Du's 9-month net profit surges 3.7% to Dh1.29b

Dubai - EITC would continue its transformation efforts to cope with a changing business paradigm.

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) reported on Tuesday a 3.7 per cent rise in net profit for the nine-month period ended 30 September 2019. In a statement, the Dubai-based telecom company reported a net profit after royalty of Dh1.29 billion, revenues of Dh9.4 billion, an Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) of Dh 4.22 billion for the nine-month period. For Q3 2019, EITC reported Revenues of Dh3.07 billion, an Ebitda of Dh1.33 billion and a net profit after royalty of Dh381 million.
Osman Sultan, EITC's chief executive officer, said the telecom company was able to achieve this result despite several challenges in the market where certain of its business lines which reached maturity are subject to pressure on their top line.
"I am pleased to report for the first nine months of the 2019 year a 3.7 per cent growth in our adjusted (like-for-like) net profit after royalty which reached Dh1.29 billion. During the first nine months of the year, we were able to report a total revenue of Dh9.4 billion driven by a healthy increase of 7.5 per cent in our fixed business revenues that absorbed part of the 8.2 per cent decline in mobile revenues," said Sultan, who recently announced his decision to step down after almost 14 successful years at the helm of du.
"Our fixed business continued to register regular growth of the subscriber base which reached 771,000, an increase of 1.5 per cent. We continue to focus our efforts on attracting high value post-paid mobile customers to improve the mix of our mobile subscriber base amounting to 7.74 million subscribers, leading to a 2.5 per cent increase in mobile ARPU during the period," said Sultan.
EITC would continue its transformation efforts to cope with a changing business paradigm and increase the efficiency of the business, said the outgoing CEO. "Our Ebidta for the first nine months was at Dh4.22 billion, virtually flat on a reported basis and with a contained erosion of 1.7 per cent on a like-for-like basis reflecting efficiency efforts all over the organisation to absorb an important part of the pressure on the revenues," he said.
Sultan said as part of the company's operational improvements du has made significant progress during the quarter to advance its digital strategy, while also strengthening customer proposition. "We have also accelerated in Q3 2019 the deployment of our network and in particular our 5G deployment," said Sultan. The 5G connectivity will be up to 100 times faster than the 4G network used by more than 3.6 billion mobile internet users around the world.
"Our capex for the first nine month-period increased by 82 per cent compared to same period last year to reach Dh799 million almost doubling the capital intensity of the business. These continuous investments confirm our commitment to provide our customers with the latest technologies and products and our regular efforts towards improving customer experience," said Sultan.
- issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com