UAE telco du Q3 net profit falls 7.4%

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co (EITC), known as du, posted a 7.4 per cent fall in third-quarter net profit on Thursday.

The United Arab Emirates’ No. 2 telecom operator reported a net profit after royalty of Dhs441m ($120m) in the three months to Sept. 30, down from Dhs476m a year ago.

Revenue rose 6.4 per cent to Dhs3.3bn, the company said.

SICO Bahrain and EFG Hermes forecast du would make a quarterly net profit of Dhs467.15m and Dhs457.01m, respectively.

The telecom company is focusing on increasing fixed-line and post-paid mobile revenue to counter a fall in prepaid customers, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Mobile revenue was up 0.3 per cent in the third quarter as the number of mobile subscribers fell 3.3 per cent. Fixed-line revenue rose 7.8 per cent as subscribers rose 5 per cent.

Chief executive Osman Sultan said the fall in prepaid subscribers was greater than post-paid but the overall 3.3 drop was largely due to a government policy to disconnect numbers not used for a prolonged period of time or that were not registered.

Du does not disclose a breakdown of post-paid and prepaid customers.

Sultan said on a conference call that du was working to grow post-paid revenue by simplifying post-paid mobile plans, offering more paid packages and improving customer experience.

Du offers mobile services under its own “du” brand and also a Virgin Mobile brand largely focused on prepaid.

The company had 7.7 million mobile subscribers as of Sept. 30.

The company had 760,000 fixed-line subscribers as of Sept. 30, which Sultan said gave it 16 per cent of the UAE’s fixed-line market.

Rival Etisalat last week reported a 4.2 per cent drop in third-quarter net profit.

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