Mobily, Saudi Arabia's second-biggest telecom operator, posted a better-than-expected 33.5 percent rise in second-quarter net profit on higher broadband revenue and more post-paid voice customers.

Mobily, also known as Etihad Etisalat, made 901 million riyals ($240.3 million) in the three months to end-June, up from 675 million a year earlier, it said in a statement.
It was Mobily's highest quarterly net profit since it started as the kingdom's second mobile phone operator five years ago.

The earnings came at the top end of forecasts by five analysts in a Reuters survey earlier this month and which averaged SR844.4 million.

Mobily, which competes with state-controlled Saudi Telecom and Zain Saudi Arabia, raised its net operating income by 29 per cent to SR940 million, while its operating costs rose by just 0.3 percent to 1.17 billion. Revenue rose 10.9 per cent to SR3.97 billion.

Commenting on the results, Mobily chairman Abdulaziz Alsaghyir said: “The growth of our Q2 revenues is due to the increase in broadband revenues and attracting more postpaid customers, in addition to the increase in the international interconnection margin, all of which have led to an increase in Ebitda to reach SR1.38 billion for second quarter of 2010 as compared to SR1.18 billion for the first quarter of this year."

"Our Ebitda for the second quarter of 2009 was SR1.13 billion. Besides an increase in usage levels and the success of Mobily’s customer loyalty program, Neqaty," he added.

Emirates Telecommunications is Mobily's biggest shareholder with a 27.4 per cent stake.-Reuters and TradeArabia News Service