Du, the United Arab Emirates' second biggest telecom operator, said it would pay 1 billion dirhams ($272.3 million) to shareholders via special and interim dividends, after it posted a 46 percent rise in second-quarter net profit on Thursday.

The firm, which ended rival Etisalat's domestic monopoly in 2007, made a net profit after royalties of 474 million dirhams in the three months to June 30, up from 326 million in the year-earlier period.

One analyst polled by Reuters had forecast du would make a quarterly profit of 465.7 million dirhams for the second quarter.

Second-quarter revenue was 2.66 billion dirhams, compared with 2.37 billion dirhams a year ago.

Du also initiated an interim dividend payment of 12 fils per share, taking its total dividend payout to 22 fils.

The company's mobile customer base reached 6.65 million users, up 16.1 percent from a year earlier, it said. UAE mobile penetration was 170 percent, or 1.7 SIM cards per resident, in 2012, according to the International Telecommunication Union. – Reuters