Sri Lanka’s two listed telecom companies are poised for record profits this year due to the country’s low penetration levels and the new products offered by the telcos. While the net profit for Sri Lanka Telecom, which controls 85 per cent of the country’s fixed line telecom market, is likely to increase 48 per cent to Rs 4.6 billion in the year ending December 31, 2006 from Rs 3.1 billion in the year ended 2005, Dialog Telekom, the market leader with over 60 per cent market share, is expected to report a 37 per cent rise in fullyear net profit to Rs 9.6 billion from Rs 7.01 billion in 2005.
Analysts have predicted that there are not too many downside risks for the country’s telecom sector in the next two years as the current low penetration levels indicate room for further growth.
