Telecom operator du said its first-quarter net profit more than doubled, after the company added more customers during the quarter and continued to invest in infrastructure.
xThe firm, which now has an estimated 40 percent share of the UAE mobile market, reported a first-quarter net profit of 205.8 million ($56.03 million) after providing for royalties, up from 97.1 million dirhams in the year-earlier period, it said on Monday.
Analysts polled on average had expected the firm to post a quarterly net profit of 203.7 million dirhams for the first-quarter.
The company said it will continue to provision for royalty payments to the government at 50 percent of its profits until it is advised by the government on the rate for the year.
“In line with our previous practice, we have decided to continue to provision for royalty at 50 percent,” Osman Sultan, du’s chief executive officer, said in a statement to the bourse.
Du said it added 272,000 net active mobile subscribers during the quarter and invested 477 million dirhams in its infrastructure.
First-quarter revenue jumped 29 percent to 2.04 billion dirhams, compared with 1.58 billion dirhams for the year earlier period.