Amalgamated Telecom Holdings Group is poised for a strong financial footing this year as it expands its regional footprint.

The ATH Group turned in a consolidated profit before tax of $108.6 million at 31 March 2017.

This reflect a 19 per cent  increase from the previous year.

Consolidated profit after tax was $85.2 million, an increase of 4.2 per cent compared to 2016. The Group’s consolidated revenue grew by 10.8 per cent to record $394.7 million during the financial year.

ATH Group Chairman Ajith Kodagoda in his report  said they would continue restructure efforts across the ATH Group this year.

“It has been on-going and looks certain to continue to reflect the evolvement of products and services in the market.

“We continue to explore all avenues for improvement, including the on-going consolidation of group companies to improve performance.”

Adapting to changes in technology will drive the structure and operations of the group.

Mr Kodagoda said: “As we survey the state of technology development, 5G wireless broadband technologies are on the horizon and will support increased broadband capacity with low latency services, to enable Internet of Things and many other new innovations to be widely deployed.

“This in turn is promising as it will drive demand for more optical fiber deployments, data centres, international cable connectivity and infrastructure investments to adequately provide consumers’ the services they want.”

Mr Kodagoda’s Operation  Highlights include:

•  Regional business acquisition in Telecom Vanuatu Limited (100%) in Vanuatu at an Enterprise Value (EV) of USD 28 million.

ATH completed the purchase on 27 March 2017 from MT International Ventures PCC, an investment vehicle wholly owned by Mauritius Telecom. The acquisition was fully funded via a commercial bank debt and included the refinancing of shareholder loans and other debts.

•  Acquisition of minority shares of 10% in Fiji Directories Limited making it a wholly owned subsidiary of ATH. ATH acquired the shares from Edward H O’Brien (Fiji) Limited for a consideration of $1.3 million in October 2016.
•  Regional interest acquisition in Bluesky Group from Amper SA, a Spain based company, at a total price of USD 79 million for circa 55% equity interest.

Bluesky Group is a regional telecommunications group, with its companies providing fixed line, mobile broadband and TV services to customers in American Samoa,  New Zealand and Cook Islands.

Mr Kodagoda said the purchase of Bluesky Group is a significant investment.

“The completion of the transaction will present the Group with great potential because not only will our regional footprint become much larger, it will allow us to deliver benefits through regional product and service delivery among other synergies that could be unlocked via consolidation.

“We are awaiting regulatory approvals that are required in each market,” he said.

He noted the improvement in financial results compared to the previous year.

“Performance across the Group improved for the third successive year. Building economies of scale and synergies are increasingly important to deploying networks and technologies effectively and efficiently.

“Given the very small populations of most of the developing countries in the Pacific, our expansion and pooling of interests across markets aim to achieve exactly those objectives,” Mr Kodagoda said.

Feedback:  rosi.doviverata@fijisun.com.fj