Dubai: Stronger demand for its products aided Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) to post a 54.2% spike in its first-half net profit, prompting it to hike its cash dividend during the period by 53.8 per cent to Dh0.20 per share.
During the first half of the year, the fintech-telecom firm on Monday announced thats its half-year profit rose to Dh1.18 billion from Dh768 million a year ago. Revenues grew by 7.3 per cent to year-over-year during the quarter to Dh3.59 billion on the back of strong growth in particularly mobile services.
Malek Al Malek, Chairman said: “The first half of 2024 saw EITC deliver another record set of results. The management remained focused on strategy execution, delivering profitable growth in our core business and beyond and creating value to our shareholders.. This [dividend hike] reflects the Board’s confidence in the company’s ongoing success and outlook and our commitment to delivering value to our shareholders.”
While flagging strong financial performance with top-line and bottom-line growth as a continuation of the robust performance witnessed in the first quarter of this year, revenue during the period rose 5.7 per cent to Dh7.17 billion, while core earnings (EBITDA) margin held strong at 44 per cent.
Mobile customer base grew 2.9 per cent year-over-year to 8.2 million subscribers, the firm noted, which "tapered over the second quarter, reflecting the typical seasonality impact." Meanwhile, the postpaid customer base grew by 11.3 per cent year over year to 1.7 million subscribers in the latest quarter.
Our results for the first half give us full confidence in delivering our upward-revised full-year financial guidance
Confident to meet hiked guidance
Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO said: “We have grown our subscriber base, revenues, profitability and cash generation, solidifying the stellar start we made this year. Our commercial momentum led to a strong growth in our service revenues in Q2 buoyed by significant large enterprise deals with a robust pipeline of new projects as well as the launch of new innovative consumer products.
"In Fintech, the first full quarter of du Pay has exceeded our expectations, marking a significant milestone in our innovation journey and further expanding our market reach capabilities. Our results for the first half give us full confidence in delivering our upward revised full-year financial guidance."
The postpaid customer base in Q1 grew by 11.3 per cent year over year to 1.7 million subscribers highlighting the "attractiveness of our innovative enterprise connectivity solutions and the continuing success of consumer product launches such as “du Smart Car”." It added that the prepaid customer base edged up by 0.9 per cent to 6.5 million customers during the latest quarter with "voice and data growth offset by a normalisation of the tourist influx."
Also, du's fixed customer base rose by a strong 12.7 per cent year-over-year to 630,000 subscribers, with net-additions of 15,000 subscribers over the quarter. "Our Home Wireless plans continue to be the main growth driver boosted by new attractive offerings such as the launch of Home Wireless Gaming, while enterprise connectivity also performed strongly during the quarter," it added.
During the latest quarter, the firm reported that its capital intensity is moderating at 12.3 per cent from 15.1 per cent in the prior quarter. This is "reflecting a typical capex phasing pattern." The company reaffirmed that its f"ocus of our investment programme continues to be enhancement of the 5G coverage, fibre deployment and the ongoing transformation of our IT and network infrastructure."
