VEON in the first quarter of 2017, recorded an impressive revenue growth of 5.4 percent on its Pakistan operations to PKR 38.7 million. The positive momentum is continuing into 2017 with solid revenue growth and synergies on track.

Telecommunication service revenue increased to a noticeable 4.2% on a pro-forma basis to PKR 36.2 million, parent company Vimplecom reported today. Mobile data revenue jumped 28.7 percent to PKR 5.2 million, whereas the EBITDA being a key measure, was clocked in at PKR 16.2 million, up 13.7 percent.

Veon closed the transaction to merge Mobilink with Warid, which as a result consolidates Warid’s financial results into Veon’s financial statements with effect from July 1, 2016, following the merger approval of December, 15, 2016 with retrospective effect from July, 1, 2016.

The company then initiated the rebranding to ‘Jazz’ brand in January 2017, with unifying distribution channels and processes, as an aim of enhancing the customer experience.

Meanwhile, Jazz has significantly captured the market share in its first quarter, which continued to witness mid-to-high growth of both revenue and consumer base, which increased by 9 percent to 52.5 million as of March, 31. The Mobile Financial Services (MFS) revenue increased by 24 percent which was mainly due to the monthly active wallets crossing the 2 million mark.

According to a statement from Veon, the Warid integration is ahead of schedule and the merged entity has been greatly providing unified on-net offered to the consumer base since October, 2016, the impact has also been noticeable much due to the third generation of mobile telecommunication technology (3G) which is now being offered in more than 350 cities while 4G/LTE is being offered in over 50 cities.