Lassaad Ben Dhiab, Chairman of GO plc, announced on Thursday (yesterday) during GO plc’s annual general meeting that GO plc shareholders would be benefitting from a dividend of €0.09 cents per share, bringing total dividend distribution for 2022 to €0.15c per share.

“Despite challenges we have faced over the past few years,” Mr Ben Dhiab explained, “GO has continued to grow, innovate, and maintain a balance between customer needs and long-term sustainability. As a result, the GO Group is not only in a position to consider 2022 as a record year but the company is now even more confident in its ability to continue to thrive in the evolving telecoms landscape with a clear vision and ambitious strategy.”

GO’s Chairman added that he is proud to witness the resilience and determination of the company and that these results continue to reconfirm GO’s successful history of delivering value to customers and shareholders, meeting growing demands, and ensuring that everyone remains connected.

GO’s CEO, Nikhil Patil, noted how economic and political unrest in Ukraine and the Middle East together with the persisting inflation and slowdown in the wider supply chain have also impacted GO. He remained optimistic however: “we managed to overcome the challenges and for the first time in GO’s history, we achieved revenues of €214.6 million, representing a 10.8 per cent year on year growth, and EBITDA of €81.4 million which equates to an 11.1 per cent year on year growth.”

He then added that “beyond this financial achievement, 2022 remains a rewarding year because we continued to grow and exceeded our targets, continued to invest and diversify the business, brought greater value to our customers and shareholders and made their lives better every day.”

Mr Patil also touched on GO’s role in the Maltese community. “There are lot of services that the community depends upon from health care, education, air traffic services and many more that we take for granted, all of which are delivered over our reliable and resilient infrastructure.” He also added that the company took these services very seriously emphasising that “the success we have achieved was possible because we are not only a technology company but also a People company where everything we do is assessed through the lens of our purpose, which is to drive a digital Malta where no one is left behind,” added Mr Patil.

The CEO also gave details on viewership numbers. “Every working moment we focus on delivering the best possible customer experience, coupled with innovative products and services, and increased value for money. Today, we support over half a million customer connections daily.   Our TV channel TOKIS, Malta’s only library dedicated to Maltese TV content offering over 1000 hours of entertainment, has been a huge success, so far registering over four million viewers, with at least 155,000 viewers daily. Our efforts have contributed to making GO the fastest growing TV and broadband provider during 2022.”

On environmental issues, Mr Patil also made reference to the company’s environmentally sustainable efforts, explaining how GO is also helping its customers achieve their own sustainability goals. Through a number of initiatives and companywide efforts, GO is well on track to reduce its carbon footprint by 21 per cent by 2024 and source 25 per cent of our energy needs from renewable sources.

“However, our success is the result of the relentless efforts of our People, our biggest asset. Whilst we strive daily to deliver a better service to our customers, we do not fall short of looking after the well-being of our people. In fact, GO has been exemplary in setting industry standards when it comes to employee wellbeing. We have recently introduced a 4-week paid leave policy for employees experiencing pregnancy loss, as well as a 4-week paid leave for non-birthing parents, amongst a host of other initiatives we launched throughout the year in favour of our People,” he concluded.

Finally,  Reuben Attard, Chief Financial Officer of GO plc, gave a more detailed and insightful presentation on the Groups financial performance throughout 2022.