Palestine Telecommunications Company  (PalTel) has reported a net profit of $122 million for the 2010 year, an increase of 22.75 per cent over $99 million for the previous year.

The increase is attributed to the rise in operating income, decline in investment losses by 40.28 per cent and the decline in other non-recurring expenses by 32.66 per cent; non recurring expenses are mainly related to the financial settlement which was signed during 2010 between Paltel Group and the Palestinian National Authority.

Net operating revenues grew 7.88 per cent to reach $479 million for 2010 compared with $444 million for the earlier year.

Operating income reached $158 million for the year, compared with $147 million for 2009, a growth of 7.09 per cent. This growth was achieved by an increase in consolidated revenues and in light of the new operating policy of focusing operational efforts on core telecom functions and outsourcing support functions.

Mobile and ADSL subscribers grew by 26.58 per cent and 16.12 per cent, respectively reaching a customer base of 2.26 million and 107,389 compared with 1.80 million and 92,483 as of the end 2009.

The number of fixed line subscribers witnessed 2.08 per cent decline rate to stand at 362,792 subscribers compared with 370,483 at the end of 2009. This decline was a result of the new disconnection policy for inactive lines.

'The group's ability to achieve such remarkable results is due to the continued growth in all operational indicators, especially in terms of the number of subscribers and improvement in services being offered,' stated Sabih Al Masri, chairman of PalTel Group.

'The restructuring of Paltel Group companies created new strategic directions which led to a re-focus on core business operations in the fixed, mobile and data services. In turn, the implementation of a new operational focus resulted in the steady growth of revenues and profits across all companies as a result of the Group's ability to adapt and adjust to evident market changes.'-TradeArabia News Service