Zain Group, a leading provider of innovative technologies and digital lifestyle communications operating in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa region, has registered robust growth in its key markets in Q2 posting a revenue of KD479 million ($1.6 billion), up 4% over last year, while its net income soared 55% to KD52 million ($170 million). 

 

Announcing its consolidated financial results for the three-month period ended June 30, 2024, Zain said it had served 47.8 million customers at the end Q2 2024, an exceptional 13% increase from Q1 2024, as 5 million customers return to the network, due to the network stabilization efforts being carried out in Sudan.  

 

In Q2, its normalised ebitda grew 13% YoY to reach KD178 million ($579 million), reflecting an ebitda margin of 37%. Normalised net income growth soared 55% to reach KD52 million ($170 million) reflecting an earnings per share of 12 fils. 

 

Normalised ebitda and net income growth for Q2 2024 is arrived at by adjusting the number range claim in Q2 2023.

 

For the first six months, Zain Group generated consolidated revenue of KD945 million ($3.1 billion), up 11% over last year while its normalized ebitda grew 1% YoY to reach KD325 million ($1.1 billion), thus reflecting an ebitda margin of 34%. 

 

Normalized net income growth for the first six months was 11% reaching KD81 million ($265 million), reflecting earnings per share of 19 fils ($0.06). Normalized ebitda and net income growth for H1 2024 is arrived at by adjusting the number range claim and tower transaction gain in H1 2023.

 

Impressed with the results, the Zain Board has declared an interim dividend of 10 fils per share for the 4th consecutive year, that will be payable to entitled shareholders on October 6, said the telecom company in a statement.

 

Operations in Kuwait, KSA, Bahrain and Jordan witnessed impressive H1 growth in 5G revenues, it stated. Following this, Zain KSA has announced cash dividend of SAR449 million ($120 million). 

 

Commenting on results, Osamah Al Furaih, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zain Group, said: "The Board is pleased with the sound financial and operational performance of the company given the exceptional socio-economic and currency challenges that management is having to contend with, particularly in Sudan."

 

"We remain resolute in our focus to implement effective environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices, further seeking and developing multiple new lucrative business verticals, and preparing the company for the next phase of sustainable growth in driving shareholder value," he stated.

 

"Given the H1 performance, combined with our strong balance sheet and financial solvency, the Board is pleased to declare a fourth consecutive half-year dividend of 10 fils per share, in accordance with our annual minimum dividend policy of 35 fils per share," he added.

 

Bader Al Kharafi, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO, said: "The resilient Q2’24 performance that saw a solid 79% net profit increase compared to Q1’24, is a result of our focus on accelerating revenue and customer growth, and implementation of numerous cost optimization and mitigating initiatives across all our operations."

 

"This has set the scene for a solid year. It’s unfortunate that the unavoidable currency devaluation in Sudan continues to impact an otherwise impressive operational quarter, he stated.

 

"We are seeing areas of positivity in Sudan where the persistent turnaround efforts of the team there saw 5 million customers recently return to the network, a remarkable achievement given the exceptional circumstances. Our mitigation efforts that focus on network service availability and customer initiatives are paying off," said Al Kharafi.

 

He pointed out that Zain Group was laser focused on fostering the growth of its integrated digital solutions arm, ZainTECH, in cooperation with operational B2B teams, geared towards making Zain the digital transformation partner of choice for governments and businesses regionally. 

 

"The recent opening of ZainTECH offices in KSA and the integration of STS into our enterprise ecosystem adds enormous capabilities to offer transformative solutions and delivers great value for clients," he stated.

 

The group's fintech entities in KSA, Iraq, Jordan, and most recently in Bahrain, as well as our pure digital operators in KSA and Iraq are witnessing healthy revenue and customer growth. We will continue to expand these lucrative areas of the business across our footprint and look forward to launching fintech services in Kuwait later this year," he added.-TradeArabia News Service