused on economic development indicators.

The new portal will enable users to easily access, visualize and download the economic data covering monetary, the balance of payments and other sectors of the economy, SBP said on its Twitter handle.