Du sees 10% increase in mobile subscribers in Q2

dubai - Telco reports Dh3.07 billion in revenue and Dh445.4 million net profit

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company, known as du, on Sunday reported Dh3.07 billion in revenue and Dh445.4 million net profit for the second quarter of the year compared to the same period last year.

The telecom operator's revenues dropped by around one per cent in the June quarter compared to Dh3.09 billion reported in the same quarter last year. Its net profit also declined by 11.3 per cent compared to Dh502 million in the second quarter in 2015.

The Dubai-based company 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.

Du's CEO Osman Sultan said: "Du has recorded a double digit increase in mobile subscribers during the quarter."

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

The company's data now represents 33.6 per cent of mobile service revenue, up from 31.2 per cent in the same period last year. Data consumption increased by approximately 46 per cent from 13 million GB in Q2 2015 to 19 million GB this year, according to the du.

A campaign to remove unregistered SIM cards by the UAE government forced du to cancel more than 10 per cent of subscribers in the first quarter of 2015, including a number of heavy-using customers, which du was still recovering from, Sultan told reporters during a conference call.

"We will have to look at our prepaid market and regain momentum. We are seeing some signs that certain indicators are moving in the right direction and I hope these will remain sustainable," the chief executive said. "I cannot say we will start to see this in the first quarter or the fourth quarter, but we are on the right track to regain the traction again," he added.

The chief executive said: "Customers continued to be attracted by our competitive mobile packages and extensive network, demonstrated by a 10.1 per cent 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 per cent increase compared with Q2 2015."

- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com