BAGHDAD: Qatari telecom operator Ooredoo reported a 51 percent fall in third-quarter net profit on Sunday.
The earnings of the former monopoly, which operates in about a dozen territories across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, have been hit from mid-2013 by foreign exchange losses and plunging earnings from Iraq, although a strong domestic performance has helped mitigate the impact.
After a period of volatile profitability, the firm had reported rising profits in the previous four quarters.
Ooredoo made a net profit of 370 million riyals in the three months to Sept. 30, it said in a statement, compared with a profit of 755.8 million riyals in the year-earlier period. The average forecast of three analysts polled by Reuters was for a quarterly profit of 499.3 million riyals.
Ooredoo’s consolidated third-quarter revenue was 8.35 billion riyals, versus 8.16 billion riyals a year ago.
In Qatar, the company’s nine month net profit rose 2 percent to 1.6 billion riyals. In Iraq, where parts of the country have been under the control of militant group ISIL, Ooredoo unit Asiacell made a nine-month profit of 79 million riyals, down 48 percent from a year ago.
