Etisalat, the Abu Dhabi based telecommunications group, announced a net profit of Dh1.9 billion after federal royalty for its second quarter of 2012, a 17 per cent growth compared to the same period last year. That’s also a three per cent growth compared to the first quarter of 2012, the telecom operator said in a statement on Wednesday.
Etisalat’s consolidated revenues reached Dh8.3 billion, a four per cent increase year-on-year while the EBITDA went up by 16 per cent to reach Dh4.3 billion.
Currently operating in 16 countries, the telecom operator said that revenue from international operations grew by 14 per cent to Dh2.3 billion. In the UAE, revenues declined by 0.4 per cent to Dh5,643 million in comparison to the same period of last year, while declined by three per cent in comparison to the previous quarter of this year.
“We have seen a year-on-year increase of 20.5 per cent in operating profit and 17 per cent net profit on the back of strong market development in Egypt, Benin, Gabon, Togo, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, a result of our on-going commitment to regional market development and growth,” said etisalat’s new chairman Eissa Al Suwaidi in the statement.
“Our strategy is clear. Following the industry trend to invest in overseas markets over the past decade, we are now focusing on creating value in high population, high growth markets such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said.
Earlier this month, etisalat named Al Suwaidi as its new chairman along with six new directors, as part of a management reshuffle.
Senior telecom analysts had told Gulf News that the reshuffle happened after etisalat’s performance had been under much pressure following reports of declining profits in past quarters.
Matthew Reed, a senior analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media, said that the results are “modestly” encouraging across the board.
The structural changes which have happened in the last year or so have probably started to take effect, he said. “I think they’re trying to improve coordination across the Group and also trying to bring in new ideas and new ways of working. Hopefully that will pay off in terms of performance. “This quarter is reasonably good so maybe it’s already begun to take effect.”
Etisalat said that its aggregate subscriber numbers grew to 172 million by the end of June, with a 22 per cent increase from the previous year, and a two per cent increase from the previous quarter.
