Sudatel Telecom Group, which has operations in Sudan, Senegal, Guinea and Mauritania, has reported consolidated revenues of USD476.2 million for the twelve months ended 31 December 2016, an increase of 9.3% from USD435.9 million in the year-ago period. The growth came in spite of rising inflation, currency devaluation and recession caused by the drop in international oil and commodities prices that impacted the economies in most of Sudatel’s operating countries, the firm said. Domestic revenue accounted for USD305.9 million of total turnover in 2016 (compared to USD273.1 million the previous year), with the firm’s Senegalese operations generating USD108.6 million (2015: USD92.9 million), Mauritania USD60.3 million (USD65.7 million) and Guinea USD1.4 million (USD4.2 million).
Gross profit grew by 17.8% in 2016, from USD155.5 million to USD183.2 million, although an increase in tax and other expenses resulted in an 8.9% decline in net income, from USD51.6 million in 2015 to USD47.0 million twelve months later. Sudatel ended 2016 with a mobile subscriber base of twelve million. Commenting on the results, CEO Tarig Hamza Zain Alabdain said: ‘Sudatel began to reap the fruits of its investments in infrastructure, especially the broadband fibre-optic networks across Sudan which will go a long way in supporting Sudatel’s effort in reinforcing the data and information technology revolution through current and expected broadband connections until 2020.’