Batelco third-quarter profit up 22pc

Batelco, Bahrain's telecom company, announced yesterday its third-quarter profits, reporting a 22 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Results for the nine months show that the Batelco Group returned profits of 52.3 million Baharaini dinars ($139.6 million) from a gross turnover of 138 million dinars ($368.5 million), which represents a 10 per cent increase on turnover for the same period last year.

"Batelco's healthy financial performance will boost confidence in the company on the stock market and comes at a time when Moody's Investors Service is poised to consider credit downgrades for about one-third of the rest of the world's telecoms operators," said company chief executive, Tony Hart.

Earnings-per-share for the nine-month period was 52 fils, representing a 22 per cent increase on the previous year.

The third-quarter financial results amount to a return on capital employed - or rate of payback on the sum of cash invested to run the business - of 27 per cent on an annualised basis.

Meanwhile, Batelco's chairman, Minister of Transportation, Sheikh Ali Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, announced further reductions of the cost on international calls made to India and Pakistan. He said the new reductions will come into effect from tomorrow.

"These reductions come as a result of Batelco's successful efforts in reducing the per-minute settlement cost which Batelco has to pay to India and Pakistan telecoms for completing the call," he explained.