Inching closer to profitability

Some short-sighted staff members of Telenor Microfinance Bank Ltd (TMBL) dug a financial hole many years ago, and the bank is gradually crawling out of it at a huge cost. It may be hard to believe that a microfinance bank claiming to be one of the country’s top three financial institutions in terms of the number of “active” monthly customers is actually a loss-making enterprise for its shareholders. “As an entity, we’ll be profitable in 2024,” said M. Mudassar Aqil, president and CEO of TMBL, in a recent interview with Dawn. “We’re on a clear path to hit profitability. We’re expecting to become EBITDA positive by the end of next year,” he said while referring to a measure of gross profitability representing income without accounting for interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.