Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), the second-largest Arab telecom firm by market value, made a fourth-quarter net profit of Dh1.76 billion ($479.3 million), up 19.7 per cent from a year-earlier.

The company posted profit attributable to shareholders of Dh7.297 billion in 2007 compared with Dh5.86 billion in 2006, it said in a statement, without giving quarterly data.

The quarterly profit missed four of five analysts' forecasts in a Reuters survey last month, which ranged from Dh1.61 billion and Dh2.03 billion.

The average forecast was for profit of Dh1.83 billion. Etisalat made profit attributable to shareholders of Dh1.47 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006 and Dh5.53 billion in the first nine months of 2007, according to financial results posted on the stock market regulator's Web site.-Reuters