Earlier, interest-free loans were announced for Emiratis whose businesses were affected by the rains, with a grace period of 6 to 12 months
Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), the Dubai-based telecom major, reported on Monday an 11.4 per cent jump in second quarter net profit to Dh240 million year-on-year consequent to cost-saving initiatives and lower provisions.
In a statement, EITC said its revenues rose seven per cent to Dh2.855 billion, while Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) increased by 7.3 per cent to Dh1.130 million. The telecom operator’s Board of Directors approved an interim dividend of Dh0.10 per share.
The company said its capital expenditures increased 27.5 per cent to Dh649 million as it continued to execute infrastructure modernisation plans. “As a result, operating free cash flow decreased 11.7 per cent to Dh 481 million.”
Mohamed Al Hussaini, chairman of EITC, said the telecom had a solid performance during the second quarter. “It is satisfying to see operating and financial metrics returning to growth. The company continues to deploy significant resources towards infrastructure expansion and modernisation.”
Fahad Al Hassawi, CEO, said EITC has proved it can rebound from a challenging environment and deliver growth. “I am very pleased that we stemmed the decline in mobile service revenues. We remain vigilant on our cost base as cost reduction initiatives helped push Ebitda and net profit up 7.0 per cent and 11 per cent respectively. With our customers in mind, we invested Dh649 million on our infrastructure as we seek to better serve them.”
He said the company’s post-paid customers’ interest in 5G handsets is growing as EITC responded with a corresponding handset financing solution. “In addition, our innovative broadband offers continue to generate interest and fuel growth. This helped us accelerate the pace of broadband net-adds.”
EITC said its mobile services are primed for growth. Customer base grew 2.3 per cent to 6.6 million as the economic recovery takes shape. Mobile revenues reversed its downward trend and stabilised at Dh1.295 billion. Fixed revenues continued its growth path (+6.5 per cent yoy) and reached an all-time high of Dh 687 million. Voice traffic rebounded ahead of pre-pandemic levels and compensated moderate data usage due to Wi-Fi offloading. Growing interest in 5G devices as well as attractive financing solutions for post-paid customers continue to fuel demand for handsets, said the statement.
During the quarter, EITC added 31,000 broadband subscribers and ended the period with 279,000 broadband customers.
The modernisation of technology infrastructure is progressing according to plan, the statement said. “We pursued the modernisation of our 4G mobile network and accelerated 5G rollout. We signed agreements with NetCracker and Atos to support our IT and business transformation journeys.” — issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com
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