Business | Telecoms
Government royalty cut boosts Omantel revenue
Oman Telecommunications (Omantel) posted its second-biggest profit ever in the fourth quarter after a cut in government royalties boosted revenue. It also beat analysts' forecasts.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:10 January 27, 2008
Muscat: Oman Telecommunications (Omantel) posted its second-biggest profit ever in the fourth quarter after a cut in government royalties boosted revenue. It also beat analysts' forecasts.
Net income in the three months to December 31 surged almost 47 per cent to 29.43 million riyals ($76.46 million), compared with 20.07 million riyals in the year-earlier period.
"The main reason for the profit jump is an increase in revenue because the royalty cut had an impact," Menon Gopinath, head of planning and economics in Omantel's strategic finance department told Reuters. That added about three million riyals to profit, Gopinath said.
The number of mobile phone users rose more than 18 per cent to 1.48 million in the year to December 31, Gopinath said. Revenue in 2007 rose 12.9 per cent to 365.3 million riyals, Omantel said in a statement on the Omani bourse website.
"The economy is booming so this contributed to the rise in the number of subscribers," Gopinath said. Oman's economy probably grew 5.6 per cent last year, and may grow another 5.7 this year, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
Analysts' forecasts for Omantel's fourth-quarter profit ranged from 22.30 million riyals to 26.39 million riyals, in a Reuters survey last month.
Fixed line: More firms to enter fray
Oman plans to invite companies this year to express an interest in providing fixed-line and broadband services, the country's chief telecom regulator said.
"There is a plan to open the fixed-line in Oman within 2008, preparing the framework to bring in facility-based operators or facility-based service providers," Mohammad Bin Nasser Al Khusaibi, chief executive officer of the Information Technology Authority, told Reuters in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
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