Annual Report 2012 - Dialog

Annual Report 2012 l Dialog Axiata PLC l 5
Transformation to Lead the Digital Era
My review of operations last year also espoused the fact that we are singularly welcoming of the opportunity to reinvent
ourselves year on year – setting new paradigms for others to follow as a leader should, whilst simultaneously creating
value for our shareholders, and making a lasting contribution to our country and people. I venture to conclude that the
Year 2012 was indeed pivotal in this respect – with the Dialog Group venturing to chart new futures through internal
transformation and organic as well as inorganic expansion. While transformation challenges in the past ranged from
Cost Rescaling to Organisation Re-engineering, FY 2012 placed before us the challenge to prepare the organisation
and its infrastructure, service and people capacities to meet the challenges and opportunities of the emerging digital era.
In this respect, we envisaged a future where Broadband would be positioned as a cornerstone of our service delivery
landscape, and expectations of ICT consumers would be elevated to encompass a vastly expanded and converged
portfolio of infotainment, commerce and digital life enablers. In line with this view of the digital era, we drove to fruition
during FY 2012 a portfolio of strategic initiatives designed to grow our leadership in to the future.
Broadband Expansion – 1st 4G LTE & Wi-Fi Leadership
During the course of FY 2012, we completed the acquisition and merger of Suntel Limited. Whilst our Fixed Line,
Enterprise and SME businesses had made penetrative progress over the past years, we deemed it a strategic
imperative to strengthen the Group’s position as a leading broadband provider, and to gain a stronger (2nd Player)
foothold in Fixed Broadband and Enterprise/SME market segments on an accelerated basis. The acquisition of
Suntel was followed by the amalgamation and merger of operations, with Dialog Broadband Networks (DBN). I am
happy to report that the merger has delivered the expected outcomes with DBN’s scale and efficiency of operations
increasing manifold to register Revenue, EBITDA and Bottom Line performance improvements of 125%, 169% and
87% respectively. Furthermore and most significantly, DBN has succeeded in consolidating a robust platform for the
execution of its Broadband Business strategy into the future. DBN delivered successive and early manifestations
of this capability through the roll-out of Sri Lanka’s largest Wi-Fi network spanning 2000 hot spots, and the launch
of Sri Lanka’s first 4th Generation Fixed LTE High Speed Broadband Network, heralding the entry of Sri Lanka’s
Telecommunications in to the 4G era.
Dialog’s LTE network will expand rapidly to cover most towns and cities of Sri Lanka in the near future, and consistent
with the revolution we delivered in the mobile telecommunications sector over the past decade, we remain committed
to deliver the benefits of LTE technology in a form which will be available and affordable to a vast majority of Sri Lankan
citizens and businesses.
Sri Lanka’s First Mobile Money & Payment Service
The launch of Sri Lanka’s first Mobile Money and Payment service stands out as the singularly transformational business
creation initiative during the course of FY 2012. The launch of eZ Cash in second half of 2012, followed Dialog securing
the distinction of becoming the first mobile operator to be awarded a Payment Systems Provider license by the
Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL). The regulatory environment encompassing mobile money and payments crafted by
the CBSL stands among the most progressive in the world. We are indebted to the CBSL, the Telecommunications
Regulatory Commission and the Custodian Bank to the Mobile Money Service, HNB for supporting and enabling us in
delivering this quantum innovation to Sri Lanka’s financial services and telecommunications services sectors. The eZ
Cash service enables mobile subscribers to send and receive money, settle utility bills and make payments for goods
and services through their mobile phone, bringing electronic money interchange and electronic payment within the
reach of every Sri Lankan citizen. Dialog is confident that this pioneering initiative to deliver a nationwide mobile money
service will usher an unprecedented level of financial inclusion through the empowerment of millions of Sri Lankans with
electronic money transfer and payment facilities.
Beyond Payments - Digital Commerce
Carrying forward its strategic focus on building robust capabilities and growth engines for the provision of consumer
centric digital services, Dialog made a decisive foray in to the space of Digital Commerce through the acquisition of a
26% stake in newly formed entity Digital Commerce Lanka (Private) Limited (DCL). The new joint venture brings together