Etisalat profit rises 22% on Maroc Telecom stake buy

Etisalat reported a 22 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday, missing analysts' estimates despite the UAE firm's acquisition of a majority stake in Maroc Telecom bolstering its bottom line.

The former telecom monopoly, which operates in 19 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made a net profit of Dh2.22 billion ($598.97 million) in the three months to September 30.

This compares with a profit of Dh1.83 billion in the year-earlier period.

Analysts polled by Reuters on average forecast Etisalat, the Gulf's No. 2 telecom operator by market value, would make a quarterly profit of Dh2.65 billion.

Quarterly revenue was Dh13.2 billion, up from Dh9.59 billion a year earlier.

Almost half of Etisalat's third-quarter revenue came from its international operations, up from 35 per cent in the year-earlier period.

In the UAE, revenues reached Dh6.8 billion for the third quarter of 2014, 10 per cent higher than the third quarter of 2013.

In Egypt, revenues for the third quarter of 2014 were Dh1.2 billion, a 7 per cent increase in comparison to the same period of last year.

The telecom major revenues from Asia reached Dh1.5 billion - representing 11 per cent of the Group’s consolidated revenues.

It benefited from Maroc Telecom stake acquisition as its African consolidated revenues grew by over 400 per cent to Dh3.7 billion in the third quarter of 2014.

Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, Chief Executive Officer of Etisalat Group, said: “By consolidating our position, and differentiating ourselves through innovation, customer experience and digital services, we have continued to grow in our home market, but we are also increasing our foothold and profitability in international markets. We are confident that the projected growth coming from our international operations will continue to grow on track to contribute at least 50-per cent of our overall revenues.

“Africa remains an important strategic region for our business; we see incredible opportunity for growth as markets continue to develop and flourish. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we are entering a transformation phase with Mobily that we are confident will further add to our future growth and the strength of our offering throughout the Kingdom.”

Etisalat Group aggregate subscriber base grew to 180 million by the end of September 2014 representing year-over-year growth of 25 per cent. In the UAE, the active subscriber base grew to 10.8 million in September 2014 representing year on year growth of 6 per cent.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.