Zain KSA reports positive results for H1

(MENAFN- Arab News) Zain KSA recorded a significant increase in EBTIDA during the first half of 2014 with 22 percent growth reaching SR564 million up from SR464 million in the first half of 2013.

The company succeeded in raising the EBTIDA margin to 18 percent up from 14 percent during the same period of last year. These numbers were released during the company's financial result announcement for the 2nd quarter of 2014.

The company narrowed net loss by 11 percent reaching to SR 329 million from SR 370 million during the second quarter of 2013. A 16 percent drop in net loss was achieved during the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.

Gross margin increased to reach 51 percent in this half up from 47 percent in the same period of 2013.

Commenting on these results Farhan bin Naif Alfaisal Aljarbaa chairman of the board of directors of Zain KSA said: 'The company's improvement in financial results is due to the comprehensive developmental plan adopted by the executive management since the beginning of 2014 a plan that focuses on improving service quality and promoting user experience."

Aljarbaa added: 'The board of directors has complete trust in the executive management's ability to reach the Company's goals within the plan."

Transformation

Meanwhile Hassan Kabbani CEO of Zain KSA said: 'We are on our way to fully implementing the transformation plan which aims to enhance service quality by investing in the development of Zain network performance and reaching financial and commercial goals armed with the full support and trust of the Zain group and key contributors and the combined efforts of the company work teams."

Moreover Kabbani revealed a 107 percent increase in Internet service subscribers during this quarter compared to the same quarter of last year and a 31 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2014. Data traffic on the network increased significantly during this quarter by 564 percent compared to the same quarter of last year and 64 percent compared to the last quarter.

This increase contributed to a growth in Internet service revenues during this quarter of 94 percent compared to the second quarter of the previous year and a 6 percent growth compared to the first quarter of this year.

COMPETITIVE

Zain KSA's 4G network coverage has expanded to cover 52 percent of domesticated areas due to the increase in network locations that reached 6113 by the end of the quarter.

'The new network development agreement which Zain KSA recently signed with 5 major international telecommunications companies for a total cost of SR4.5 billion will drastically improve network operations in terms of coverage capacity speed and providing the best services to subscribers" Kabbani stated.

'The company is committed to providing a strong competitive network in data services to support the increase of Internet use in the Saudi market" he added.