EITC Q3 profit jumps 12.7%

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company reported on Tuesday 12.7 per cent jump in third quarter net profit to Dh319 million as its mobile customer base increased.

In the third quarter, revenues increased by 10.5 per cent to Dh3.17 billion on sustained demand for broadband and mobile services. Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) grew 18.5 per cent to Dh1.3 billion thanks to a sharp increase in service revenues and gross margin expansion, EITC said in a statement.

During the first nine months of 2022, the telecom operator saw its net profit increasing by 19.6 per cent.

EITC’s mobile customer base grew 14.7 per cent to 7.4 million subscribers. “We highlight the sustained performance of our postpaid segment with net-additions of 32,000, a fifth consecutive quarter of growth, to reach 1.4 million subscribers. Our prepaid customer base of 6 million remained stable compared to the previous quarter,” EITC said in a statement.

Consumer broadband customer base increased 53.8 per cent to 510,000. “Our broadband strategy continues to deliver. We attracted 37,000 customers during the quarter,” it said.

While equipment sales generated revenues of Dh176 million, fixed services revenues soared 22.2 per cent to Dh892 million buoyed by the continued strong performance of the consumer segment. In aggregate, service revenues increased 14.8 per cent to Dh2.335 billion.

Fahad Al Hassawi, EITC’s CEO, said Q3’s results have been excellent on all fronts. “Our business environment has clearly transitioned to a post-pandemic normality. We are benefiting from the UAE’s economic dynamism and healthy macro trends. Our results validate the efforts we deploy to: provide new products and services; improve customer experience; and execute our transformation journey. All these initiatives have laid the foundations of our commercial momentum.”

He said service revenues are recovering and growing at an encouraging pace: EITC generated service revenues in excess of Dh2.0 billion for a fifth consecutive quarter. The company’s profitability continued to improve on a sequential and year-on-year basis. “We have invested and will continue to invest in our infrastructure to give our customers a simple and the best available experience in the UAE,” EITC said.

The telecom major said its Ebitda, or overall profitability, increased by 18.5 per cent year-over-year to Dh1.303 billion. The increase in service revenues lifted EITC’s gross margin to 65.2 per cent compared to 62.2 per cent in the same 2021 quarter.

The company said its capex spend of Dh724 million reflects a seasonality effect.

“Most of the Capex spend is skewed towards the second half of the year. More importantly, our capex profile is continuing to normalise following two consecutive years of high capital intensity,” said the statement.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com