Kuwait : Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunication (Zain), the country's biggest mobile operator, posted a 31 per cent fall in first-quarter net profit, due to a restructuring of its operations.
Net income in the three months to March 31 was $179 million (Dh657 million), with total revenues from the Middle East amounting to $1.15 billion, the company said yesterday in a statement.
Total restructure
Zain made a net profit of 75.7 million dinars (Dh956 million) in the year-earlier period.
"Local, regional and global markets are still suffering from the global financial crisis, which sets more challenges for the group's operations," Zain's chairman Asa'ad Al Banwan said in the statement.
Al Banwan said that a total restructure of the group's operations was one of the main challenges in the first quarter.
Analysts at EFG-Hermes had forecast Zain's first quarter net profit to be 70 million dinars, according to a Reuters survey.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) fell 10.5 per cent compared with the year-earlier period to $484 million, the statement said.
In March, Zain and India's Bharti Airtel struck a deal for Bharti to buy the Kuwaiti telecoms operations in 15 African countries for $9 billion.
Bharti said last month that it expected to close the deal by mid-May.
Zain's shares closed 1.5 per cent higher yesterday.
The results were released after the market closed.
