UAE- Etisalat Q2 profit up 17%

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Emirates telecommunication Corporation, popularly known as etisalat, on Wednesday said its second-quarter net profit after federal royalty surged 17 per cent to Dh1.9 billion on higher revenues from international and regional markets. The Abu Dhabi-listed firm said its consolidated revenues increased by four per cent year-on-year to Dh8.3 billion, while revenues from international operations grew by 14 per cent to Dh2.3 billion. "Building on the solid performance that the group witnessed during the first quarter of the year, we have seen a year-on-year increase of 20.5 per cent in operating profit and 17 per cent net profit on the back of strong market development in Egypt, Benin, Gabon, Togo, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka," etisalat chairman Eissa Al Suwaidi said. The board of directors, which met here, also decided to distribute interim dividend of 25 fils per share to our shareholders starting from August 15, 2012. The telecom firm said its revenues in the UAE declined by 0.4 per cent to Dh5.643 billion in comparison to the same period last year, while falling by three per cent in comparison to the previous quarter of this year. "Revenue decline was mainly due to lower voice revenues in both mobile and fixed segments that were mostly compensated for by continued growth in data and internet segments," it said in a statement. Consolidated capital spending during second quarter increased by one per cent to Dh0.9 billion. The telecom giant maintained solid financial position with consolidated cash balance of Dh10.5 billion, leading to a positive net cash balance of Dh5.2 billion in the quarter ended June 30, 2012. "Our strategy is clear. Following the industry trend to invest in overseas markets over the past decade, we are now focusing on creating value in high population, high growth markets such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan," Al Suwaidi said. Subscribers rise The Etisalat Group's aggregate subscriber number grew to 172 million by the end of June 2012, representing a year-on-year growth of 22 per cent and a quarter-on-quarter growth of two per cent. Subscriber growth was mainly driven by new products and services in the matured markets and by further market penetrations in growth markets. In the UAE, its active subscriber base grew to 8.9 million subscribers, representing year-on-year growth of seven per cent and quarter-on-quarter growth of two per cent. Mobile subscribers grew nine per cent year-on-year to seven million, while fixed line subscribers fell eight per cent to 1.1 million. However, this decline is due to the successful migration of customers to its e-Life product that grew by 71 per cent to 0.45 million subscribers. Internet subscribers grew by nine per cent to 0.8 million. Ahmad Abdulkarim Julfar, group CEO of etisalat, said: "We will continue to focus on providing innovative customer-oriented solutions that deliver a premium experience both in local and overseas markets to help transform the communities in which we operate and to accelerate social development and economic growth." In the UAE, effective cost optimisation efforts compensated for the drop in revenue and boosted Ebitda level.