Du proposes Dh594.3 million dividends for H1 2016

The Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, known as du, has said it plans to distribute Dh594.3 million of interim dividends to its shareholders for the first half of 2016 at 13 fils per share, subject to approval at the General Meeting in September 2016.

In its published financial results for the second quarter of 2016, du delivered Dh3.07 billion in revenue, down 0.8% from Q2 2015. Half year revenue of Dh6.16 billion was 0.2% up on prior year (Dh6.14 billion). Net profit before royalty for the quarter was Dh969.7 million, down 0.9% from Dh978.5 million in the same period last year.

Commenting on the results, Osman Sultan, du’s Chief Executive Officer, said, "du continues to be a key enabler of the UAE’s growth and has recorded a double digit increase in mobile subscribers during the quarter. However, our financial results reflect the challenging operating environment faced by all telecommunication companies in transforming their business models to monetise services.

"Net profit before royalty for Q2 2016 is down slightly compared with Q2 2015, reflecting the impact of a small decrease in revenue. In addition, the significant increase in royalty has impacted our net profit after royalty, which is down 11% this quarter, compared with the same period last year.

"The board of directors agreed in the meeting held on Thursday, 28th July, 2016, to propose a return of AED 594.3 million, or 13 fils per share, as an interim dividend for first half of 2016, to be voted on at the Ordinary General Meeting.

"As our customer’s appetite for data continues to rise, we are continuously looking at ways to offer best in class products and services. Data now represents 33.6% of mobile service revenue, up from 31.2% in the same period last year. Data consumption increased by approximately 46% from 13 million GB in Q2 2015 to 19 million GB this year.

"Customers continued to be attracted by our competitive mobile packages and extensive network demonstrated by a 10.1% increase in mobile subscribers to 8.1 million. In line with our strategy of delivering quality growth by increasing the postpaid customer base, we now have over 910,000 postpaid customers, a 6.7% increase compared with Q2 2015.

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