Qatar-based Ooredoo, a leading telecom company with operations in many countries, reported a net profit of QR2.079 billion ($570 million) for the first nine months of this year, compared to QR2.069 billion during the same period last year.

Ooredoo Group posted a 11 per cent increase in the third quarter net profit to QR375 million.

Excluding the impact of foreign currency gains and losses in Opcos and Myanmar start-up costs and IM2 provision, net profit would have grown by 3 per cent, the company said.  

The group's customers increased by 7 per cent globally to reach 95.7 million, it said. The launch of 3G network in Myanmar in mid-August attracted more than 1 million customers in less than three weeks following the launch.

With regards to the IM2 court case in Indonesia, which is still a pending legal process where no formal notification has been received, Indosat has taken a prudent provision of QR416 million .

Group revenue for the nine months decreased to QR24.839 billion (9M 2013: QR 25.477 billion).  Group EBITDA decreased by 9 per cent to QR10.234 billion (9M 2013: QR11.225 billion) with EBITDA margin decreasing to 41 per cent (9M 2013: 44 per cent) due to lower revenues and the continued investment across the business into customer acquisition and retention, global brand roll-out, service launches and customer experience, the company said.

The group continues to invest in its start-up operation in Myanmar and its recovery strategy in Ooredoo Kuwait. The result has been impacted by the current security situation in Iraq, it said.

Commenting on the results, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, chairman of Ooredoo, said: “Ooredoo has delivered a solid set of results despite the challenges facing some of its markets.  The increasing use of data by our customers and Ooredoo’s move into new service capabilities such as financial transactions demonstrate the enormous power of our best-in-class data networks.  They offer transformative means of communication to individuals, communities and businesses across our markets and illustrate how Ooredoo is progressing its strategy.  Our networks and services continue to bring positive change across our markets.”

Dr Nasser Marafih, group chief executive officer, said: “Our results for the nine months demonstrate the clear progress of our strategy to create a world-leading, data centric business.  We are increasingly building a growing level of revenue from dataas our customers consume more data based services from their fixed and mobile communication devices. Strong results were achieved in our domestic market in Qatar, in Oman where the 'turbocharging' of the network is delivering strongnumbers and in Algeria, where we benefit from the most advanced 3G network. Despite the progress of our strategy, some of our markets continue to experience a range of challenges e.g. in Indonesia, Iraq, Tunisia and the Kuwaiti market.  However, we will continue to make the appropriate investments into our core areas of growth to ensure long-term shareholder value.   Our investment in our networks, services and branding will ensure that Ooredoo will continue to differentiate and deliver value for shareholders and customers alike.” - TradeArabia News Service