PTCL Retains Market Dominance with “AAA” and “A-1+” Ratings
The long-term rating of ‘AAA’ denotes highest credit quality, with negligible risk factors, being only slightly more than for risk-free debt of Government of Pakistan. The short-term rating of ‘A-1+’ denotes the highest certainty of timely payment, liquidity factors are outstanding and safety is just below risk-free short-term obligations of the Government of Pakistan. Outlook on the assigned ratings is ‘Stable’. PTCL is the leading Integrated Information Communication Technology (ICT) Company in Pakistan, having the largest fixed-line network in the country. The company’s products and services include voice services, high-speed broadband internet, CharJi wireless internet, Smart TV (IPTV) service, Smart TV App and Touch App, digital-content streaming services like icflix, and enterprise-grade platforms like Smart Cloud, Tier-3 Certified Data Centers, Managed and Satellite Services. The ratings draw comfort from PTCL’s leading market position in fixed-line voice segment with 90% share, wireline broadband segment with 80% share, and wireless data segment with 30% share. The ratings also factor low financial risk profile of the company, as reflecting in healthy cash flows generation and debt-free balance sheet despite significant capital expenditure over the past three years to improve service quality and strengthen its network infrastructure through the network transformation project (NTP).
