Omani Qatari Telecommunications Company SAOG (“Ooredoo”) today announced unaudited financial results for the nine months ended 30 September 2015:
Revenues for the first nine months of 2015 grew by 12.4% to OMR 186.8 million compared with OMR 166.2 million in 2014. The growth is driven by increases in both mobile and fixed data revenue.
EBITDA for the first nine months of the year stood at OMR 104.3 million compared to OMR 88.6 million for the same period of 2014. EBITDA growth for the year is driven by higher revenue.
Net profit for the nine months to September 2015 was OMR 32.3 million compared with OMR 29.5 million in the same period of 2014. Increase in net profit for the year is driven by higher EBITDA partially offset by higher depreciation cost due to investment in network modernisation. Net profit for the 3rd quarter 2015 was further impacted by OMR 2.9 million (YTD Sep 2015 - OMR 4.2 million) due to provision for swapped out assets as part of network modernisation.
Total number of customers grew by 10.0%, to be 2,766,395 at the end of the first nine months of 2015 compared to 2,514,231 for the same period of 2014.
The fixed service customer base increased by 12.2% to 66,886 customers in Q3 2015 compared to 59,630 in same period 2014. The trend of reduction in fixed service customer base observed in last couple quarters is now reversed supported by the migration from Wimax technology to LTE. The mobile post-paid customer base grew by 6.5% to 204,852 customers compared with 192,427 customers in Q3 2014. The mobile pre-paid customer base for Q3 2015 increased by 10.3% to 2,494,657 compared to 2,262,174 for the same period last year.
Commenting on the results, CEO, Greg Young said:
“We are very pleased with our strong revenue growth this quarter, in what is otherwise a challenging economic environment. This is testament to the fact that we are continuing to listen to our customers and provide them with what they need and want, through both our mobile and fixed services. Our aim to inspire and innovate in each of these sectors and strive for customer excellence is clearly paying off. We are continuing to strongly grow not only our revenues, but also our customer base overall.”
“The ongoing investment in modernising and expanding our network is also a factor in customer growth. We will continue to provide the coverage and speed, with our expanding 4G footprint as well as our recently completed national fibre backbone. With the completion of our national fibre backbone, we can provide a second-to-none customer experience. Our investment will continue during the remainder of 2015 year as we further improve network performance and customer experience across the Sultanate.”
“Recognising yet another successful quarter, I would like to thank all the Ooredoo family members for their continued contribution and hard work to our ongoing success and growth.”
Source: Ooredoo