KUWAIT: National Mobile Telecommunications Company (NMTC) (Ooredoo) yesterday announced its financial results for the nine months of 2015:
Financial Highlights:
- Total customer base increased to 23.9 million at the close of nine months of2015, versus 22.3 million for the same period in 2014, amounting to growth of 7.5 percent.
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Positive trend delivering growth in Revenue, EBITDA and net profit in the third quarter of 2015.
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Revenues for nine months of 2015stood at KD547.9 million ($1,812.8 million), compared with KD565.5 million ($1,961.7 million) for the same period in 2014, a decrease of3.1 percent. However, in local currency terms, Ooredoo Kuwait, Ooredoo Algeria and Ooredoo Maldives have posted revenue growth.
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EBITDA for nine months of 2015 was KD192.1 million ($635.7 million), compared to EBITDA of KD203.4 million ($705.7 million) for the same period in 2014.
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The consolidated net profit for the period was impacted by adverse currency movements in Tunisia (-10 percent YoY) and Algeria (-14 percent YoY) and foreign exchange losses of KD12.6million ($ 41.7 million) mainly from Algeria. The consolidated net profit for nine months of 2015 was KD33.9 million ($112.1 million), compared to net profit for the same period in 2014 of KD58.7 million ($203.6 million).
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Net profit attributable to NMTC in nine months of 2015 was KD 28.1 million ($93.0 million) compared with a Net attributable profit of KD 45.7 million ($158.7 million) for the same period of 2014. Excluding the adverse impact of Foreign currency losses, Net Profit to NMTC would have been KD 36.6 million ($121.1 million) compared to KD 49.0 million ($169.9 million) in nine months of 2014. Additionally, nine months of 2014 included one-off gains from discontinued business amounting to KD 3.6 million.
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The consolidated earnings per share was 56.1fils ($18.6 cents), compared to 91.3fils ($31.7cents) per share earned for the same period last year.
Sheikh Saud Bin Nasser Al-Thani, Chairman of the Board, commented:
“Ooredoo Kuwait and its operations (Algeria, Palastine, Maldives,Tunisia and Oman) has delivered strong performance in Q3 2015 recording growth in revenue, EBITDA and Net Income compared to Q3 2014 amid adverse currency movements in some of our markets in 2015.
We continued to grow our customer base through the successful execution of our strategy. Our number of customers reached 23.9 million as of Q3 2015, an increase of 7.5 percent compared to the same period last year.
We continued our network investments across our footprint to ensure our customers have the best customer experience. Our data leadership in Algeria continues to attract new customers, and we have maintained our leadership in Tunisia. Our LTE-A network in Kuwait differentiates Ooredoo’s offer through the quality and speed of our services.
The shift to an increasingly digital world offers significant opportunity for Ooredoo to develop and capture new sources of revenue by delivering innovative and ubiquitous services. Our data centric strategy will deliver long term value for both our customers and shareholders.”