Vodafone Qatar Q4 loss narrows
Doha, June 3, 2013
Vodafone Qatar, an affiliate of Britain's Vodafone Group, reported a smaller-than-expected fourth-quarter loss on Monday as its subscriber base rose by nearly a third and revenue increased.
Vodafone, which ended Ooredoo's (Qatar Telecom) domestic monopoly in 2009, made a fourth-quarter net loss of 73.9 million riyals ($19.89 million) in the three months to March 31, according to Reuters calculations.
That compares with a loss of 126.5 million riyals in the year-earlier period. The operator's financial year starts on April 1.
Two analysts polled by Reuters forecast Vodafone Qatar would make a quarterly loss of between 80 million riyals and 91 million riyals.
Vodafone Qatar's full-year net loss was 401 million riyals, smaller than the previous year's loss of 486 million riyals.
Quarterly revenue was 435.6 million riyals, up from 315.7 million riyals a year ago, while annual revenue rose 25 percent to 1.53 billion riyals.
This gave the company a 27.4 percent share of Qatar's mobile revenues, up from 24.5 percent a year earlier.
Vodafone, which owns 23 percent of Vodafone Qatar, in November extended a contract to manage its Qatari affiliate until 2018.
Vodafone had 1.08 million mobile customers as of March 31, up from 837,000 a year earlier.
Full-year average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric for the telecom sector, was 121 riyals, up 8 percent year-on-year. - Reuters
