Ooredoo Oman, the sultanate's No.2 telecom operator, reported a 17.8 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit on Thursday, its seventh rise in nine quarters.

The firm, majority-owned by Qatar's Ooredoo, made a net profit of RO12.6 million ($32.73 million) in the three months to Mar. 31, it said in a statement. This compares with a profit of RO10.7 million in the year-earlier period.

Gulf Baader Capital Markets forecast Ooredoo Oman would make a quarterly profit of RO10.9 million.

Ooredoo Oman, which ended Oman Telecommunication Co's (Omantel) monopoly in 2005, had reported rising profits in six of the preceding eight quarters.

First-quarter revenue was RO66.1 million. This compares with RO59.3 million a year earlier, the statement added. – Reuters