While it registered strong revenue growth in Q1 2020, one-off severance costs resulted in Indosat Ooredoo recording an overall loss.
In February this year, the Indonesian operator revealed that it was cutting 16% of its staff as it looked to compete more effectively in the country’s mobile space. This change in strategy incurred the company IDR379 billion (US$25.2 million) in termination benefits.
This one-time expense has seen its net loss increase more than twofold year-on-year to IDR605.6 billion ($40.4 million), despite a 7.9% revenue jump to IDR6.52 trillion. The operator’s mobile revenue was up 10.6% to IDR5.37 trillion.
Indosat’s boosted revenue was largely attributable to a huge 63% increase in data usage, with blended ARPU up 11.5% to IDR29,600. However, the operator was keen to note that its roaming revenue had seen a drop-off from mid-January.
Despite this, the operator noted that 2020 was off to a positive start, stating: “we are on track with our three-year turnaround plan and hope to see positive momentum continuing in the coming quarters”.
For the year leading up to end-March 2020, Indosat had increased its nationwide footprint of 4G base stations by 30,100 for an overall total of 52,200. In the same year, it boosted its 3G sites by a third to 51,000.
