Net profit at Qatari telecoms company Ooredoo plunged in the third quarter mainly because of foreign exchange losses from its Indonesian affiliate Indosat, the company said yesterday.

Profit fell 58 per cent to QR337 million ($92.6m), from QR804 million in the same period a year earlier. Indonesia's rupiah fell sharply during the quarter, from around 9,900 against the US dollar to about 11,500, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

Analysts had expected only a 12 per cent drop in Ooredoo's third-quarter profit.

Excluding foreign exchange factors, net profit for the third quarter of this year would have been flat from a year earlier.

Consolidated revenue in the third quarter fell 1.4 per cent to QR8.51 billion.

For the first nine months of this year, net profit dropped 4.0 per cent to QR2.07 billion, while revenue rose 2.6 per cent to QR25.65 billion. – TradeArabia News Service