DOHA: Vodafone Qatar reported revenue of QR2.31bn for the full-year 2015, up 16 percent compared to the same period in 2014. The company’s mobile customer growth grew by nine percent to 1.44 million during the period.
The EBITDA margin stood stable at 25 percent with the EBITDA for the full financial year of QR566m, a 14 percent improvement over last year. Net loss improved by 12 percent to a loss of QR216m; and the loss per share is QR0.26 compared with QR0.29 for the same period last year. The company’s capital investment increased 68 percent to QR579m representing 25 percent of revenue reinvested.
Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Thani Al Thani, Chairman of Vodafone Qatar commented: “This year was once again defined by solid results, underpinned by a nine percent growth in our customer base to 1.44 million. This performance helped deliver 16 percent growth in our revenues to QR2.31bn and maintain stable EBITDA margin of 25 percent in challenging market conditions. As such, the board recommends a dividend payment to its shareholders of QR0.21, marking a growth of 24 percent on our maiden dividend distributed last year.”
“This financial year has seen many major achievements for Vodafone Qatar most notably in network enhancements. In June 2014, we launched our 4G network and in January this year, we began phase one of Vodafone’s network evolution by upgrading every network site in Doha with the latest state of the art technology. Our investment of QR579m in Vodafone’s network infrastructure has resulted in increased 3G and 4G coverage and capacity plus the launch of 4G+. All this has undoubtedly produced a significantly better customer experience in both voice and data services”, he said.
Vodafone Qatar’s state-of-the-art infrastructure paired with superior levels of customer experience is allowing Vodafone Qatar to meet the needs of our customers. “Our enterprise offering and services have significantly grown with many notable new customers joining Vodafone. On the consumer side, we continued to take great strides in the postpaid segment through successful and differentiated targeted propositions, specifically with Vodafone’s Red plans. We also launched Falla, an updated youth offer and focused on sustaining our prepaid position against aggressive competition by always giving customers the best value available in Qatar. Moreover, leveraging Vodafone Group plc’s unparalleled global footprint, we continued to lead in the roaming space with Qatar’s best roaming rates and the widest 4G roaming coverage”
On future plans, Sheikh Dr Khalid said : “Our relentless pursuit of network excellence will continue.
Phase 2 of Vodafone’s network enhancements will complete the upgrade on our remaining cell sites across Qatar. In addition, we will continue to increase the number of indoor and outdoor 4G & 4G+ sites in key locations across the country making sure our customers always enjoy a great experience and superfast data speeds.
Our consumer customers will continue to see amazing offers and propositions from Vodafone bringing what’s best from Vodafone globally to Qatar.
This will be supported by our world class customer service which is at the heart of what we do. We will aggressively compete in enterprise to deliver the most innovative and tailored solutions for our business customers whilst ensuring that their costs are well managed, he said.
Vodafone Qatar will be holding its Annual Ordinary General Assembly Meeting on Tuesday June 30 at the Four Seasons Hotel.
