Qatar telecoms company Ooredoo see 75% jump in Q1 profit

Qatari telecom operator Ooredoo reported a 75 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday driven by foreign exchange gains from Indonesia and Myanmar.

The earnings of the former monopoly, which operates in about a dozen territories across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, have been volatile since mid-2013 when foreign exchange losses and plunging earnings from Iraq outweighed a strong domestic performance.

Ooredoo made a net profit of QAR 879m ($241.44m) in the three months to March 31, it said in a statement. This compares with a profit of QAR 501m in the year-earlier period.

Analysts at EFG Hermes and SICO Bahrain polled by Reuters had forecast majority state-owned Ooredoo would make a quarterly profit of QAR 452.5m and QAR 487m respectively.

Ooredoo’s consolidated first-quarter revenue was QAR 7.89bn, versus QAR 8.04bn a year ago.

The group’s bottom line was significantly boosted by foreign currency gains in Indonesia and Mayanmar, Ooredoo said. It also reported strong growth in its subscriber base from the two countries.

In Qatar, the company’s quarterly net profit rose 1 per cent to QAR 484m.

In Iraq, Ooredoo unit Asiacell made a quarterly profit of QAR 31m, down from QAR 49m a year ago.

Ooredoo Kuwait — majority-owned by Ooredoo and with operations in Algeria, Tunisia, the Maldives and the Palestinian Territories — has already reported a 356 per cent rise in first-quarter profit to KD 10.21m.