Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (du) has reported a net profit after royalty of Dh464 million ($126 million) for the second quarter (Q2) of the year, marking a 5.5 per cent like-for-like increase over Q2 2018.

It posted revenues of Dh3.19 billion ($868 million) and EBITDA Dh1.47 billion for the period.

For H1 2019, EITC reported revenues of Dh6.33 billion, EBITDA of Dh2.89 billion representing growth of 1.7 per cent when compared “like-for-like” for the same period 2018 and a net profit after royalty of Dh913 million representing a growth of 11.3 per cent when compared “like-for-like”.

Mohamed Al Hussaini, Chairman of EITC, said:“Our company achieved in Q2 2019 a good performance as we recorded a 2.5 per cent (5.5 per cent “like-for-like”1) growth in net profit after royalty when compared to the same period last year reaching Dh464 million. I am pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has approved an interim dividend of Dh589 million representing 13 fils per share.

"EITC’s extensive investment in the latest technologies and infrastructure enhances our competitiveness and enables us to continue upgrading our services to meet our customer requirements.  In doing so, we actively support the UAE’s ambitious digital transformation agenda as set out by the forward-looking leadership of the nation.”

Osman Sultan, EITC’s chief executive officer, said: “It is clear that our efficiency plan and investments in new technologies to drive forward our digital strategy and prepare our company for the needs of tomorrow allowed us to contain the erosion of EBITDA. The result of this has been a solid EBITDA performance of Dh1.47 billion, which contributed in Q2 2019 to a 2.5 per cent (5.5 per cent “like-for-like”1) improvement in Net Profit after Royalty to Dh464 million, compared to the same period last year.

“Our Revenues were impacted by industry wide challenges particularly, the continued pressure on voice revenues. Q2 2019 revenues were at Dh3.19 billion, compared to Dh3.35 billion in Q2 2018, driven by a 6.8 per cent decrease in mobile revenue to Dh1.69 billion, which was partially offset by the continued strong growth in our fixed revenue of 5.8 per cent to Dh617 million in Q2 2019, compared to the same period last year.

“Our mobile subscriber mix for Q2 2019 improved, with higher value customers driving up mobile ARPU4, by 3.8 per cent compared to the same period last year. However, our total mobile subscriber number declined due to the continued clean-up of our prepaid base in line with the “My Number My Identity” Campaign. Fixed line subscribers increased by 2.4 per cent during the second quarter of the year.

“We continue investing in our business to meet the needs of tomorrow. Our strong capital position enabled us to increase our capital expenditure to Dh467 million during H1 2019, investing in our network and capabilities, paving the way for the commercial launch of 5G technology and preparing our company for a new era in connectivity. We remain focused on making the right investments in our business to deliver our digital strategy and prepare our company for the future of the telecom business.

“I am delighted to welcome Kais Ben Hamida to our executive team as chief financial officer. Kais has joined us on July 14th and will play a key role in guiding the organization’s performance improvement, bringing in years of experience in global telecom environment and finance leadership.”

During the quarter, du successfully demonstrated the region’s first-ever Video over LTE (ViLTE) 5G call. The video call was made using the telco’s state of the art commercial 4G and 5G Non-standalone (NSA) network, IMS Core and 5G smartphones. The success of the HD video call demonstration lays a solid foundation for enhancing du’s 5G user experience and marks the maturity of du’s 5G end-to-end ecosystem. – TradeArabia News Service